Closing Gala Concert

I apologize for taking so long to publish the last instalment in my series of Chamberfest reviews. I’ve been away from Ottawa with my family since the morning after the last concert and I haven’t had any access to a computer since! This prolonged leave of absence mightn’t turn out to be such a bad thing though, as it gave me much needed time to think over what was undoubtedly the most perplexing concert that I saw. I still haven’t made my mind up, but my thoughts are now significantly clearer!

The music of the Closing Gala was perhaps the best of the festival. Certainly the most powerful that I heard in my two weeks of concert-going: it was a truly fantastic blend of excitement, provocation and novelty. Both of the two works performed stood out for their wonderful innovation and musical openness, with seemingly equal inspiration drawn from Bernstein’s West Side Story and Bach’s classical Cantatas. Bass soloist Robert Pomakov’s decision to wear a Hawaiian shirt in front of the choir dressed in traditional black garments literally embodied this theme.

It was wonderful for the Closing Gala to consist only of new Canadian music (composed in 2004 and 2006 by Larysa Kuzmenko and Christos Hatzis). I would hope that it was selected solely for its musical merit rather than as a political statement, but regardless of the motivations, it was certainly good enough to justify the choice.

What I found slightly troubling about the concert was not the quality of the music but its place in the Chamberfest Closing Gala. When the Gryphon Trio took over the artistic leadership of the festival, they made it clear that they would shift the focus away from the traditional repertoire written by dead-white-European-men towards more modern, Canadian music. In principle, their objective is praiseworthy and a positive step for the Festival. But I do feel that in their zeal to give more space to contemporary Canadian music, they have sacrificed part of the original mission of Chamberfest, which remains fundamentally to bring chamber music to the Ottawa area.

In the Closing Gala, the music was wonderful, but it wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination chamber music. There were on stage two full sized choirs, a soloist and the Gryphon Trio. Such an ensemble can produce -and did produce- truly fantastic music, but not chamber music.

If such a concert had taken place earlier in the week, I wouldn’t have felt in the least uncomfortable. In the future though, I would consider it a matter of principle and artistic focus that the Closing Gala Concert of Chamberfest feature what the festival does best: chamber music and only chamber music.