Garden of Eden
July 16th to 21st, 2024
Individual Concerts
Community Concert
Tuesday, July 16, 2024
cSpace Marda Loop
7:30 p.m. *Free - ArtPark (outdoors)
CFW kicks into high gear with a nod to Calgary’s popular Folk Music Festival. Genre-bending classical-folk crossover musicians and Juno award winners The Fretless perform with singer/songwriter Madeleine Roger; followed by a unique pairing of cello and piano with old friends, Nicholas Canellakis and Roman Rabinovich. The “brilliant and fearless” Macedonian clarinetist Ismail Lumanovski then joins Roman and Chris Sies to create a magical blend. We’ll have you dancing barefoot in the grass. Bring a blanket or festival chair, relax and enjoy!
The Fretless
Nicholas Canellakis and Roman Rabinovich
Festival musicians - solos
Ismail Lumanovski, Roman Rabinovich and Chris Sies
In the beginning, the Garden of Eden was heaven on Earth, and nothing embodies this better than the dazzling, propulsive energy of Bach’s all-string masterpiece, Brandenburg Concerto No. 3. Then comes the fall from grace. Adam and Eve succumb to the Serpent’s Kiss and ‘cakewalk’ out of ‘paradise’ to the jazzy accents of William Bolcom’s ragtime rhythms. No longer constrained by ancient ideals of perfection, an adrenalin-laced improvisation from the Macedonian-born clarinetist Ismail Lumanovski leads us to the virtuosic and primal-with-a-Romanian-folk-accent Octet for Strings by George Enescu, a lush and romantic ending to our first romp in the Garden.
Garden of Eden
Wednesday, July 17, 2024
Bella Concert Hall at the Taylor Centre for the Performing Arts
7:30 p.m.
Johann Sebastian Bach - Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major (3 movements)
William Bolcolm - Three Rags from Garden of Eden, for two pianos
Old Adam
The Eternal Feminine
The Serpent’s Kiss
Ismail Lumanovski - Improvisation
George Enescu - String Octet in C Major, Op.7
*New to ChamberFest West? First-time festival attendees can choose TWOFORNEW at checkout and receive a second ticket to this performance, for free. Bring a friend and enjoy together!
Alleged Dances
Thursday, July 18, 2024
Contemporary Calgary
7:30 p.m.
Mozart’s D Major Flute Quartet, extroverted and soul-dancing with a lovely wistful interlude, is the first course in this tempting musical buffet. Cellist and filmmaker Nicholas Cannellakis then indulges our romantic hearts with Tchaikovsky’s Andante Cantabile, followed by a confession to his first love, a new cello. Villa-Lobos’ The Jet Whistle follows, carrying us away in an illicit Brazilian tryst, caressed by flute and cello. All great feasts end with a dance party, and John Adams’ Book of Alleged Dances is a surreal but playful tour of just about every contemporary dance rhythm imaginable!
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Flute Quartet D Major
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Andante Cantabile, for cello, string quartet and double bass
Nicholas Canellakis - Roscoe Rhapsody, for cello and string quartet and double bass
Nicholas Canellakis - My New Cello (a short film)
Heitor Villa-Lobos - Jet Whistle, for flute and cello
John Adams - from “John’s Book of Alleged Dances”, for string quartet and recorded prepared piano
Dogjam
Alligator Escalator
Toot Nipple
Habanera
Judah to Ocean
ChamberFest West and National Music Centre present…
Rite of Spring
Friday, July 19, 2024
Studio Bell, Home of the National Music Centre
7:30 p.m.
Can deep sadness be beautiful? Michi Wiancko’s heart-stopping string arrangement of a Renaissance motet answers that question. A different contemporary vibe comes via the young Californian Gabriella Smith’s Carrot Revolution. Her joyfully defiant rhythmic splash for string quartet is a new way of looking at old things. Ravel’s Violin Sonata is a French pastel-coloured take on jazz, with a bluesy slow movement inspired by Gershwin. Then get ready for the shock of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. This two-piano version, with percussion added, erupts in a primal scream of pagan Russian spring rituals.
Carlo Gesualdo (arr. by Michi Wianko) - Tristis est anima mea
Maurice Ravel - Violin Sonata No. 2, for violin and piano
Gabriella Smith - Carrot Revolution
Igor Stravinsky - Rite of Spring , arr. for two pianos and percussion
Temptation
Saturday, July 20, 2024
Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall at the Rosza Centre, University of Calgary
7:30 p.m.
One of Bach's best loved instrumental works, the gothic keyboard Concerto in D Minor, eases us gently into the evening’s exploration of human emotions. Piazzolla’s tango nuevo, full of Argentine sensuality and wistfulness, then dances us from the bordellos of Buenos Aires to the concert hall. Proving even the most serious composers have a wild side, Erwin Schulhoff’s Sonata Erotica is a playful, completely unabashed solo for female voice, challenging our perceptions of what music should be. When we’ve regained our composure, the musicians return to the stage with Cesar Franck’s magnificent Piano Quintet in F Minor, where the sensuality is all refined, but still urgent, romantic passion.
Johann Sebastian Bach - Keyboard Concerto in D Minor
Astor Piazzolla - Retrato de Albredo Gobbi, Oblivion, Libertango
Erwin Schulhoff - Sonata Erotica
César Franck - Piano Quintet in F Minor
THIS PROGRAM IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH NOR ENDORSED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY
Festival Finale
Sunday, July 21, 2024
Bella Concert Hall at the Taylor Centre for the Performing Arts
7:30 p.m.
Music of a sparkling and life-affirming innocence sets the tone with Mozart’s E-Flat Major Piano Quartet. Then Percy Grainger’s Two Piano Fantasy on George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess picks up the jazzy rhythms and familiar themes of this tragic story of jealousy and revenge. And finally, Brahms’ masterpiece, the F Minor Piano Quintet, fuses our human dramas into one work of dark passion, lyric tenderness, and demonic ecstasy in a dashing finale.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Quartet in E-flat Major
Percy Grainger - Fantasy on George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess”
Johannes Brahms - Piano Quintet in F Minor, op. 34
*New to ChamberFest West? First-time festival attendees can choose TWOFORNEW at checkout and receive a second ticket to this performance, for free. Bring a friend and enjoy together!