Posted by Liz
Continuing yesterday’s Canadian Voyage theme, today’s noon concert entitled Ottawa and Beyond featured new works from local composers, including solo piano; solo soprano saxophone; cello and piano; and two vocal works. Julian Armour’s brief introduction outlined the increasing freedom of contemporary composers and the resulting homan connection of new works. This was evident today in particular in my two favourites, both incredibly atmospheric: Angus McLachlin‘s Piano Sonata No 2 and Colin Mack‘s Isis and Osiris, Fantasy for Cello and Piano.
A little later on, Se-Doo Park provided an entertaining concert of cello repertoire: Britten’s Cello Suite No 1 Op 72, Piatigorsky’s Paganini Variations and Gaspar Cassadó’s Suite. Sadly I had to leave early, as Park’s playing was of a very high level.
This evening’s final Vikram Seth event, An Equal Music, was a delight. Seth’s engrossing readings from the novel concentrated on the directly musical aspects, keeping back some of the plot for concertgoers who had not yet read the book. The core performers, Quatuor Arthur Leblanc, provided accomplished performances of the string quartet excerpts (Beethoven’s String Quintet in C minor Op 104 – finale; Haydn’s String Quartet in A minor Op 20 No 6 – minuetto) and a spellbinding Contrapunctus 1 from Bach’s Art of Fugue. Maria Sourjko played the same piece for solo piano as the final performance, providing an interesting contrast. Philippe Honoré and Sourjko provided the most inspiring performance of the night in Vivaldi’s Manchester Sonata in C major, No 1 – largo. My mind kept flicking between images of the characters Michael and Julia and of Anna Maria Della Violin. The layout of the concert and of the works seemed to me to be a good introduction to chamber music so I hope there were ‘newcomers’ there – readers of the book who may not previously have heard the music, or indeed, been to this type of concert.
Music and Beyond 