Popular Festival Elicits Emotion
Jan DeGrass/Arts & Entertainment
Coast Reporter - August 26, 2011
The popularity of the seventh annual Pender Harbour Chamber Music Festival was easy to gauge in May when tickets for the August event went on sale. They sold out immediately. The venue, the music school in Madeira Park, is small, and even with added patio seating, it can hold only 120 people. But its ticket success is surely to do with the quality of musicians that artistic director Alexander Tselyakov brings to the occasion.
Last weekend during the festival, accomplished violinist James Ehnes was the dynamic attraction. Festival director Rosemary Bonderud was delighted that Ehnes was congenial and made himself accessible to the audience after his performances to answer questions.
For this reviewer, cellist Emmanuelle Beaulieu Bergeron was another joy for the senses, especially when she performed with Ehnes and Tselyakov on Saturday evening. Daniel Bolshoy on guitar also brought his exceptional technique to add a new layer to performance; his collaboration with the Borealis String Quartet, a Vancouver-based group that weaves together musical traditions from east and west, was inspiring.
The audience was startled by an unexpected addition on Friday evening when a fiery flamenco dancer, Karen Pitkethly, danced into the performance of composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Guitar Quintet with her castanets blazing. It's these surprises that keep the audience returning for more.
Tselyakov strives for a program that offers interest - there's a progression during each concert and a balance between pieces. In this way it is possible to submerge in the depths of the music's emotion, as in Saturday's concert, for example.
The performance opened with a modern composition by Clark Winslow Ross, I Sleep and My Soul Awakens. One thinks of chamber music as having centuries-old roots, but this piece owes some of its inspiration to Beatle George Harrison's Indian-inspired Within You, Without You. However, the piece was like seeing an abstract painting for the first time
- it was difficult to be in the same creative place as the artist.
The Mendelssohn String Quartet No. 6 in F minor drew a standing ovation with the Borealis Quartet teasing out the emotion of the composer. The piece was said to have been written following the death of Mendelssohn's sister, and his subsequent anger at her passing could be felt in the speed of the allegro and in its final reconciliation.
Ehnes, Tselyakov and Bergeron formed a trio to play Haydn that balanced the pathos of Mendelssohn nicely, and this was followed by a Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor from Shostakovich. Written in 1944 by the Russian composer who had lived through the horrors of the besieged city of Leningrad, it is also an emotional piece that confronts death. The largo movement is sad enough to bring a listener to tears, and this is followed by themes that suggest a Jewish connection.
The Sunday performance of Ernest Chausson's Concerto for Violin, String Quartet and Piano was the concert that caused the audience to jump to their feet in appreciation.
"Everyone floated out of the hall," said Bonderud.
Will the festival grow to accommodate its increasing fans?
"Every year we study the audience feedback surveys," she said. "Although they want a bigger venue, they love the intimacy of the music school."
The eighth annual Chamber Music Festival takes place Aug. 17 to 19, 2012. Tickets go on sale in early May. Keep in touch with the website at
www.penderharbourmusic.ca.
(Rosemary Bonderud is a member of the Pender Harbour Chamber Music Festival
Public Relations Committee)
Strings the focus of P. H. Chamber Music Festival's seventh year
By Rosemary Bonderud
Harbour Spiel - September 2011, Issue 249
On Aug. 19 the sold-out seventh
annual Pender Harbour Chamber Music
Festival opened with Beethoven's
bold and dramatic "Serioso" quartet
played masterfully by the UBC-based
Borealis String Quartet.
Guitarist Daniel Bolshoy and the
quartet then swept the audience away
with a sparkling 1950 quintet by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.
They were joined by a surprise
guest, dancer Karen Pitkethly, who
sent sparks flying with a sensuous
fandango.
James Ehnes, proud Canadian
and internationally recognized violin
superstar, received a warm welcome
as he began the first of his festival performances
with a breathtaking sonata
by Eugene Ysaye.
The evening finished with a masterwork
by Sergei Prokofi ev that
clearly demonstrated the elegant communication
between Ehnes and pianist
Alexander Tselyakov.
Saturdays at the Chamber Music
Festival always provide a surfeit of
riches: two concerts in one day.
The afternoon program reunited Ehnes and Tselyakov playing contrasting
works by Edvard Grieg and Alfred
Schnittke.
Grieg's stirring sonata for violin
and piano No. 3 in C minor highlighted
the composer's much-loved
melodic references to Norwegian folk
traditions while Schnittke's Suite in
the Old Style was more playful.
After the intermission, the Borealis
String Quartet and rising star
cellist Emmanuelle Bergeron brought
strength and grace to the emotionally
towering music of the iconic String
Quintet in C major by Schubert.
From its inception, the Pender
Harbour Chamber Music Festival
made a commitment to offer the work
of contemporary composers.
Saturday evening's program began
with "I sleep and my soul awakens," a
composition by Clark Winslow Ross
played by Daniel Bolshoy and the
Borealis String Quartet.
The quartet then moved to an intensely
felt string quartet by Mendelssohn
which was written following the
death of his beloved sister.
Next, the obvious joyfulness
which Ehnes, Bergeron, and
Tselyakov brought to the famous
Gypsy Trio by Haydn was a most
effective balance to the pathos of the
earlier Mendelssohn piece.
Returning for the final offering
of the evening, Ehnes, Bergeron and
Tselyakov soared through a demanding
piano trio by Dmitry Shostakovich.
On Sunday afternoon Bergeron
and Bolshoy brought their intense musicality
to an unusual work by Franz
Schubert.
Originally written for a now
archaic instrument called the arpeggionne and usually played by cello and piano, the audience was delighted
by the sound of the guitar in place of
the piano.
Next, Bolshoy and Ehnes were
breathtaking in their presentation of
a technically challenging work of
Nicolo Paganini, followed by sparks
and fre from the Borealis String
Quartet in their offering of Ashes by
contemporary Canadian composer
Kelly-Marie Murphy.
Finally, Ehnes, the Borealis String
Quartet and Tselyakov gift-wrapped
a stunning concerto by Chausson as
their parting offering to a highly appreciative
audience.
The applause seemed to go on and
on..
::
Read 2010 Festival Reviews |
