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 Bolshoy and 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.
