Mark Fewer
violin
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New Music Marathon: Mark Fewer and John Novacek
August 5, 2010, 12:00 am
New Music Marathon continues to delight
BY RICHARD TODD, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN AUGUST 4, 2010
The second instalment of the Chamberfest's New Music Marathon took place Tuesday at St. Brigid's. It began at noon and included three separate programs, as on Monday.
The mid-day first installment of the New Music Dialogue was long enough to push the next two concerts back by half an hour, but it was worth the inconvenience. There were two pieces by Ottawa composer Kelly Marie Murphy, including a world premiere, a piece by Gary Kulesha and one by Alexina Louie.
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Up next was the Swiss Piano Trio, an accomplished ensemble. They offered a program of Swiss music by composers whose names we don't normally hear. My favourite item was Martin Wettstein's Five Mystical Dances, gently compelling meditations with names like Flowering Light, The Dew Upon the Blossom and Rapture.
Elliott Carter (b. 1908 and still composing) wrote his Piano Sonata in 1945-46 at a time when I was just learning to walk and talk, so I bristle when people refer to his music as "ultra-modern." The Sonata was written just before he began writing five decades of the most conceptually and technically challenging repertoire that any major composer has ever put before the public.
Expertly performed Tuesday by pianist John Novacek, the Sonata is a glorious work, though by no means easy listening. It would make a good entry point, along with the Cello Sonata, into Carter's musical universe.
Pianist Novacek and violinist Mark Fewer concluded the program with George Antheil's Sonata no. 1 for Violin and piano. It's an exciting piece, though probably twice as long as it need be. Listening to it, you imagine the composer as a devoted post-modernist, but he died in 1959.
The performance, which required an energy output of something like a Channel swim, was terrific.
Ottawa Citizen
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