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Esprit Orchestra. Violinissimo II. Max Richter: The 4 Seasons Recomposed (Mark Fewer, violin). Ligeti: Continuum (Wesley Shen, harpsichord). Ligeti: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (Mark Fewer, soloist). Alex Pauk, conductor. Koerner Corridor on March 28, 2024.
Alex Pauk and his Esprit Orchestra may be relied on to maintain the avant-garde religion. A few of the time. Thursday night in Koerner Corridor they proved true to the calling after intermission, with the invaluable help of the violinist Mark Fewer.
Occupying the primary half of this live performance titled Violinissimo II was The 4 Seasons Recomposed by Max Richter, a post-minimalist (or post-something-or-other) British composer whose ambient exploits embody an eight-hour work meant to be heard when you sleep.
His 2012 transforming of Vivaldi’s well-known suite of violin concertos just isn’t so bold — constructed, as it’s, largely of repetitive extensions of the supply materials with occasional rhythmic hiccups. This system notes spoke of electronics. None materialized. There have been, nonetheless, drones within the decrease strings with harp onsets that sounded digital.
Recomposed? Extra like reupholstered, besides within the center motion of Winter, which was stripped naked. Reharmonized? Overlook about it. Richter provides no indication of realizing greater than the fundamentals. Fewer and the orchestra below Pauk performed effectively, however their stalwart efforts served primarily to remind us of the superior power and readability of the masterpiece Richter has presumed to change.
Then got here György Ligeti — to the rescue. The centenary of the late Hungarian grasp final 12 months impressed numerous tributes, right here and overseas. By programming the five-movement, half-hour Concerto for Violin and Orchestra after the celebration was over, Fewer and Pauk in impact affirmed its repertoire standing.
Written for an orchestra of 26, this rating provides a potpourri of sonorities and rhythms. Devices are out of tune virtually as usually as in. Wind gamers double on ocarinas. There are evocations of Hungarian people music and the Renaissance in addition to bursts of hardcore modernism.
By some means the motley components cohere, with the soloist as a binding agent. Whether or not pumping out the semiquavers of the opening motion or flying excessive at first of the Passacaglia, Fewer was equal to the technical calls for of the music and true to its adventuresome spirit. He additionally provided his personal cadenza. There have been many effective contributions from the orchestra, duly overseen by Pauk. This was a joint success.
Earlier than the concerto we heard Ligeti’s Continuum, a pulsing four-minute toccata for solo harpsichord that achieves the impact promised by its title by fast repetition. Wesley Shen was the suitably decided and fleet-fingered performer.
There have been cheers for everybody, however particularly Fewer. Presumably his college students at U of T helped fill the parterre. The following Esprit live performance, on April 25, matches John Adams’s Harmonielehre (1985) with R. Murray Schafer’s Adieu Robert Schumann (1976), the latter that includes mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabo.
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Arthur Kaptainis was classical music critic of the Montreal Gazette from 1986 to 2022 and wrote for the Nationwide Submit from 2010 to 2016. His articles seem in Classical Voice North America and Gramophone in addition to Ludwig Van. Arthur holds an MA in musicology from the College of Toronto. He’s president of the Music Critics Affiliation of North America.
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