Guelph Musicfest returns in May for it’s fifth season with five great concerts!
The 2010 season was hugely successful, with superb performances and a great audience turnout—the memories of the economic downturn and smaller audiences the year before were squashed. However, it was a challenge to match the quality of performances, and sustain the expectation that every concert will be excellent, rather like a restaurant assuring customers that every meal will be satisfying. And the solution was not to make it more of the same, but to change the menu.
Last year had no piano recitals. This time, there are two recitals of Beethoven Piano Sonatas by the great Vancouver pianist Robert Silverman. The man is possessed by Beethoven. In 2006, Bob performed all thirty-two Beethoven sonatas in an eight-concert cycle and, if that wasn’t enough, he embarked upon a four-concert series encompassing the complete sonatas of Mozart to commemorate the composer’s 250th birthday! Performances of the cycles took place in numerous cities across North America, including Washington DC, San Francisco, Seattle, Winnipeg, and Vancouver. Studio recordings of the complete Beethoven and Mozart sonatas have been preserved on multi-disc CD sets. This season, Bob recorded a second album of the complete Beethoven sonatas. He is one of only six pianists in history to record them more than once. He is also the only Canadian pianist to record both the Mozart and Beethoven sonata cycles.
When I was having an email conversation with him about what sonatas he was planning to perform, Bob first offered up a recital of the final four, including the mammoth Hammerklavier. My reply essentially said I didn’t want him to die on the job, but the Hammerklavier remains, preceded by a wide and representative range of sonatas.
The first recital on Saturday, May 14 at 8 pm offers No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 “Pathétique”; No. 15 in D major, Op. 28 “Pastorale”; No. 22 in F Major, Op. 54; and No. 21 in C major, Op. 53 “Waldstein”.
Program two on Monday May 16 presents No. 24 in F sharp major, Op. 78; No. 25 in G Major, Op. 79; No. 26 in E flat major, Op. 81a “Les Adieux”; and No. 29 in B flat major, Op. 106. We fully expect sweat, if not blood, to be dripping on the floor below the keyboard!
Guelph Musicfest actually begins on Friday May 13, so it’s bound to be a lucky season! I always like to play piano in one of the concerts, and this time I’m surrounded by my friends from WLU—violinist Jerzy Kaplanek and violist Christine Vlajk (from the Penderecki Quartet), and cellist Paul Pulford (Penderecki alumni extraordinaire). Not only are they all fantastic musicians, but great people, too. There is simply a wonderful synergy making music with friends. And true to the Beethoven theme of 2011, our Festival Quartet concert is all-Beethoven. Everybody combines for the Piano Quartet no. 1 in E-flat; Paul and Christine play the “Eyeglasses Duo” for viola and cello; and then Jerzy, Paul and I have a go at the wonderful “Ghost” Piano Trio in D major.
The one diversion from Beethoven is on Friday, May 20—The Life of Edward Johnson. This one was actually prompted by a call from Rosemary Smith, longtime director of the Edward Johnson Foundation. She talked to me about this wonderful show that had been produced at Stratford Summer Music featuring (the totally unaffordable) Ben Hepner about Edward Johnson, Guelph’s famed operatic tenor and, in his post-performance career, director of New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Local historian Gloria Dent had researched correspondence between Johnson and his wife Beatrice D’Arneiro, and published a book, At My Sweet Recall: the Letters of Edward Johnson & Beatrice D’Arneiro (1906–1908). Neil Crory, Senior Music Producer for CBC Radio; Senior Consulting Editor for Opera Canada magazine; Artistic Advisor and Music Consultant for Stratford Summer Music; and a freelance writer and record producer (who adds in his bio that he “has no business writing plays”), created a work for the stage where “Edward Johnson” speaks and sings some of his trademark arias, while speaking with “Beatrice D’Arneiro” in their own words. Johnson will be played by Ryan Harper, a talented young tenor from Montreal. Beatrice will be played by local favourite, soprano Marion Samuel-Stevens. And I’m pleased to introduce pianist Anna Ronai to the Guelph Musicfest audience. She is a wonderful, refined and sensitive piano collaborator, from Vienna but now luckily in Guelph (with her scientist husband). An especially interesting part of the show will be an archive recording of Edward Johnson singing an excerpt from Parsifal. And if this is not enough to grab your attention, Marion will sing a solo set, and combine in a duet with Ryan to end the evening.
The series Finale is a return visit by the fanastic Cecilia String Quartet. They performed in 2009 and were superb. But they were also just great ladies, and I was eager to get them back. As things turned out, I found out after booking their concert that they were just about to compete in the prestigious Banff International String Quartet Competition. My internet radio was tuned in for the week, and there was cheering when they won First Prize! The Afiara String Quartet, which also played in Guelph Musicfest, was a close second. Since Banff, cellist Sarah Nematallah has moved to California, but the girls were well-prepared to introduce wonderful cellist Rachel Desoer, who I’ve known for many years as she grew up in the Hamilton area and just never stopped getting better as a cellist and musician. But it’s the music that counts, and the Cecilia has got a great program: Haydn’s Quartet, op. 20, no. 3; Beethoven’s Quartet, op. 135; and Shostakovich’s Quartet No. 7. I’m really looking forward to this concert!
So the Guelph Musicfest restaurant is taking reservations, and while the meals have not been cooked yet, the ingredients are of the finest quality. You can read all about it at the web site.
And thanks to a tip from Jan Narveson, I’ve hooked up with TicketScene.ca so you can buy single tickets online (and until the end of April, there is a two dollar discount per ticket at the ticketscene.ca to compensate you for the service charge; but full price starting May 1). Of course, there are different series combos available (like a Beethoven Sonata series, or the famous Super Series, and if you’d like to help the series, there is even a Supporter Series), but you’ll have to order online at guelphmusicfest.ca or give me a call at 519-993-7591.
Guelph Musicfest is still a very personal series for me, and it’s been great fun getting to know so many of you over the years. Many thanks, and hoping to see you at the concerts!
Ken Gee, artistic director
(published in the Music Times, May-June edition 2011)
