CHAMBERFEST CONCERTS
‘Lesser-heard jewels’
The Vienna Boys Choir, the King ’s Singers and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble are among the internationally renowned acts that will be performing in Ottawa in the coming months as part of Chamberfest’s concert series.
“I think it’s our greatest concert series yet,” said Chamberfest artistic director Roman Borys, who also plays cello with the Gryphon Trio, “and it’s quite apropos that it should happen during our 25th anniversary year.”
There are still eight days to go in the 25th anniversary edition of Chamberfest’s summer festival, but it seems that’s just the start of a stellar year for classical music in Ottawa.
The 2018-19 concert series features several artists rarely, if ever, seen in Ottawa, such as the celebrated cellist Mischa Maisky, the Romero Guitar Quartet and the Catalan string quartet Cuarteto Casals. Top Canadian acts are in the spotlight, too, including Ottawa-born pianist Angela Hewitt and her Bach Odyssey project, the New Orford String Quartet and Borys’s Gryphon Trio in a specially commissioned world premiere with Scandinavia’s Nordic Voices.
Rounding out the 12-concert series is a collaboration with Veronique Lacroix’s Ensemble Contemporain de Montreal (ECM+) featuring music by young composers.
The series starts Oct. 2, a bit earlier than usual, primarily to accommodate the tour schedule of the St. Martin’s ensemble. In their concert at Dominion-Chalmers, the mixed string and wind group will perform Schubert’s Octet, a challenging, hour-long piece described by Borys as “one of the lesser-heard jewels of the chamber-music repertoire.
“It’s extremely difficult to program,” Borys said. “You need countless hours to rehearse. It’s the kind of piece that one rarely has the opportunity to hear performed by an ensemble that plays it a lot. As soon as I heard it was an option, I jumped on it.”
Hewitt performs Dominion-Chalmers Oct. 18 for Part VII of her Bach Odyssey, in which she will perform Book II of the Well-Tempered Clavier. She returns Jan. 18 with Part VIII, the improvisational toccatas.
“It’s a matter of great pride that an artist who hails from Ottawa and has the stature that Angela has and the reputation that she deserves should be doing something like this,” Borys said, noting that Hewitt’s entire 12-part odyssey will only be seen in New York, London and Ottawa.
The young composers’ showcase, ECM+ Generation2018, takes place Nov. 6 at the National Arts Centre, featuring music by Sophie Dupuis, Thierry Tidrow, James O’Callaghan and Patrick Giguere.
On Nov. 17, the New Orford String Quartet performs at the National Gallery of Canada, offering what Borys describes as a “great juxtaposition” of works: Black Angels by contemporary composer George Crumb and Haydn’s classic Seven Last Words.
“It’s a very unique pairing,” said Borys. “Most of our patrons know Haydn and many of them know George Crumb, but they wouldn’t have heard these two pieces together.”
The legendary vocal sextet, the King’s Singers, join forces with the Ottawa Choral Society for two performances Dec. 14 and 15 at Dominion-Chalmers. Titled Silver and Gold, it’s billed as a festive celebration for the season.
Borys and his Gryphon Trio mates are planning to cover 500 years of music during their Feb. 1 concert with Nordic Voices at DomChalm. Along with Gesualdo, Victoria and Ravel, they will premiere Scar Tissue by Canadian composer Jeffrey Ryan, which was commissioned by a music-loving scientist. “It was an amazingly fruitful and deep subject matter,” Borys said.
Spain’s Romero Guitar Quartet, a classical-guitar ensemble that began in the ’60s and now includes two sons of original members — hence the designation the Royal Family of the Guitar — performs Feb. 16 at Dominion-Chalmers, followed a few weeks later by Cuarteto
Casals on March 4. Catalan’s fiery string quartet will play favourites by Haydn, Bartok and Mendelssohn.
Spring brings an April 7 concert by the Vienna Boys Choir, featuring 25 choristers between the ages of nine and 14, and a program built around the Motet and Lieder. It takes place at Dominion-Chalmers.
The final concert in the series is a rare Canadian appearance by Maisky, the Latvian-born, Russian-educated, Israel-based cellist who is one of the most famous instrumentalists in Europe and the only cellist to have studied with both Mstislav Rostropovich and Gregor Piatigorsky. He will be accompanied by his daughter, pianist Lily Maisky, for the May 8 concert at Dominion-Chalmers.