Sunset concert, by Jupiter

by David Gordon Duke

String quartet’s SFU performance of Mozart ignites series of Summer Combustion programs

Last week one of the New Yorker magazine’s recommended classical highlights was “the excellent Jupiter String Quartet.” Gotham residents were encouraged to make the long drive to the Caramoor Festival to hear the Jupiter play Mozart and Dvorak. Lucky Vancouverites get to hear them a lot closer to home: Tuesday they play Mozart outdoors in a Sunset Concert at the Reflecting Pond on SFU’s Burnaby Mountain campus. And our concert’s free, kicking off Summer Combustion — the renamed Vancouver Chamber Music Festival.

While the name is new, Summer Combustion is the usual VCMF mix of full-length evening programs, prelude concert mini-recitals, morning musicales and a family concert (prefaced by an instrument petting zoo), all at Kerrisdale’s Crofton House school.

The Sunset Concerts have been a runaway success, in past years held on the lawn at UBC’s Green College. The shift to SFU makes good sense: considering the GVRD’s population drift to the east, it’s high time to remember the thousands of music lovers who long for top quality events closer to home than downtown or the west side. Besides, the Reflecting Pond is a splendid site (and, perish the thought, if the weather gods don't cooperate, there’s Arthur Erickson’s great covered mall close by for backup). Tuesday’s program is a particularly breezy assortment of classical treasures, including Mozart’s D major Flute Quartet, K. 285, Rossini’s String Sonata in D major, and, to end, the Jupiter (with bassist DaXun Zhang) in the Serenade in G major, K. 525, otherwise known as Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.

Of course what really makes any festival are the players. This summer there are return visits from old favourites Angela Cheng, Denise Djokic, and Maria Lambros Kannen. But many exciting players are coming for the first time, including flutist Nadia Kyne, guitarist Daniel Bolshoy, pianist Inon Barnatan, and clarinetist Martin Frost.

Predictably, there’s lots of music from a certain Salzburg wunderkind, including all-Mozart programs on July 19 and 22, and a further selection of works scattered throughout other programs. There are favourites like the Clarinet Quintet opening night and the Kegelstatt Trio on the first “Early Combustion” morning program, July 20. But there’s Mozart with a difference, too: The A major Piano Concerto, K. 414 in a version with string quintet backup, the glorious E-flat major Quintet for piano and winds, and Mozart arranged by Hummel and by guitar great Fernando Sor.

Other chamber music favourites include Schubert’s Trout Quintet and Brahms’s Horn Trio. Hard-core afficionados will welcome the opportunity to hear more unusual repertoire from the Classical era: Summer Combustion gets the jump on Vancouver Opera by presenting the Ariadne auf Naxos tale à la Haydn on July 20; for guitar fans there’s Paganini’s Sonata Concertata for violin and guitar July 29; and Hummel’s E-flat major Viola Sonata, July 22.

Then there are more contemporary works to discover, none more impressive than Benjamin Britten’s incandescent Second String Quartet. The Jupiter perform it on July 21, an evening which begins with a sampler of music for guitar and flute by the late Japanese master Toru Takemitsu.

SUMMER COMBUSTION DETAILS

Summer Combustion Prelude Concerts begin at 7:15 p.m. with Main Concerts at 8:15; Early Combustion programs run July 20 and 26 at 11 a.m. Tuesday's one-time-only Sunset Concert starts at 8 p.m. Check www.summercombustion.com for details and ticket information.

The Vancouver Sun
13 July 2006

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