Explore the vast range of titles available.

More than any other work on Friday's ambitious program, Gustav Mahler's vast Symphony No. 1 in D needed the larger orchestral forces. Its four movements, more epic than poetic in mood, rely on the complex interaction of instrumental groups, rather than grandiose massed sound for its own sake. Within that constant flux and contrast of texture, Mahler injected clever splashes of energy, humor, bombast and introspection, sometimes highly cerebral, but at other times engagingly child-like. Adding visual and tonal spectacle to an already lavish assembly were five Canadian percussion wizards - Bob Becker, William Cahn, Robin Engelman, Russell Hartenberger and John Wyre - known for more than two decades as Nexus. Long before they arrived to participate in From Me Flows What You Call Time, by Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu (b.1930), evidence of their specialty was scattered throughout the orchestra on frames festooned with an exotic collection of resonant hanging objects.

Among them was Canadian composer Pierre Gallant; he was seduced by a chunky little minuet that didn't seem to be doing anything special. So when his piano-playing colleagues, James Anagnoson and Leslie Kinton, came with the offer of a Guelph Spring Festival commission, the stage was set for a clever 13-minute, four-hands romp through history and humor. Aided by 20 experienced digits and two full keyboards (Anagnoson and Kinton switched to separate instruments for the second half of their recital), Mozart's original minuet spawned vigorous offspring who spoke with a fascinating range of stylistic accent - a bit of Russian romanticism here, some French impressionism there, a touch of Germanic schmaltz, a whiff of jazz, a pinch of the baroque. Mozart himself might have had some difficulty following the Canonic Variations act, but Kinton and Anagnoson wisely placed another of his powerful mature sonatas, K.448 in D, at the finale. Its three movements abound with dialogue, exchange, competition and support that showcased the best of both performers.

Much of the credit went to the evening's principal voices - soprano Julianne Baird as Dido, soprano Linda Perillo as her confidante Belinda, tenor Nathanial Watson as Aeneas, and mezzo- soprano Carol Ann Feldstein as the wily chief Sorceress - not only for their impeccable mastery of period style, but for the total conviction of each character portrayed. After all, it's an opera where even the \"good guys\" come badly flawed. Dido, whose love transcends life itself, is also consumed by self-pride; Aeneas, her eloquent hero-lover, lets himself be tricked by an evil spirit into abandoning her; Belinda seems to live vicariously through her mistress's love affair; and the Sorceress, commanding her own little troupe of witch-ettes, never gets around to telling the world exactly why she hates Dido enough to ruin a perfectly good relationship. Against such strong support, Baird and Watson played out a powerful meeting of strong, enamored personalities who defy logic, but do it with unrestrained grandeur. And this time, Dido's heart- rending final lament - the best-known melody from the entire work - didn't have to stand alone. Watson matched and complemented it with such rare subtlety and passion that the two voices should stand as equally memorable.

Although the delegation did not get a hoped-for audience with consular staff on the issue of halting Israeli government- sanctioned destruction of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and in the West Bank town of Hebron, participant Benno Barg of Kitchener felt the non-confrontational,silent protest was worth the trip. Barg emphasized that the non-profit and strictly non-violent CPT organization, based in Chicago and supported by several churches, including Mennonite, Mennonite Brethren and Quakers, is \"not against Israelis, Jews, or Israel\" and is often wrongly accused of being anti-Semitic.

For Mennonite storyteller Jack Dueck, the toughest tests have come when God's inexplicable absence, and the Christian world's deafening silence, have become almost too much for his people to bear. Yet Dueck's German-speaking Russian Mennonite forebears tenaciously preserved a collective memory of their once-thriving culture whose piety, humor and wisdom pervaded songs, hymns, scripture-inspired poetry, folk-stories and philosophy. ``You can explain the Mennonite experience that way in a nutshell,'' Dueck said recently. ``Wherever they went as they spread out from Europe, they were asked to stay for their skills -- and made to leave for what they believed.''

\"You can explain the Mennonite experience that way in a nutshell,\" Dueck commented wryly during final preparations for next Friday's area premiere of his multi-media program, Mysteries of Grace and Judgement. \"Wherever they went as they spread out from Europe, they were asked to stay for their skills -- and made to leave for what they believed.\" By focusing on one cultural story of trial, tribulation and eventual acceptance, Dueck hopes that Mysteries of Grace and Judgement will automatically draw people to think about its universal issues and about the tremendous (and largely untapped) power of story as a healing or therapeutic tool. Black & White Photo For Mennonite storyteller Jack Dueck, the pain and joy of the Mennonite experience evokes a common response from many cultural backgrounds.

If the ingredients are just right -- Holly Cole, Rebecca Jenkins, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Jane Siberry and Victoria Williams, with pianist Tim Ray -- you get Count Your Blessings. There's nothing quite like it on the racks this season, nothing less -- or more -- in the spirit of Christmas as a personal and intimate opening of the spirit. While tunes like the Temple/Morgan title classic, Count Your Blessings, or the Gannon/Kent hit, I'll be Home for Christmas, seem just the thing to test this quintet's unusual blend, you have to hear less-familiar pieces like Gustav Holst's evocative In the Bleak Mid Winter (Siberry on lead), or the folk-traditional What is This Fragrance? (O'Hara on lead) to appreciate the total depth of musicianship these women embrace, and give, so freely. Count Your Blessings features (left to right) Mary Margaret O'Hara, Rebecca Jenkins, Jane Siberry, Victoria Williams and Holly Cole.

Thanks largely to volunteer efforts from top-notch Canadian orchestral musicians, ensemble choristers, technical support staff, and vocal soloists Henriette Schellenberg (soprano), Catherine Robbin (mezzo-soprano), Paul Frey (tenor) and Daniel Lichti (bass- baritone), anyone with even a passing awareness of the world's most popular seasonal oratorio can now purchase a Messiah highlights program that sounds as good as it gets, regardless of all the competition out there. Better still, every purchase jointly benefits ongoing social service and international development programs by Habitat for Humanity and the Mennonite Central Committee. Notable on this CD, conducted by Howard Dyck, are its overall clarity and tonal focus, its elegant balance of choral, solo and instrumental components, and the sheer persuasive grace with which every detail is marshalled toward the greater effect of the whole. This is a Messiah to get even if you already have one, and definitely a Messiah to give, since so much was given to make it happen. This time, Davis has taken on the monumental Abel Gance film, Napoleon, as restored by historic cinema genius Kevin Brownlow (who also provides pertinent liner notes to the project). As a composer with plenty to say on his own, he made the first of many significant decisions over whether to incorporate segments of Beethoven or not (he did): from there, he went on to weave a marvellous aural tapestry from carefully excised snippets of other famous names who worked in France or on French themes over the turn of the 18th century -- Gluck, Cherubini, Mehul, Dittersdorf, Gossec and so on.

The free-admission event, being held on the grounds of Maple View Mennonite Church (about 1.5 kilometres west of Wellesley on RR 1), is a co-operative summer project organized along with three other neighboring Mennonite congregations from Millbank, Crosshill and Milverton. Although they've always been more common in the southern U.S., where summers are longer and warmer, tent meetings aren't new to Canada or the Mennonite church. A number of large Christian rallies were held under canvas in the K-W area during the 1950s and Maple View last raised a tent in 1978 or 1979, according to participating pastor, Rev. Steve Gerber.