The Saturday afternoon concert at the 13th annual Pender Harbour Chamber Music Festival was one of the best. That should be no surprise, since under the artistic direction of Alexander Tselyakov, the Festival has achieved greater variety and quality of musicianship over the years.
The Rising Tide free concert on Friday afternoon also set audiences buzzing with admiration. It featured Pender Harbour’s own Rose-Ellen Nichols who, by all accounts, has matured greatly after taking the lead role in City Opera Vancouver’s Pauline. The mezzo-soprano sang with Halfmoon Bay baritone Louis Dillon, and her performance skills won her new fans.
She was on stage again in the evening with the Gryphon Trio, a much-loved and Juno-nominated ensemble of violinist Annalee Patipatanakoon, cellist Roman Borys and pianist James Parker. Local pianist and musician extraordinaire David Poon was also part of Friday’s programme, and he was considered a musical asset to the Coast for his ability to match the performances.
If you thought that chamber music was simply familiar music from centuries-old composers, the Saturday concert would have been eye-opening. Titled Through Rose-Coloured Glasses, it took the audience around the world with music from the twentieth century including tango from Astor Piazzolla to klezmer music from Canadian composer Srul Irving Glick. It opened with a quartet by American composer Peter Schickele that ran the gamut of emotions and had a meditative third movement that tended to produce alpha waves in the brain.
The fine clarinet of James Campbell was sweet on Jean ‘Django’ Rheinhardt’s Nuages. The piece was composed and performed during the Nazi occupation of France and became the secret anthem of the resistance, so expressive is it of the melancholy of the time.
George Gershwin’s Summertime (in an arrangement by one of Gershwin’s friends, Jascha Heifetz) never sounded better than from the piano of Tselyakov and the violin of Joan Blackman. As she swayed in her sparkling green gown, her body language breathed music. Polish composer Moritz Moszkowski is not well known, but his Suite was handled beautifully by Blackman and violinist Maria Larionoff who made his music live on.
Next year’s Festival runs from Aug. 17 to 19, but if you can’t wait that long, see penderharbourmusic.ca for information about the Festival’s mid-winter weekend of music with Terence Tam, violin, Yariv Aloni, viola, Pamela Highbaugh Aloni, cello, and Lorraine Min, piano. They will be performing on Jan. 27 and 28 in two afternoon concerts.
