UW Gazette, September 3, 1997 Conducted by Jan Narveson Snippets on the past summer's activity after July 22: July 23: Alexander Tselyakov & Tamara Mchedlischvily's 4-Hands Piano program benefited from on-the-edge rehearsal time, imparting an air of excitement to the occasion. With such performers, of course, there was no problem about being able to negotiate any passages, no matter how difficult, at any speed; but four hands on one keyboard offers a special challenge. Schubert's Fantasy in f is a masterpiece by any standard, and got a large-scale, not too subtle treatment that nevertheless got most of its virtues across. In two Slavonic Dances of Dvorak, and three Hungarian Dances of Brahms, the sense of hair being let down was most exhilarating. Rossini's Overture to the Silken Ladder was a wonderful romp; the Debussy Ballade was really beautiful, and perhaps top performance of the evening; and Tchaikovsky's Scherzo from Symphony No. 6 was, shall we say, a blast, sizzling with nervous impetuosity. Three nifty encores were followed by a repeat of the Tchaikovsky, and it was even better than the first time - something most wouldn't have believed possible. In short, a tour de force evening by two stunning artists. (For those who don't yet know this superb relative newcomer to the Canadian music scene, Tselyakov can be heard in a solo recital at KWCMS Music Room on September 20 and then in the mighty Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1 with the K-W Symphony on October 3-4. ) July 24-27 at Elora festival: The "Festival within a Festival," devoted to chamber music, was a good idea, especially since the coincidence of a 200th birthday for Schubert and a 100th anniversary of the death of Brahms of fered a good excuse for playing some of the greatest chamber works in the literature. We got to all of these daytime events. ù St. John's Church is not an ideal venue; its level of resonance obscures and confuses things, especially for the poor pianist whose instrument, necessarily, is mounted well back in the chancel. Piano isn't a factor in Schubert's inimitable Octet, with a very good band led by Linda Melstead of Tafelmusik who, we felt, was not right for the job; her sound and phrasing was too reminiscent of the baroque style which is exactly not what we want in a heartfelt work like this. Others, however, were right on, notably clarinetist Peter Shackleton of the Aeolian Winds. With a pick-up big band, there's bound to be a bit of divergence among players, but in general this went well, if not entirely as one might like. ù The next day, we had horn trios of Ligeti and Brahms. Here Julie Baumgartel was the violinist, and her presence made a major difference. She, Derek Conrod, horn, and Heather Toews, piano, produced a splendid rendering of the very difficult and rather mournful Ligeti work, which is full of interesting harmonic and rhythmic twists. The Brahms Trio is a fabulous work, and here Mr. Conrod encountered some of the glitches one is accustomed to from horn players of almost any level of virtuosity, but had beautiful things to say. Ms. Toews, it seemed to us, tended to obscure Brahms's ideas a bit - though the acoustic was doing plenty of that anyway - and we found the rhythmic pulse inconsistent. But the violinist was very much on the Brahmsian wave-length. And there were fine moments, above all in the pensive trio of the scherzo, which was unutterably lovely. ù The mini-festival offered back-to-back helpings of Brahms, Schubert, and Schumann, with the very welcome assistance of soprano Meredith Hall, about whom we have raved in past columns, and Michael Donovan, heard in these parts years ago but now a very accomplished young singer with a lovely voice and a fine dramatic sense. They teamed in several duets, performed in heavenly accord; and Ms. Hall did more than anyone could hope for a set of nice songs by Clara Schumann. Ms. Baumgartel and Ms. Toews offered the Clara Schumann Romances for violin and piano, in beautiful and sensitive renderings, Ms. B. finding more drama in these works than Steven Sitarski had done a week and a bit earlier. Robert Schumann's Romances for Oboe are cream of the crop, as is oboist James Mason, and about his performance of them, all we can say is "Amen!" ù The second concert of the afternoon featured Schubert's "Trout" Quintet, with two appropriate songs: "Die Forelle" itself, and at the end, "An Die Musik", in lovely accounts by Donovan. The three upper strings played Schubert's nice little movement in Bb at the outset, and were perfectly matched in doing so. But the quintet was, of course, the main thing, and proved to be the highlight of the whole mini-festival. Ms. Baumgartel again, Patrick Jordan, viola, Margaret