Festival starts strong with soulful, pensive performances

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/01/2021 (2033 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The 30th annual Winnipeg New Music Festival launched into its fourth decade by paying homage to its past, present and future — and you might never know there’s a global pandemic still raging at its very doorstep.

Showing a true-grit, “the show must go on” spirit, the plucky WNMF presented its first online concert Lineage Saturday night with two subsequent programs running through Friday, Jan. 29 being offered exclusively via live stream due to the ever-looming presence of COVID-19. Varying “cohorts” — in the “Before Times,” we called them “chamber ensembles” — were led by WSO music director Daniel Raiskin who also co-curates the WNMF with WSO composer-in-residence Harry Stafylakis.

The art of programming becomes even more critical when only two local shows are being produced rather than a typical line-up of seven nightly concerts, calling for repertoire both artistically sound, and physically safe for the (mostly) masked players that perform two metres apart.

The first night opened with Jessie Montgomery’s Source Code, inspired by the composer’s study of African-American artists prominent during the Civil Rights era, as she purposefully explored her own ancestral roots. The one-movement string orchestra piece exquisitely led by Raiskin features Montgomery’s own original spiritual, with bluesy wisps of melody floating between players creating in a soulful work also apropos for the times.

Christopher Rouse’s music has been prominently featured throughout the WNMF’s 30-year history, with the late composer serving as its distinguished guest artist in 1999. Infused with echoes of great symphonists Mahler, Bruckner, Shostakovich and Sibelius, Rouse’s Supplica unfolds as a deeply pensive work not purporting to provide pat answers to life’s imponderables, but to pose thoughtful questions driven by pungent dissonances adding further compelling flavour.

WNMF fan favourite, Montreal-born composer and the sole Canadian on the program, Samy Moussa’s Kammerkonzert offered an intense plunge into his textural sound world, ricocheting between extreme registers including ear-piercing piccolo riffs, moaning woodwinds, and strident tremolos in the strings that clashed like swordplay. What a treat to see a battery of percussion on this stage again, missing in action since last fall’s COVID-19 related lockdown that further added jet fuel to Moussa’s darkly dramatic work.

John Adams’ innocuous title Son of Chamber Symphony also belies the gale force of its three movements that bristle with energy and became the night’s showstopper.

Kudos to the powers-that-be for inviting WSO Conductor Laureate and co-founder of the festival with composer Glenn Buhr, Bramwell Tovey to share his thoughts about programming Adams’ Harmonielehre for the inaugural WNMF back in 1992. It’s no small point that these trailblazers must be remembered, and it’s humbling to realize many cyber-viewers tuning in from around the world might not be familiar with the festival’s original architect who helped sowed the seeds so many years ago.

Adams’ three-movement piece originally commissioned by Stanford University, Carnegie Hall and the San Francisco Ballet in 2007 drives forward with rhythmic propulsive energy, including percussive strikes and abrupt changes in metre kept firmly in hand by Raiskin and the musicians playing like banshees despite the undeniable challenges of being spaced apart. One highlight became Adams’ self-described “can-can” finale that becomes a wild, deconstructed rollercoaster ride into the heart of his mercurial compositional style.

Bravo to the WSO players and their maestro for their fierce conviction that made this piece pop like a firecracker from our digital screens; making us feel we were all sitting together again in the hall, on the edges of our seats, and having the time of our lives.

The festival continues Tuesday, Jan. 26, 7:30 pm with the Decoda Ensemble. For tickets or further info, visit: https://www.wnmf.ca/

holly.harris@shaw.ca