Tuckamore Review: Prelude Concert, 2 August 2018


Tuckamore Festival 2018.

Prelude Concert

Tuckamore’s 18th Festival of Chamber Music got off to a tremendous start at the Kirk in St. John’s on Thursday. It was a relief to go into the cool environment of the St. Andrew’s Church, away from the heat and humidity, but the music served up was hot!

Michelle and Dominic Greene, brother and sister with their roots in St. John’s, showed what wealth they have garnered from their studies elsewhere. Both are alumni of the Tuckamore Festival, and an appreciative crowd of about a hundred welcomed them back to the Festival’s fold with enthusiastic applause at the end of each number.

The first piece, a selection of five duos for violins by Bartok, made demands on audience and perdormers alike. Bartok’s rhythms and counter-rhythms are not initially easy on the ear, and they often reduce performers to stilted, note-upon-note renditions, that (mercifully) do end. But Michelle and Dominic have clearly made these pieces their own, and greatly increased the audiences enjoyment, as they brought out the mood suggested by the titles. I particularly liked “The Bagpipe”, a most appropriate choice from the 44 duos for the surrounds of the Kirk.

Mozart’s duo for violin and viola (K.423) was unknown to me before this performance, and I would love to hear it again. The two voices from the different instruments were clearly established at the start, but as the work progressed, they seamlessly became one, or rather became two voices within one head, like sisters who, having lived together for so long, carry on one narrative line, picking up without pause from where the other has stopped to draw breath. Magical!

Halvorsen’s Passacaglia, on a theme from Handel’s Suite No 7 for harpsichord, saw Michelle take up the viola and Dominic the violin. In a touching moment of sibling affection, Michelle had to call on her brother’s strength to adjust a stubborn tuning peg. From a stately opening setting out the Handelian theme, the work gathered speed and complexity, culminating in the final segment where violin and viola vied in short bursts of vituosity to triumph over the other.

The final work, an arrangement by Michelle and Dominic of Monti’s Csardas, brought the Greene’s mother, Joanne Faour, to the piano to provide a steadying accompaniment to the fireworks her children provided. As with many a theme and variations, the audience’s mind can barely keep the theme in mind as the performers’ fingers ran up and down the scales and arpeggios, with some double-stopping thrown in for good measure. Definitely a crowd-pleaser and a show-stopper!

The audience was quick to get to its feet to recognize this wonderful performance. And this was just the prelude to what promises to be an amazing two weeks of chamber music. How lucky are we to get to enjoy this annual treat!

Details of upcoming events can be found on the Festival’s website:

tuckamorefestival.ca

Hope to see you there!

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