IN CONCERT
Les Amusements de la Chambre: Le Salon de Rameau.
When/where: Saturday, 3 and 8听p.m., Church of St. John the Divine (1611 Quadra St.).
Tickets: Adults $20, seniors $15, students $10. Online at eventbrite.ca; in person at Ivy鈥檚 Bookshop.
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What: Galiano Ensemble: Around the Baltic Sea
When/where: Jan. 9, 8 p.m., Phillip T. Young Recital Hall (School of Music, MacLaurin Building, UVic).
Tickets: Adults $33, seniors $30. Call 250-704-2580; email [email protected]; in person at Ivy鈥檚 Bookshop and Munro鈥檚 Books.
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Violinist Emily Redhead and keyboard player Katelyn Clark, who comprise the duo Les Amusements de la Chambre, are both natives of Victoria, and while they now spend part of each year living in Montreal, they retain a close connection with their hometown.
The two were acquainted here in their youth but forged a formal musical partnership duo only in 2010 after reconnecting at the Banff Centre, where they gave their first performances as Les Amusements de la Chambre in March 2010. That July, they made their Victoria debut and they have since appeared here annually during both the summer and Christmas seasons. They have also toured the Gulf Islands, and last August made their Toronto debut. (They will make their Montreal debut in February, and plan to tour sa国际传媒 in the fall.)
Redhead and Clark have a particular interest in historically informed performances of early music, with Clark playing piano, harpsichord or organ as appropriate. (The moniker Les Amusements de la Chambre was inspired by the title of a set of early 18th-century French violin sonatas.) But the two play music from all periods, including our own, and their programs are often interestingly mixed. Their Toronto debut, for instance, comprised music of the 17th, 18th and 21st centuries, including a new work they had commissioned themselves: Rose With Thorns, by the Toronto-based Linda Catlin Smith.
To date, the duo鈥檚 appearances have been one-offs, but their pair of concerts on Saturday will mark the launch of what they are calling their 鈥渄ebut season鈥� 鈥� a series of three programs inspired by the intimate, private salon concerts that were commonplace in cities such as London, Paris and Vienna in the 18th century. (The other concerts will be given on May 4 and July 20.)
Redhead and Clark enjoy reviving not only the repertoire but also the concert experiences of earlier times, and while their debut season will be offered in the Church of St. John the Divine, one of their regular local venues, they hope to perform in genuine salon settings 鈥� here and perhaps also on the Gulf Islands 鈥� in the future.
This season鈥檚 concerts will focus on music for strings and harpsichord, with the duo expanding to a trio or quartet as required. Saturday鈥檚 program, Le Salon de Rameau, is devoted to a monument of French-Baroque chamber music: Jean-Philippe Rameau鈥檚 Pi猫ces de clavecin en concerts, a set of five suites published in 1741. This is rich, delicious music, consisting of courtly dances, rondeaux and other kinds of pieces, many named for 鈥減ersons of taste and skill鈥� of Rameau鈥檚 acquaintance.
As the set鈥檚 title (鈥渃oncerted harpsichord pieces鈥�) suggests, these suites, like a lot of early music, are flexibly scored; they can be played as keyboard solos or with the additional parts Rameau provides, one for violin or flute, the other for viol or a second violin. On Saturday, they will be performed as trios for two violins and harpsichord, with the participation of violinist Hannah Burton, a recent University of Victoria graduate who has played with various local ensembles.
Les Amusements de la Chambre鈥檚 concert in May, Le Salon Parisien, will include more French-Baroque fare as well as the sa国际传媒 premi猫re of Rose With Thorns, while the July concert will be given over to Mozart.
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The Galiano Ensemble鈥檚 13th season continues next Wednesday with Around the Baltic Sea, a program of string-ensemble music by composers from Finland, Sweden, Estonia and Denmark 鈥� respectively, Jean Sibelius, Kurt Atterberg, Heino Eller and Carl Nielsen.
The four works on the program are all elegantly lyrical, and very flattering vehicles for strings, though they are also distinctly Nordic in character, with an often dark and melancholy rather than sensuous kind of beauty. In past concerts, the Galiano has played music of this sort with great conviction; with the Atterberg and Eller pieces, moreover, the Galiano鈥檚 music director, Yariv Aloni, is once again exercising his very welcome fondness for less-than-familiar repertoire.
Three of the works are comparatively small in scale, particularly Sibelius鈥檚 Suite champ锚tre, from 1923, in three brief movements. Somewhat more substantial are Nielsen鈥檚 three-movement Suite in A Minor, from 1888 鈥� his Op. 1 鈥� and Eller鈥檚 Five Pieces, from 1953, arrangements of earlier piano works with an often Grieg-like or folk-music-like character. The big work on the program is the splendid Sinfonia for Strings by Atterberg, who was himself a cellist (and it shows). This four-movement, half-hour work, transcribed from a string quintet, is also from 1953 but, despite its date, is boldly and engagingly Romantic in style.
