Review – Page 7 – North Okanagan Community Concert Association

Alysha Black plays Bruch's Violin Concerto in D Minor

Concert Review: Bergmann Duo show that four hands are better than two

May 2, 2015 by SillyGilly, posted in Review

By Christine Pilgrim – Vernon Morning Star

Sixty years ago, it was common to see a piano in a living room, with a stash of music nearby.

Many of us stumbled through that music while others became more proficient and some even experienced the thrill of finishing on the same beat in a duet. But none, save perhaps a precious few, could even come close to the skill with which Elizabeth and Marcel Bergmann (of the Bergmann Duo) entertained at the North Okanagan Community Concert Association’s penultimate concert of the 2014/15 season.

The precision, proficiency and unity with which they played contrasted sharply with their easy style and sense of competitive fun when they introduced the pieces.

A case in point was their introduction to the fifth of Maurice Ravel’s fairytale tunes written for his friends’ children in his Mother Goose Suite (Ma Mere l’Oye). It was entitled Conversations of Beauty and the Beast.

“I’ll play Beauty; you can be the Beast,” said Elizabeth to her husband as he picked up her translation from the French text that accompanied the tune.

When the Beast (Marcel) protested his love for Beauty (Elizabeth) she suggested in true wifely fashion that he could show more feeling. Both then proceeded to do exactly that on NOCCA’s celebrated, soon-to-retire Steinway grand.

Friday’s program opened with Variations on a Theme of Robert Schumann Opus 23. Johannes Brahms wrote them after Schumann’s attempted suicide and subsequent insistence that he be admitted to an asylum near the family’s Dusseldorf home. The variations’ haunting sadness reflects Brahms’ feelings of loss and admiration for his friend and mentor. And the Bergmanns’ sensitive interpretation paid tribute to both great composers.

There followed four of six little pieces (Six Morceaux Opus 11) by Sergei Rachmaninoff. The Bergmanns didn’t include Chanson Russe, based on an obscure Russian folk song, nor Romance, which might have been too cloying for these light-hearted lovers. But the remaining four compensated royally, with Barcarolle in G Minor. (Its rich, mysterious tones reminded its publisher of “a gondolier navigating Venetian canals beneath a moonlit sky.”) A sprightly Scherzo led to an intense Valse that provoked the duo to sway in rhythm as their hands flew over the keys and flicked through the pages of music. The Morceaux ended with the monumentally majestic Slava.

The Bergmann Duo did equal justice to Czech composer Erwin Schulhoff’s two “morceaux” from his Dadaesque Ironien Opus 34. Schulhoff was one of the first Europeans to weave jazz into classical music but his place in musical history was cut short by his untimely death in Wultzburg Concentration Camp in the 1940s.

The program ended with Henry Levine’s arrangement of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, which brought the house down… and up, in an inevitable standing ovation.

The Bergmanns’ virtuosity shone again in their encore, when they tangoed on both keyboard and piano stool in perfect time, tune and harmony. That tango, once described as “a vertical expression of a horizontal intent,” left no more to be said except that this month’s curtain raiser, Max Bruch’s Concerto in D Minor, was beautifully performed by local violinist Alysha Black, accompanied by Arnold Draper.

A slightly shaky beginning did not diminish the depth of feeling with which this gifted young musician interpreted Bruch’s intricate work.

It’s no wonder the B.C. Touring Council nominated NOCCA as presenter of the year. Its final concert this season features the Elektra Women’s Choir at the Vernon Performing Arts Centre May 23, 2015.

– Freelance writer Christine Pilgrim reviews NOCCA’s concert season for the Vernon Morning Star.

Concert Review: Joes Are Way Above Average

March 28, 2015March 28, 2015 by SillyGilly, posted in Review

Cellist Charles Inkman, violinist Cameron Wilson and pianist Allen Stiles, otherwise known as Joe Trio, at the Performing Arts Centre during the North Okanagan Community Concert Association’s Kaleidoscope series. — image credit: Christine Pilgrim

By Christine Pilgrim for the Vernon Morning Star.

No average Joes could captivate equally well with either their quips or the classics.

The musically expert, highly entertaining Joe Trio comprises Cameron Wilson, chief musical arranger and wizard on violin; Allen Stiles, masterful storyteller and maestro on piano; and Charles Inkman, coaxer of music sweet enough to soothe the most savage of beasts, when he’s not creating the roars of said savage beasts or the chirrups of crickets, on cello.

