Festival season crescendo for fans of classical music

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This article was published 03/06/2015 (4144 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg and summer music festivals go together like hand in glove.

Both the Music at the Millennium free noon hour series and the Winnipeg Chamber Music Society’s annual Mozart and More! mini-festival are now in full swing, but there’s another one right around the corner that promises to keep the classical music fires burning.

The Agassiz Chamber Music Festival presents a chockablock lineup of nightly concerts and free community events including pre-show chats, master classes, a roundtable discussion, meet-the-artist talks, an emerging artist recital and even a matinee film about fabled Russian-born violinist Jascha Heifetz. The week-long series that runs June 6-12 at the University of Winnipeg (all concerts begin at 7:30 p.m.) returns one year later after its sister event, the triennial International Cello Festival of Canada was held in its place last June.

“Chamber music is very personal, it’s powerful, and you get to see the artist completely engaged,” artistic director Paul Marleyn, states over the phone from his Ottawa home. “You really hear the voice of one person speaking to the audience through their instrument.”

Founded in 2000 by the former University of Manitoba cello professor — now a faculty member with the University of Ottawa’s School of Music — this year’s festival that runs on a $70,000 budget features four themed concerts, bookended by opening and closing programs showcasing no less than 14 musicians, including eight Winnipeg-based artists. These include not only ACMF regulars Jim Campbell (clarinet); Stéphane Lemelin (piano); Kerry DuWors (violin); and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s Karl Stobbe (violin); Daniel Scholz (viola); and Yuri Hooker (cello), but also the festival debut of Axel Strauss (violin); Nick Eugelmi (viola); Michael Kim (pianist/Dean of Brandon University’s School of Music); the WSO’s Alex Eastley (bassoon); and young cellist David Liam Roberts being featured on the emerging artist recital held at noon June 10 at the U of W’s Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall.

An early highlight this year promises to be the world première of Manitoban composer Karen Sunabacka’s Mama’s Painting, based on her mother Joyce Clouston’s arresting poems, including Rise of the Métis Nation, slated for opening night Saturday. Coincidentally, Sunabacka also studied cello with Marleyn while a music student at the U of M.

“Karen has always been a very socially conscious person — a real thinker,” he says of his former protégé. “Besides being a fine cellist, I also felt she had a very strong voice as a composer. I’m delighted we’re able to perform her very evocative piano quintet at this year’s festival.”

Other highlights include Penderecki’s Cadenza for solo viola on Monday’s Contrasts program, which also features concert namesake, Bartok’s Contrasts scored for clarinet, violin and piano.

Soliders and Counts slated for Tuesday offers a rare local performance of Stravinsky’s The Soldiers Tale, as well as Beethoven’s Razumovsky String Quartet Op. 59, no. 1.”

Audiences will also be treated to a Jewish-flavoured program, Hassidic Rhapsody, ranging from John Williams’ haunting Theme from Schindler’s List, to Canadian composer Srul Irving Glick’s The Klezmer’s Wedding certain to set toes a-tapping June 10.

On June 11, Folklore explores non-classical influences, including Bartok’s Rhapsody No. 1 and 2 for violin and piano, and Brahms’ Sonata for Clarinet and Piano in Eb, Op. 120, No. 2.”

The festival caps off June 12 with music by Allan Gillil and Paul Schoenfield, before ending on a high note with Beethoven’s Septet.

“I think this year’s festival will be very exciting with some great people coming,” Marleyn says. “We’re getting the best artists from across North America, and I’m personally also very excited about coming back to Winnipeg and playing this fantastic music for our loyal audiences.”

For tickets or more details, see: agassizfestival.com.

 

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The WCMS, founded by artistic director/pianist David Moroz with his wife, WSO concertmaster Gwen Hoebig in 1987, also wraps up its annual Mozart and More! festival Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

The two-night festival showcases the Clearwater Quartet comprised of Hoebig, Stobbe, Scholz and Hooker, joined by Moroz in two programs featuring Mozart’s sublime chamber music, as well as lighter fare.

Their second concert includes the Wunderkind’s String Quartet in E flat major, K428, Haydn’s Piano Trio in E flat major, Hob. XV:29, as well as Mendelssohn’s beautiful Variations Concertantes, op. 17 composed as a teenager for his cellist brother.

But the program’s most memorable piece might be Thomas-Mifune’s Komisches Streichquartett, a comic mash-up of Beethoven’s iconic Symphony No. 5.

“We always like to play some musical comedy on our summer concerts. We like to give people a not-so-serious look at serious music,” Moroz states of his programming choices.

“All of us have played chamber music together for many years, and we’ve developed a unique and very special musical bond that audiences can really feel. Before we all go off in different directions for the rest of the summer, we enjoy getting together one last time, to play great music with great friends.”

For tickets or further information for Mozart and More!, visit wcms.mb.ca.

 

holly.harris@shaw.ca