Classical music heats up this weekend at summer festival
Summer is well underway and, for savvy classical music fans, that means it’s festival time.
While there are noteworthy events happening all over the region — especially for those prepared for a road trip or a ferry ride — there’s lots to consider in the city, too.
First up is a relatively new endeavour, Summer Music Vancouver 2018, Music in the Morning’s (MiM) entry in the festival sweepstakes, which is already underway in several downtown venues. Under the new management of Adrian Fung, the event offers an all-downtown proposition using Robson Square, Christ Church Cathedral, Pyatt Hall and the Annex.
The festival’s theme is Interpreting Improvisation and includes free lunchtime concerts at Robson Square all week, as well as “walking concert tours” with Toronto jazz/ classical violinist Drew Jurecka as the procession’s Pied Piper. Here the idea is to provide a little travelling music: apparently maestro Jurecka, “will serenade audiences as they walk from events at Christ Church Cathedral through the art gallery plaza to our outdoor stage at Robson Square for free lunchhour concerts.”
For those who prefer their chamber music indoors (and sitting down), MiM is also offering two regular programs.
First up are works by Joseph Haydn and Cesar Franck. Geoff Nuttall, first violin with MiM, favourites the St. Lawrence String Quartet, as well as Stephen Prutsman essay Franck’s lush Sonata for Violin and Piano. Franck is preceded by some summertime Haydn: his String Quartet in C Major, H. III/57 with Nuttall and Valerie Li, violins, Eric Wong, viola, and MiM artistic director Adrian Fung, cello. This concert is offered twice, 11:30 a.m. today and Friday. As is tradition at MiM, come for coffee at 11 a.m. before the program begins.
The second program is anchored by an all-time chamber music favourite: Antonin Dvorak’s Piano
Quintet No. 2, Op. 81. Two further compositions complement the work and contextualize its folk/ improv flavour: Rebekah by Drew Jurecka and one of Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies, performed by Prutsman. In the spirit of Liszt’s barn-burning performances of yesteryear, Prutsman intends to include an improvised section, playing it decidedly un-safe by taking suggestions from the audience. The show is slated for two performances: today at 2:30 p.m. and Friday at 5 p.m.
The final day of the festival, July 14, offers two very different events.
First off, at 4 p.m., the participants in the festival’s Chamber Institute perform at Pyatt Hall. According to organizers, this is, “an elite chamber music training program bringing together a select group of musicians for a week of coaching, master classes, and performances. Summer Music Vancouver Chamber Institute will see five ensembles — from young professional musicians to accomplished amateurs — spend the week learning, playing, and engaging.” Their final concert is an entry-by-donation proposition, but you can call MiM to reserve a seat.
Then, at 7 p.m., the festival winds up in unexpected style at the Annex with further improvisation from Jurecka, then a screening of the Buster Keaton silent masterpiece Sherlock Jr., in which he plays a movie projectionist who falls asleep and dreams himself into the film, with breathtakingly surreal consequences. The plan is to have an all-star quintet “accompany ” the film with music and directed improvisation thought up by Prutsman. Warning: there will be kazoos, slide whistles, rattles and hoots.
Prepare to be entertained.
The event offers an all-downtown proposition using Robson Square, Christ Church Cathedral, Pyatt Hall and the Annex.