Classical chamber music may be the bread and butter of the Festival of the Sound, but it's hardly the whole story. If traditional chamber music isn't your thing, perhaps you'd prefer some good jazz? The Festival has that. Folk? Yep, that too. Choral? Organ? Opera? Symphonic? All of the above.
Sunday and Monday included a string of three concerts which illustrated the diversity of the Festival more clearly than any words of mine could do.
On Sunday afternoon, a small sell-out audience of 50 people sat down in the intimate performance space of the Festival Station office to hear an afternoon of classic jazz/swing music from the legendary pianist Gene di Novi.
As always, it was sheer delight to listen as Gene' fingers rolled easily and nimbly as ever across the keyboard, effortlessly ornamenting within each song and as readily bridging his way from one tune to another.
In between several sets, and for a few more minutes at the end, he regaled us with some of his most entertaining anecdotes about the great musicians he'd worked with -- their names a veritable roll-call of the golden age of the big bands.
Although I felt sorry for the people who wanted tickets and couldn't get them, I totally agree that a smaller, more intimate space like this is absolutely the right place to appreciate Gene di Novi's art -- his music-making would be out of place in the 400-plus-seats auditorium of the Stockey Centre.
But it was back to the Stockey Centre we went on Sunday evening for an Opera Gala, another regular feature of the Festival for some years now. This year's programme was curated by soprano Leslie Fagan and pianist/trumpeter Guy Few. Anyone who recognizes those two names would know that we could expect, and would get, wonderful music and good laughs in nearly equal measures.
The "framework" for the concert was the idea of a Viennese opera party, so naturally the evening opened and closed with light-weight, fizzing selections from Johann Strauss Junior's timeless operetta masterpiece, Die Fledermaus.
In between these two bookends, we heard composers from Rossini to Bernstein, including (among others) Verdi, Puccini, Bizet, Delibes, and Korngold.
A few highlights of this very rich opera party will have to suffice. Baritone Joseph Chan brought the house down right at the outset with a high-energy, highly comical Largo al factotum.
Tenor Colin Ainsworth drew loud cheers as well with the famous Nessun dorma.
I couldn't help getting tears in my eyes as these two joined in a beautifully-balanced Au fond du temple saint from Bizet's The Pearl Fishers.
Mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabó assumed an appropriately roguish air as she sang Prince Orlofsky's song from Die Fledermaus, Chacun à son gout. I'd love to see her on stage in the full operetta in this hilarious breeches role. She also showed herself the master of Rossinian bel canto in the flashy Non più mesta from La Cenerentola ("Cinderella").
Together with Leslie Fagan, Szabó created lovingly poised phrasing in the Duo des fleurs from Lakmé by Delibes.
As for Leslie Fagan herself, she won the unofficial High Notes contest which raged between these fine singers throughout the evening. After she'd finished her sparkling rendition of the bel canto styled Glitter and be Gay from Bernstein's Candide, the others publicly conceded to her! All in good fun, of course.
The entertainment was leavened by substantial selections from accordionist Joseph Petric in both halves of the programme.
There was also a surprise appearance by a certain Mr. Russell Braun, who was called from his seat in the audience to sing one of his most moving songs, Ivor Novello's We'll Gather Lilacs. There were certainly some very wet eyes on the stage after that number, and probably a good many more besides mine in the audience.
Accompaniment duties were fulfilled throughout the evening, with plenty of dash and style, by Guy Few and Carolyn Maule.
An Opera Gala at the Festival of the Sound is always one of the most entertaining events of the season.
On Monday afternoon, we moved from the Stockey Centre up to the Mary Street Centre, home of St. James United Church. This was one of the two key Festival venues before the building of the Stockey Centre, used at those earlier festivals for all the daytime concerts. Appropriately, Jim Campbell (Artistic Director) used his customary welcome remarks to reminisce a little bit about those early days, and about the important role which this church played in the growth of the Festival.
The concert was a duo programme for trumpet(s) and organ, with Guy Few and William McArton. It's another of those off-the-beaten-track moments for a classical chamber music programme, so I was pleased to see a sizable audience.
The backbone of the programme was formed by the Concerto in D Minor, Op. 9 No. 2, by Albinoni. The artists decided to rearrange the programme and play the three movements of this concerto at the beginning, middle, and end of the recital. This was a good choice, as it allowed the audience to be continually reminded of the differences in tone between the brilliance of the higher-pitched piccolo trumpet which Guy Few used in the concerto, and the conventional B-flat trumpet which he used for the rest of the programme. The players clearly presented the interplay of voices in this Baroque concerto, and if the organ was a bit on the strong side for this music, it certainly wasn't too strong for the trumpet!
The one movement we heard from Naji Hakim's Sonata for Trumpet and Organ was intriguing, and I would have welcomed a chance to hear more from the work of this living composer.
Also fascinating was the Prelude V by Jean-Michel Defaye, an intricate solo for the trumpeter which Guy Few tossed off with considerable aplomb. Was it in introducing this piece that he asked the audience (only semi-jokingly) to pray for him? That request struck me as unlikely in the extreme, since Few always plays with such assurance and lack of any apparent nerves.
McArton gave strong performances of three major works for organ: the Prelude and Fugue in G Major, BWV 541 and the Fugue a la Gigue in G Major, BWV577 by Bach, and the Cortège et litanie, Op. 19, No. 2 by Marcel Dupré, long-time organist of Saint-Sulpice in Paris and a noted composer for the organ.
