Intrigued by the music on offer and enticed by cider on tap, M and I went to Irene's Pub on 11th March for Ottawa Chamberfest's 'New Music, New Places' concert featuring Gryphon Trio and players from Ottawa New Music Creators. A different atmosphere compared to The PepTides show in February but there were enough attendees for an interesting, relaxed evening.
The programme was intended to showcase 7 contemporary compositions under the 'chamber music' umbrella, however Chamberfest artistic director Roman Borys made a last-minute adjustment to incorporate a short set based on Gryphon Trio's new recording Broken Hearts and Madmen, featuring Patricia O'Callaghan. A fellow concertgoer who attended the Broken Hearts and Madmen themed show at Wakefield's Black Sheep Inn on 10th March described a superb evening, which was to be echoed at Irene's.
The first set comprised an abridged 'New Music, New Places' programme. Of the pieces on offer, I had already experienced Frédéric Lacroix’s composition Angels (2011) at ChamberFest 2011. I heard more of the 'palindromic' structure this time but some of the effect seemed to have been lost. The first performance was of Victor Sanchez' Estampas 1 - Cantos del Amanecer, or 'songs of the sunrise', whose bouncy, birdlike nature was beautifully executed on flute and clarinet. Crowd favourite of the first set was probably Martin Bresnick's My Twentieth Century (2002). Intrinsic to the piece is a reading by each performer of lines from Tom Andrews' poem of the same name. The text moves from humour to sadness, whilst (to my ears) Bresnick's central motif morphed through various moods (including a touch of grunge?!) as it changed instruments and dynamics. A really interesting piece: the text of Andews' poem is available with comments on Martin Bresnick's site.
After a short interval, Gryphon Trio and Patricia O'Callaghan came on stage and commenced immediately with Carlos Gardel's 'Volver'. The rest of the set was introduced and explained; given that song arrangements of this style are not necessarily my preference, my overall favourite pieces from the set were the Trio's performances of the Spring (Primavera Porteña) and Autumn (Otoño Porteño) tangos from Astor Piazzolla's Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas. Of the Broken Hearts songs performed with O'Callaghan, it was very interesting to hear their arrangements of Nick Drake's 'Riverman' and Elvis Costello's 'I Want You'; De Sela's 'La Confession' and Piazzolla's 'Yo soy Maria' were also very humourous. However as a live show, the programme was very enjoyable and the Broken Hearts concept seems to have been executed extremely well. Broken Hearts and Madmen is available from the Analekta website where there are sound samples.
Photos will be available shortly once M has sorted them. As for Ottawa New Music Creators, the evening's programme lists their next concerts: Contemporary Revolution themed shows at Cafe Paradiso on 2nd April and 14th May (which their website indicates are free) and Thin Edge New Music Collective on 12th June at Ecclesiax Church on Monk Street. After the taster provided last night I am definitely looking at one of these!
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