Three classical ways to escape the blahs
Including a rare performance of Liszt’s sprawling piano Sonata in B minor
Suffering from the post-holiday blahs? The early days of the new year can seem, well, just a bit flat.
But Vancouver’s classical calendar slowly gets back into full swing this time of year, so there are plenty of music options. Indeed there are several exceptional events just around the corner at the Vancouver Symphony, and there’s a new-to-Vancouver staging of an old favourite at Vancouver Opera. More about these in the weeks ahead.
For now, here are three best bets for the first half of winter: an exceptional chamber-music concert, a triumphant return by a brilliant young pianist, and music for Henry VIII sung, appropriately enough, by the King’s Singers.
At Friends of Chamber Music (FOC), the latest Vancouver performance by the Pražák String Quartet would be an occasion in itself. But combining it with the Zemlinsky Quartet’s FOC debut creates an extra special set of opportunities. There’s a performance of a sextet by Erwin Schulhoff, a fine Czech composer who perished in the Holocaust; and Dvorák’s A major string sextet as well.
But it’s the grand finale that is the real draw: Mendelssohn’s extraordinary Octet.
One of the greatest treasures of the chamber-music repertoire, this is a preferred vehicle whenever two top quartets want to get together to have fun. That the greatest octet ever was tossed off in a few weeks by a kid in his midteens is a miracle. If there was ever a cure for the mid-winter blahs, this is it. Enjoy.
Prefer piano? Still not quite 30, Uzbeki pianist Behzod Abduraimov has visited here a few times before and in the last few years his international career is really beginning to take off. His recital at the Chan on Feb. 10 may well be treasured by keyboard fanciers as one of those “I remember when” moments.
Abduraimov offers spectacular technical prowess harnessed to youthful enthusiasm. His program is anything but introverted, starting with Liszt’s transcription of Isolde’s Liebestod and ending with Prokofiev. But not one of the sonatas; instead we are treated to keyboard arrangements of music from the ballet Romeo and Juliet.
The core work of Abduraimov’s program is a controversial masterpiece, Liszt’s sprawling Sonata in B minor.
Liszt doesn’t feature on Vancouver Recital Society Programs all that often. You can bet they think Abduraimov is up to the daunting task of performing the extraordinary work. The night before Abduraimov’s matinee, Early Music Vancouver hosts one of the best known vocal ensembles in the world, The King’s Singers. The group, consisting of two counter-tenors, tenor, two baritones and a bass, was formed in the late 1960s. Half a century later (and with various personnel changes over the decades, of course) the ensemble has a discography that runs to some six pages, with a broad repertoire.
For the first part of our February date, the group explores music relating to Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. There’s an “and more” second half, replete with folksong arrangements and a sort of written-in encore set, “a selection of songs to be announced during the concert.”
It’s a something-for-everyone
program — just what one would expect from one of the most famous vocal ensembles around.