So, from jazz to opera to organ and trumpet -- easy to see from this diverse 24-hour period that there's far more to the Festival of the Sound than just string quartets and instrumental sonatas.
On Sunday afternoon, a small sell-out audience of 50 people sat down in the intimate performance space of the Festival Station office to hear an afternoon of classic jazz/swing music from the legendary pianist Gene di Novi.
As always, it was sheer delight to listen as Gene' fingers rolled easily and nimbly as ever across the keyboard, effortlessly ornamenting within each song and as readily bridging his way from one tune to another.
In between several sets, and for a few more minutes at the end, he regaled us with some of his most entertaining anecdotes about the great musicians he'd worked with -- their names a veritable roll-call of the golden age of the big bands.
Although I felt sorry for the people who wanted tickets and couldn't get them, I totally agree that a smaller, more intimate space like this is absolutely the right place to appreciate Gene di Novi's art -- his music-making would be out of place in the 400-plus-seats auditorium of the Stockey Centre.
But it was back to the Stockey Centre we went on Sunday evening for an Opera Gala, another regular feature of the Festival for some years now. This year's programme was curated by soprano Leslie Fagan and pianist/trumpeter Guy Few. Anyone who recognizes those two names would know that we could expect, and would get, wonderful music and good laughs in nearly equal measures.
The "framework" for the concert was the idea of a Viennese opera party, so naturally the evening opened and closed with light-weight, fizzing selections from Johann Strauss Junior's timeless operetta masterpiece, Die Fledermaus.
In between these two bookends, we heard composers from Rossini to Bernstein, including (among others) Verdi, Puccini, Bizet, Delibes, and Korngold.
A few highlights of this very rich opera party will have to suffice. Baritone Joseph Chan brought the house down right at the outset with a high-energy, highly comical Largo al factotum.
Tenor Colin Ainsworth drew loud cheers as well with the famous Nessun dorma.
I couldn't help getting tears in my eyes as these two joined in a beautifully-balanced Au fond du temple saint from Bizet's The Pearl Fishers.
Mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabó assumed an appropriately roguish air as she sang Prince Orlofsky's song from Die Fledermaus, Chacun à son gout. I'd love to see her on stage in the full operetta in this hilarious breeches role. She also showed herself the master of Rossinian bel canto in the flashy Non più mesta from La Cenerentola ("Cinderella").
Together with Leslie Fagan, Szabó created lovingly poised phrasing in the Duo des fleurs from Lakmé by Delibes.
As for Leslie Fagan herself, she won the unofficial High Notes contest which raged between these fine singers throughout the evening. After she'd finished her sparkling rendition of the bel canto styled Glitter and be Gay from Bernstein's Candide, the others publicly conceded to her! All in good fun, of course.
The entertainment was leavened by substantial selections from accordionist Joseph Petric in both halves of the programme.
There was also a surprise appearance by a certain Mr. Russell Braun, who was called from his seat in the audience to sing one of his most moving songs, Ivor Novello's We'll Gather Lilacs. There were certainly some very wet eyes on the stage after that number, and probably a good many more besides mine in the audience.
Accompaniment duties were fulfilled throughout the evening, with plenty of dash and style, by Guy Few and Carolyn Maule.
An Opera Gala at the Festival of the Sound is always one of the most entertaining events of the season.
On Monday afternoon, we moved from the Stockey Centre up to the Mary Street Centre, home of St. James United Church. This was one of the two key Festival venues before the building of the Stockey Centre, used at those earlier festivals for all the daytime concerts. Appropriately, Jim Campbell (Artistic Director) used his customary welcome remarks to reminisce a little bit about those early days, and about the important role which this church played in the growth of the Festival.
The concert was a duo programme for trumpet(s) and organ, with Guy Few and William McArton. It's another of those off-the-beaten-track moments for a classical chamber music programme, so I was pleased to see a sizable audience.
The backbone of the programme was formed by the Concerto in D Minor, Op. 9 No. 2, by Albinoni. The artists decided to rearrange the programme and play the three movements of this concerto at the beginning, middle, and end of the recital. This was a good choice, as it allowed the audience to be continually reminded of the differences in tone between the brilliance of the higher-pitched piccolo trumpet which Guy Few used in the concerto, and the conventional B-flat trumpet which he used for the rest of the programme. The players clearly presented the interplay of voices in this Baroque concerto, and if the organ was a bit on the strong side for this music, it certainly wasn't too strong for the trumpet!
The one movement we heard from Naji Hakim's Sonata for Trumpet and Organ was intriguing, and I would have welcomed a chance to hear more from the work of this living composer.
Also fascinating was the Prelude V by Jean-Michel Defaye, an intricate solo for the trumpeter which Guy Few tossed off with considerable aplomb. Was it in introducing this piece that he asked the audience (only semi-jokingly) to pray for him? That request struck me as unlikely in the extreme, since Few always plays with such assurance and lack of any apparent nerves.
McArton gave strong performances of three major works for organ: the Prelude and Fugue in G Major, BWV 541 and the Fugue a la Gigue in G Major, BWV577 by Bach, and the Cortège et litanie, Op. 19, No. 2 by Marcel Dupré, long-time organist of Saint-Sulpice in Paris and a noted composer for the organ.
So, from jazz to opera to organ and trumpet -- easy to see from this diverse 24-hour period that there's far more to the Festival of the Sound than just string quartets and instrumental sonatas.
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