The trio not only carried out its mandate to “unstuff” the classics; it kicked the stuffing clean out of them, describing titles such as Joseph (Joe) Haydn’s Trio in G Major, Hob XV, No 25 as “unimaginative.” Yet their evocative rendition of its second movement, Poco Adagio (a little slowly), moved the audience to a spellbound, reverent silence.

By contrast, the trio irreverently opened their show by saying, “Please remain seated for the national anthem!” They then played their version of O Canada, renamed Joe Canada, inserting cheeky, witty musical references at every opportunity.

These three clowning musicians contorted their generally friendly features into ferocious scowls as they played The Pink Panther theme, Beethoven-style, complete with the wild composer’s “Da da da daaa” opening to his 5th Symphony.

It was the second of the trio’s nine variations on the theme, dubbed “the greatest piece of music ever written.” Others included Pink Panther à la Mozart, Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Presley.

One variation particularly favoured by the audience focused on an intense, existential search for the meaning of life, the universe and everything. It was a gem. So was the Romantic Pukedom variation which overflowed with the flowery gestures its nickname implies.

Speaking of gems, it would be remiss not to mention the first movement of Johannes (Joe) Brahms’s Trio in B Major, Opus 8, accurately described as “long, but good,” as well as Tom Anderson’s profound tribute to his wife, entitled Da Slockit Light (Extinguishing Light).

The varied program culminated in an audience participation version of Dizzy Gillespie’s Salt Peanuts, which drew cries for an encore. The trio obliged and launched, at breakneck speed, into their arrangement of Orange Blossom Special, decorated with segments from Fiddler on the Roof. It earned them a second standing ovation.

The evening’s enjoyment was augmented by the presence onstage of three teenaged guitar students coached by Neil Fraser of the Lent, Fraser, Wall Trio.

Shane Ranger, Emily Ross and Will Friesen entertained and delighted with pieces written by Fats Waller, Django Reinhardt, and “modern day Reinhardt” Stochelo Rosenberg. Each guitarist improvised solos, played bass line and harmonies and deserved the enthusiastic applause afforded them.

NOCCA continues its forward-thinking approach to music-sharing by inviting other young musicians to perform curtain raisers onstage throughout the rest of this Kaleidoscope season. And in 2016, it is investing in a new piano to replace the one that has done such sterling service over so many years.

The next concert in NOCCA’s Kaleidoscope series features the Bergmann Piano Duo at the Performing Arts Centre on Friday, April 24 at 7.30pm.

– Reproduced by kind permission of Christine Pilgrim, a freelance writer who reviews the North Okanagan Community Concert Association season for The Morning Star.

Virtuoso horn player Louis-Philippe Marsolais (left) and North Okanagan Community Concert Association president Paul Maynes

Concert Review: Les Violons Du Roy Play Music Fit For A King

November 26, 2014 by SillyGilly, posted in Review

By CHRISTINE PILGRIM for The Vernon Morning Star.

Les Violons du Roy, its name adapted from that of the string orchestra that played for a 17th century French king, awed Tuesday’s North Okanagan Community Concert Association’s gala audience with music fit for any king, or queen for that matter.

One young man said afterwards, “This review should be easy to write. One word: wow!” That sentiment was confirmed by NOCCA president Paul Maynes, who overheard the same expletive countless times during intermission.

There was no opportunity to speak with OSO conductor Rosemary Thomson or the horn players who had flocked specifically to hear Haydn’s glorious Horn Concerto No 2 in D Major, played mellifluously by Louis-Philippe Marsolais, but judging by their faces after the show, they felt the same way.

The energy of this supremely accomplished ensemble of French Canadian musicians infected the Performing Arts Centre like a fever – a fever that acted as a tonic. Music coursed through every vein, from stage to auditorium. There were even enthusiastic bouts of applause between movements from some who were too carried away to check their program notes.

Conductor Mathieu Lussier’s body language was reminiscent of that of a Martha Graham trained dancer. He was engaged in music-making from the top of his head to the tip of his toes, and the orchestra responded as one body. We could well have been witnessing a ballet. The atmosphere was electric.

The program opened with Haydn’s Horn Concerto. Although this piece was originally written for “natural horn” virtuosos, Marsolais played it on the more modern French horn, which, incidentally, originated in Germany and is not to be confused with the English horn, which is French (loosely quoting the hilarious soprano Anna Russell).