Gay, cello, George Greer (of KWS famed), bass, and Ms. Toews, piano, got this wonderful piece absolutely right in what proved to be a performance of sheer magic, one of those things we concertgoers live for. Top marks go to the violinist and cellist, who came up with exquisite, charming, heart-tearing and just plain beautiful things at every turn. They get most of the good lines, mind you: the violist and bassist are inevitably unsung heroes, though they played admirably. If we thought Ms. Toews not entirely on Brahms's wave-length, she was far more so in this work, not least because here and there Schubert has the pianist cut loose with some extremely taxing "riffs", as one might call them; and there is no catching out this extremely dextrous pianist, who was breathtaking in the lickety-split scherzo and in her variation in the andante. Suffice to say that this one performance justified the entire festival if it had needed any justifying, and we don't suppose many of the modest audience on hand would soon forget this sparkling, heaven-sent performance. Saturday, July 26: The most improbable event of the summer, no doubt, was the concert at Victoria Park in Kitchener that crowned Kitchener's "Kaleidoscope" Culture Festival, featuring a real symphony orchestra (the one got together by Michael Schmidt for his Barn Concerts up in Durham), and no less than Anton Kuerti, pianist. Performing on a drive-in stage with a forest of microphones and some huge speakers for amplification, the small orchestra managed nevertheless to sound pretty good in Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, and Kuerti, playing on a full Yamaha grand, was magnificent. His account of that noble concerto - solid, large-boned, and springily energetic - is right on. Performing for a pretty large audience, many no doubt new to this sort of thing, he managed to keep most of them enthralled, and the noise level from the crowd wasn't nearly as bad as one might fear. We suppose the City Fathers must have been uttering huge sighs of relief at the weather (ideally still, and though muggy and hot, precipitation-free - you couldn't ask for better), the size of the crowd, and the quality of the performance. Thumbs astonishedly up. August 10: An organization called "Southern Ontario Chamber Music Institute" has been in existence for some years now, it seems, and this summer its faculty includes the famed St. Lawrence String Quartet, who presented an opening concert at St. Jude's Church, near the Institute's location at Appleby College in Oakville. They began with a lovely rendition of the introduction to Strauss's "Capriccio," which is for string sextet (with Terry Helmer, originally of the Orford Quartet, and Zdenek Konicek, cello). And R. Murray Schafer's third string quartet, which includes choreography and energetic vocals by the players, was right up the alley of this extemely capable and individualistic foursome. In fact, their performance con vinced us that this is really a good piece - something we weren't so sure of from previous hearings. Dvorak's "American" Quartet, however, wasn't entirely their cup of tea. Czech music has its own special sort of gemeutlichkeit (there must be a Czech term for it) that this rather unlaxed ensemble doesn't seem to have in its repertoire. Fascinating, but not really right. August 13: Heather Toews, one of WLU's new piano staff this past year, presented a program of exceptional interest, due for recording on CD soon after, at KWCMS Music Room. Fairly closed matched pairs of pieces by the Mendelssohn siblings enabled an interesting comparison between them. They certainly were on the same wave-length in several short lyrical pieces by each. The most famous of them was Felix's "Spring Song"; one of Fanny's pieces came close to that one; and one of the tenderer ones struck us as quite the equal to a similar piece of her brother's - pretty high praise. Ms. Toews treats Beethoven's great Sonata, Op. 109 as an extended lyrical exercise, and while there's some justification for this, the need for more dramatic power seemed clear; we felt a touch let down by the end. Clara Wieck Schumann's 3 Romances, Op. 21, got performances of a more poetic quality than had been provided by Irmgard Baerg a month before, but with less drama. We found Robert Schumann's Arabesque rather wispy and insubstantial in this reading; nor did we think she had the measure of Brahms's Intermezzi, Op. 119, #2, #3. This pianist has exquisite touch and tremendous control, and technical problems simply don't seem to exist for her; structure, however, tended to get short shrift in these very sensitive performances. All in all, this extremely interesting program by an extremely capable and very gracious artist