 E-mail Story Print Friendly
|
Sunday, June 07, 2009
June Music Fest shakes up convention
By David Steinberg
Journal Staff Writer
Achieving more balance in the programming was the guiding goal for the 2009 June Music Festival.
That will mean the festival, now in its 68th year, is offering a healthy dose of standard chamber music repertoire — such as music by W.A. Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Joseph Haydn— plus some works by living composers.
"Variety was the intention. I've been trying to bring some newer music to the program," said Joseph Franklin, artistic director of Chamber Music Albuquerque, which presents the long-running festival.
It opens with the Takács String Quartet performing quartets by Haydn and Beethoven on Friday, June 12, and Haydn and Mozart on June 14.
On the same two concert programs Takács will also play a quartet by Béla Bartók, who lived in the mid-20th century.
"Mainly Bartók is like our mother's milk," said Takács cellist András Fejér, referring to the Hungarian origins of the ensemble and of Bartók. "And second is because we still feel that he is not getting the recognition he deserves in the 21st century, compared to other composers who are in the forefront and maybe not so much deserved."
The Takács recently toured and recorded with pianist Marc-André Hamelin and played quintets with the semifinalists at the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.
The Lark Chamber Artists will perform in a single festival concert on June 18.
Its program includes music by such well-known composers as Astor Piazzolla, George Gershwin and Samuel Barber and lesser-known composers as Sapo Perapaskero, Giovanni Sollima and Daniel Bernard Romain.
The Lark commissioned Romain, a Haitian-American, to write a work that resulted in his String Quartet No. 5 ("Rosa Parks").
"A few years back we had this collaboration with Romain. As we were playing one of his pieces, he said, 'This would be great with a drummer,'" violinst Debbie Buck said. "Then (violist) Kathryn (Lockwood) said, 'We know a great drummer, my husband Yousif.' "
As a result, Yousif Sheronick became a member of the Lark.
At its core, the Lark is a quartet, but it adds other players for specific concerts as called for by the music.
Sheronick arranged "Federico II," which is the first movement from Sollima's "Viaggio in Italia," and on it he plays brooms, the African djembe and a cymbal.
Lockwood said the Lark likes the idea of expanding its repertoire with new music.
"We thought of the instruments we wanted to bring in," she said. "At the same time, we were in residence at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and we were doing collaborations with faculty there. We thought, 'Let's keep offering these quintets.' "
That led to collaborations with clarinetist Todd Palmer and baritone Stephen Salters.
For the festival's final two concerts, on June 19 and 21, the Calder String Quartet will play music of Beethoven, Mozart and Felix Mendelssohn. But it will also perform works by contemporary composers Fred Frith, Ryan Carter and Ben Johnston.
Here is a concert schedule for the 68th June Music Festival:
• Takács String Quartet, 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 12, and 4 p.m. June 14.
• Lark Chamber Artists, 7:30 p.m. June 18.
• Calder String Quartet, 7:30 p.m. June 19 and 4 p.m. June 21.
All concerts are in the Simms Performing Arts Center, Albuquerque Academy, 6400 Wyoming NE.
Individual tickets for the general public are $26-$44 and available in advance by calling 268-1990 or online at www.cma-abq.org or at the CMA box office at 4407 Menaul NE; $28-$46 at the door. Students half price. Ticket packages are available for the purchase of tickets for all five concerts or three concerts. To buy those packages call in advance at 268-1990.
| We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately. |
|
|
