Galaxy of cello stars galvanize revived festival

The third International Cello Festival of Canada roared back to life with an embarrassment of riches Tuesday, as it officially launched a weeklong celebration of the perennially popular string instrument that runs through Saturday.

The 150-minute program (including intermission) at the Crescent Arts Centre showcased six of the world’s finest players in a program ranging from Baroque to contemporary fare.

The festival, presented by Agassiz Chamber Music and spearheaded by Ottawa-based artistic director/cellist Paul Marleyn, was last held in 2014.

The event — birthed in 2011 as a legacy event honouring Winnipeg’s 2010 designation as “Cultural Capital of Canada” — is the only one of its kind in Canada. Its full slate of nightly concerts, intimate recitals, master classes and interviews is highlighting musical partnerships this time around, with the inaugural evening program featuring the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, artfully led by Anne Manson.

The evening also recognized late arts leader Rita Menzies, so instrumental to the festival’s success in 2011 and 2014. She was lauded for her “quiet strength and vision” during Marleyn’s welcoming remarks from the stage alongside festival host Andrea Ratuski and the MCO’s Sean McManus.

Vivaldi’s Concerto for 2 Cellos and Strings in G minor, RV 531, performed by Austrian cellist Matthias Bartolomey and Canadian-American cellist Denise Djokic, provided a taste of each player’s individual artistry, with Bartolomey extracting every ounce of emotion from his instrument, particularly during the Largo, underpinned by Djokic’s lyrical lines and buttery-smooth tone.

More rehearsal time might have mitigated the occasional lack of cohesion in their closely knitted polyphonic lines, with a few stray notes under Bartolomey’s bow suffering minor intonation issues.

Colombian cellist Santiago Cañón-Valencia marked his local debut with Haydn’s Cello Concerto in D major, Op. 101, completely devoid of histrionics, that infused his playing with dramatic intensity. He displayed his honey-sweet tone during the opening Allegro moderato, with his shorter, cadenza-like passages a particular highlight, teeming with skipping runs, as well as his rondo finale, Allegro, in which he threw sparks during its rollicking theme.

This led to the night’s only encore: the Sarabande, from J.S. Bach’s Cello Suite no. 1 in G, which he later performed during Wednesday’s early morning Bach Café.

The night’s sleeper hit(s) belonged to Canadian cellist Cameron Crozman’s all-guns-blazing performance of two contemporary works, their highly dissonant ethos serving as palate cleanser for the otherwise more classically inclined offerings.

First up was Alexina Louie’s mesmerizing Bringing the Tiger Down from the Mountain II, inspired by Tai Chi and originally scored for cello and piano in 1991. Crozman’s sparsely crafted, textural string orchestra arrangement — his first foray into bringing intimate chamber works to life on a grander scale — provided a canvas for his swooping glissandi, rocketing leaps, buzzing trills and multi-stops, his gleaming cello growing like a tiger before slipping into kitten-like sighs.

His second offering, Jacques Hetu’s Rondo for Cello and Strings, Op. 9, likewise saw the soloist soloist ripping out further pyrotechnics over the orchestra’s march-like rhythms, accelerating to a climactic finish.

After intermission, Israeli cellist Inbal Segev treated listeners to C.P.E. Bach’s Cello Concerto in A major, Wq 172, her assured playing immediately exhibited during her crisply rendered opening Allegro. She then spun gold with her molten, lyrical phrasing during the subsequent Largo, leading to a rousing finale Allegro assai, performed with aplomb.

The program saved the best for last, with beloved English cellist Colin Carr receiving a hero’s welcome as soon as he took the stage for Haydn’s Concerto in C, Hob. VIIb/I.

He launched into the Moderato’s stately opening theme with relish, his eyes often closed in concentration. An expected highlight was his dazzling cadenza, in which his instrument plumbed the depths before scaling stratospheric heights.

There are certain moments in live performance, if one is lucky, when all perceived lines between artist (and the requisite ego that comes with being a world-renowned soloist) and physical instrument simply evaporate, as “music” itself takes over to create pure, metaphysical magic.

Carr’s deeply felt performance created this sense of suspended wonder, particularly during his Adagio, in which his sustained tone bled into the cello theme and orchestral fabric.

His Allegro molto exhibited sunny, good-natured spirits, with a few minor intonation issues quickly forgiven, leading to an exuberant close and an equally boisterous standing ovation by the mixed-ages crowd.

The evening’s only flaw was, ironically, hearing nearly two solid hours of cello concertos. As wonderful as they are, the overly homogenous program saturated listeners with the same genre of music.

A few more varied solos with orchestra, such as Crozman’s selections, would have provided greater contrast. The program could also easily have been whittled by 30 minutes and featured fewer musicians; there’s an entire week of concerts still to come in which everyone is given their turn to shine.

Still, despite these quibbles, it’s hard to complain when presented with a galaxy of cello stars on a single night.

holly.harris@shaw.ca