It's that time of the year again, dear readers. Back to Parry Sound to wallow in the endless feast of classical chamber music served up each year by the Festival of the Sound.
For this first visit of the season, we took just one day and took in three concerts. More will come in a couple of weeks.
The day actually began with Moshe Hammer playing a Bach Partita for solo violin at the Station Gallery in a "pay what you wish" concert. We decided to give it a pass, and I was glad we did when I heard that a Festival staffer had to sit outside and turn people away because the crowd had hit the Gallery's fire code maximum capacity! Knowing Moshe Hammer's playing, though, I'm sure it was a splendid performance!
The noon concert began with a selection of Brahms Intermezzos played by Jamie Parker. This is music of considerable restraint, subtlety and complexity, not at all like a virtuoso showpiece. Parker's performance was beautifully shaded and full of poetry. This was followed by Schumann's Piano Quintet, Op. 44. I first heard this work at my very first Festival concert back in 1994 and now I was hearing it again at my first concert of my 20th season! The Tiberius Quartet from Rumania played with both precision and fire, and Parker's piano part was right in scale with them.
In the afternoon concert we had first the Cello Sonata in A Minor, Op. 69 by Beethoven. Yegor Dyachkov's playing in the cello part was commendable, but I had trouble hearing in some of the quieter passages -- perhaps because I sit to one side of the stage and he was turned slightly away from me. Martin Roscoe was predictably excellent on piano.
This was followed by the String Quartet No 1 in C Minor, Op. 51 by Brahms. Here we had the formidable artistry of the New Zealand String Quartet. Of all the quartet ensembles I have heard play at the Festival over the years, this one is my hands-down favourite. There's a special intensity to their playing, due in no small measure to the fact that they play standing, with the cellist seated on a riser that brings him to the other players' eye level. This particular piece has never been one of my favourites, but the New Zealand Quartet managed to make me forget that and truly enjoy it -- and that says it all, I think.
The evening concert opened with a piece I had been waiting to hear played live all my life: the Piano Sonata in C Minor, D.958 by Schubert. Like the other late Schubert sonatas, this work is almost better described as a symphony for the piano. At 30 minutes, it's shorter than some of the others, but no less powerful and varied in scale. Martin Roscoe, that consummate musician who also happens to be a highly skilled pianist, gave us a reading that was very much more than the sum of its parts. In the concluding allegro, a fiendish moto perpetuo of whirling triplets that runs on nonstop for almost ten minutes, Roscoe worked up to a whirlwind conclusion that left me literally short of breath!
After the intermission came the equally spectacular Piano Quintet in A Minor, Op. 84, by Elgar. Here, Roscoe was partnered with the New Zealand Quartet and the results were sublime -- truly a performance to make you forget any other you might have heard.
All that incredible music in one day! And the next time, it will be a week's worth of multiple daily concerts! I'm sure you can understand why the Festival of the Sound is an essential part of my summer schedule every year.
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