Ottawa Chamber Music Society

CMS Classics

Joseph Haydn's The Seven Last Words of Christ

Andrew Dawes - violin
Manuela Milani - violin
Guylaine Lemaire - viola
Julian Armour - cello

30-second sound sample

Ottawa Chamber Music Society goes global!

The Ottawa Chamber Music Society’s Seven Last Words of Christ concert, recorded in April 2004 for television, has been broadcast across the nation on Vision TV, around the world on the U.S. network, EWTN, and aired on WPBS in Watertown, NY on Good Friday, April 14 and Easter Sunday, April 16.

Recorded by producer Paul R. Norris of HDSD Productions Ltd. for VisionTV and broadcast in 2004, 2005 and 2006 for Easter. The production aired for the 2nd year in a row by EWTN in the United States. They will continue to broadcast the program nationally in the United States to 126 million homes and to 127 different countries for the next four years. The concert was also broadcast to seven satellites, Sirius Satellite Radio and audio/video streaming on the internet/radio/ipod’s.

The Society’s audience has now risen to astronomical proportions! “This is extremely exciting,” explains OCMS Artistic Director Julian Armour, “the OCMS and the City of Ottawa will be promoted to millions of people around the world – if not billions.”

The concert marked the reunion for violinists Andrew Dawes and Manuela Milani, violist Guylaine Lemaire and cellist Julian Armour. They performed this same piece for the critically acclaimed CD released by the Society’s own CD label, CMS Classics.

Armour has admired this piece for many years and describes it as, “a uniquely subtle and sublimely beautiful work of such universal profundity that it speaks to musicians and music lovers of all nationalities and religions.”

Praise for Haydn's The Seven Last Words of Christ

"This is a beautifully played performance, devout, moving and sincere... I give it 5 stars out of 5." Rick Phillips (Sound Advice on CBC Radio), April 6, 2003

"An exquisite account of the score. This is a release that no string quartet lover should be without." Richard Todd, The Ottawa Citizen, December 28, 2002

Rated 4½ stars out of five Mentioned in Todds Top 10 list for 2002.