made this well-attended evening a good addition to the summer's music. August 16: We managed to get to the final performance of the reconstructed Mozart opera Zaide at the Altamira Symphony in the Barn in Durham. It really is in a barn, too, and the incidental barnyard ambience is indeed on hand. Music Director (and farmer) Michael Schmidt has put a remarkable scene together there, and also competently conducted his capable forces - an excellent small orchestra of K-W Symphony and other area professionals, and a cast almost all of whom have studied or are still studying with WLU's Victor Martens. And a capable cast it was. At their best, all were quite splendid, with veteran Chris Coyea (COC Ensemble and various of its productions, etc.) tops in his secondary role of the Sultan. Title role and leading lady Catherine Sayers has a fine voice but needs work in the dramatic department, and was not as securely focussed in the more florid portions as one might hope. Ditto, but more so, goes for leading male David Curry (Gomatz). Alex Fleuriau Chateau in the bit part of Osmin almost stole the show; Marcel Beaulieu in the major part of Allazim was generally excellent. Staging was attractive enough, but stage direction was wanting, especially in the static first half. It must be possible to bring this farther above the level of an unstaged concert performance. Finally, as to the music itself: well, its libretto is totally reconstructed, the score was discovered, unfinished, in a drawer, and this is not a Great Opera. There are premonitions of the later great operas here and there, all of the music is expectedly pretty, and it was a good thing to have done. Michael Schmidt is a remarkable man and his ample audiences are getting a fine evening's entertainment. August 21: David Gillham and John McMillan, violin and piano, are talented young musicians, familiar to area music lovers, of whom a full house was on hand in the KWCMS Music Room for their well-chosen program. Opening with Mozart's Sonata in Bb, K. 454, they were clean, spirited, and admirably teamed. Throughout, superb pacing and a fine sense of proportion and balance made this a pleasurable experience; we especially liked the gorgeous slow movement, which rose to true eloquence. Copland's sonata is a highly characteristic work, exploring, in unique ways, simple chordal structures to very nice effect, and with a few virtu oso wisps that Mr. Gillham takes with utter command. The Siciliene was, alas, all we had from Bach's Unaccompanied violin sonata in g, but it was beautifully performed. McMillan selected No. 3 in C# from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier I for his solo, the prelude taken rather deliberately but with a lovely clean ambience; memory problems infected the fugue, alas. The two then concluded with a splendid, wholly compelling account of the Brahms Sonata #3 in d. Gillham dug into his lower register with romantic ferocity, and altogether we were riveted by this performance, which reminded us of what a glorious work this deservedly oft-played masterpiece is. They're a natural team, these two, and we can look forward to great things from both of these already very accomplished young musi cians. Forthcoming: Newcomers should know that, 8:00 is the standard concert time for evening events in the community; assume that, unless otherwise noted. Friday, September 5: Christina Smith and Jean Hewson are two Newfoundlanders, bringing "Fiddle Me This", folk music for fiddles and voices, to the Button Factory (Waterloo Community Arts Centre, 25 Regina Street South). Advance tix, $8; at door, $10. Info: 886-4577 day, 699-4322 evening. Saturday: The Chamber Music Society brings Hari Pal, tablas, David Sinclair and Arsen Torlakovic, guitars, in an eclectic evening of jazz, flamenco, and Indian rhythms. At The Music Room (57 Young Street West, Waterloo). Advance tickets from UW Box Office, Reader's Ink and WordsWorth Books, or 12th Night Records. 886-1673 for information and reservations. Tuesday, September 9, 12:00: The WLU noon-hour concerts get under way with Muthulakshmi Ranganathan, Veena, in music of South India Vasan Rajalingam, Mrudhangam, provides the percussion. At Maureen Forrester Recital Hall; Free - but parkinig is a headache, so walk or bike if you can. September 12-13 The K-W Symphony starts up with an all- Beethoven program, with pianist Anton Kuerti in the beautiful Concerto No. 4; plus Leonore Overture No. 3 (longest and symphonically best of the four tries at an overture to Beethoven's only opera) and the mighty Symphony No. 7. Centre in the Square, of course - 578-1570 for ticket inquiries. Sunday, September 14: Faure Trio - Julia Dixon, Chris Sharpe, Syd Bulman-Fleming (violin/cello/piano).