Chamber music resurfaces, thanks in large part to Banff
Canada’s most famous chamber ensemble of the first half of the 20th century? The Hart House String Quartet, according to the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, and few would disagree.
What the encyclopedia neglects to go on to mention is that the Hart House had almost no rivals through much of its history. People who played string quartets, and they certainly did, usually regarded the activity as part time or avocational.
You wouldn’t have thought so this summer in southern Alberta, where for the second year in a row the Banff Centre played host to an international string quartet festival, bringing back successful ensembles from the international competition held more or less triennially under its auspices since 1983. The years since 1983 have witnessed a considerable growth of interest in chamber music in general (the brilliant violinist Daniel Hope and a group of friends will perform at Toronto’s Koerner Hall this evening, followed tomorrow afternoon by the Danish String Quartet) and of string quartet activity in particular.
Banff has played a significant role in all this, even having “adopted” the near-legendary violinist Zoltan Szekely of the Hungarian String Quartet to act as a mentor to emerging string players during his twilight years.
As for its International String Quartet Competition, originally organized by Kenneth Murphy and subsequently directed by Barry Shiffman, it helped launch a number of careers, including that of Shiff- man’s own St. Lawrence String Quartet, still widely regarded as this country’s foremost foursome.
It was Banff Centre CEO Janice Price who suggested mounting a three-day festival during the competition’s offyears as a showcase for past winners and at both last year’s inaugural and this year’s festival, chamber music lovers from across Canada were able to experience a level of playing hard to imagine in even the heyday of the Hart House.
As luck would have it, I attended the first competition in 1983 and ever since then the overall technical standard of playing has risen steadily, so that the difference in quality between the strongest and weakest ensembles has continued to shrink. Every one of the quartets heard this summer merited a professional career.
Whether there are careers for all of them is another matter. String quartets typically perform in intimate venues, be- fore audiences in the hundreds, not thousands, and their modest fees have to be divided four ways. The economic benefits of a quartet career are limited.
And yet they persevere. In the short two years since winning the 12th Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2016, Canada’s Rolston String Quartet has performed throughout Canada, the United States and Europe, winning more awards along the way.
This summer at Banff, the Rolston played a range of music stretching from Bruch to Ravel to Schnittke, not to mention the Third String Quartet of Shulamit Ran, the veteran Chicago-based composer who was in the audience to hear her remarkable piece.
America’s Dover Quartet, winner of the previous competition in 2013, has since become, in the words of the program, “one of the most indemand ensembles in the world.” To hear the Dover play music by Beethoven, Brahms and Dvorak was to appreciate how impressively these players have matured in a very short time. And so the days went, with complementary performances by the Calidore, Castalian and Tesla Quartets rounding out the afternoon and evening concerts.
They weren’t alone. This summer, Barry Shiffman invited a number of collaborating artists to broaden the festival’s quartet-based repertoire, which resulted in the appearance of Chinese Erhu virtuoso George Gao in a performance with the Tesla Quartet of Chen Yi’s Fiddle Suite and of actor Alon Nashman in his one man play Kafka and Son.
The term festival has been somewhat degraded in recent decades, appropriated by commercial interests and used hyperbolically to give stature to minor events. In Banff, it is the quality of the activity that gives credence to its use.
Audiences here tend to take in the whole event, including talks and on-site meals (a spacious, glass-walled top floor dining hall affords stunning views of the surrounding mountains). Interaction between performers and listeners is encouraged.
But of course the musicmaking attracts a kind of listener not always found in concert halls, since chamber music invites a level of concentration even regular concertgoers are not always willing or able to give.
You can find it elsewhere, to be sure. Music Toronto draws such an audience to the St. Lawrence Centre’s Jane Mallett Theatre, where six string quartets can be heard this season. All the same, it probably isn’t too much of a stretch to call the Banff Centre a Canadian Mecca for the growing public for chamber music.
Just watch out for the bears.