When asked why he didn’t play his baroque horn, Monsieur Marsolais said it was too difficult and dangerous to transport two precious, cumbersome instruments on the company’s current exhaustive tour of Western Canada.

No matter. The notes he produced flowed like chocolate from a fountain and captivated the audience entirely. They say a horn player needs a five-litre lung capacity. Marsolais’s might well have exceeded that!

He also charmed the audience with a second appearance in Schumann’s Adagio and Allegro, Opus 70, which he orchestrated.

Then there was Felix Mendelssohn’s String Symphony No 10 in B Minor. The child prodigy wrote it in May, 1823 when he was 14 and performed its premiere with a string quintet at his parents’ opulent Berlin home.

The energy and precision with which Les Violons du Roy interpreted their arrangement of its only surviving movement, which begins mournfully, continues with a recurring theme and ends in a vibrant climax, wrought spontaneous applause and added to the wonder that a 14 year old could achieve such a degree of excellence.

Franz Schubert’s String Quartet No 14 in D Minor, known as Death and the Maiden, brought the concert to a rapturous close. Violin soloist Pascale Giguere particularly shone, as did leading players on second violin, viola and cello. Arranged by Lussier, who recently took over the reins from ensemble founder and former director Bernard Labadie while he battles ill health, was a coup de gras.

A standing ovation was rewarded by J.S. Bach’s Air on G String, which evoked sighs of recognition from the packed rows of happy music lovers.

Those unfortunate enough to miss the concert might console themselves with one of the 29 CDs made by this fantastic chamber orchestra from Montreal.

– Reproduced by kind permission of Christine Pilgrim and The Vernon Morning Star.

Concert Review: Montréal Musketeers Have Spirit

May 4, 2014May 4, 2014 by SillyGilly, posted in Review

G3 - Montreal Guitare Trio — Glenn Lévesque (left), Marc Morin and Sébastien Dufour relax before their concert at the Vernon Performing Arts Centre.
— image credit: Christine Pilgrim

by Christine Pilgrim – Vernon Morning Star
Published: April 30, 2014

A common spirit connects three French Canadian musical musketeers known on their six CDs as the Montréal Guitare Trio.

The sum of their 30 fingers plucking, strumming, drumming and stroking their guitars, created by luthier Bruno Boutin, amounted to a triumphant close of the North Okanagan Community Concert Association’s diamond jubilee déjà vu series. Their individual names are Sébastien Dufour, Marc Morin and Glenn Lévesque, but they play as one … all for one; one for all!

I confess to a bias in favour of anyone who hails from Montréal. So the mere name, Montréal Guitare Trio (MG3), would swathe these musicians in accolades whether they were brilliant or not.

But brilliant they were; and Friday’s two-hour performance flew as fast as their fingers over the strings and frets. They had the audience on friendly first name terms as soon as they’d ended their perfectly synchronised opening arrangement of Ennio Morricone’s El Paso.

The atmosphere was jovial and the pace upbeat, even when Sébastien (Séb) took time out to untangle Glenn’s mandolin strap from the lead of his new ear pieces which replace regular feedback monitors.

MG3 learned of them from the California Guitar Trio on their recent tour together. These devices, along with touring microphones and their “fourth musketeer,” technician Ian Vadnais, meant that the sound, also enhanced by the Performing Arts Centre’s new system, was superb.

The packed house, apparently NOCCA’s biggest and certainly its broadest for some time, bears witness to MG3’s popularity. Audience and performers fed on each other’s energy and enjoyment until the feast ended in the trio’s spectacular encore arrangement of Morricone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – with Marc on accordion traditionnel, Séb on charango and Glenn on guitar while whistling without moving his lips as everyone followed the passage of an imaginary fly.

The program was perfectly balanced and the program notes provided an amusing opportunity to scan the play list for the running order and find who had written and arranged each item. All three musicians trained in classical music at the Université de Montréal and are as adept at composing and arranging as at performing. Meanwhile, their spontaneous wit knitted the program into an eclectic whole.

Their exquisite new arrangement of George Harrison’s While My Guitar Gently Weeps and their moving tribute to their late friend Nick Naffin, in a lyrical, full-bodied arrangement of his Le Renard, contrasted their passionate, flamboyant flamenco treatment of Luiz Bonfá’s Manha de Carnaval.

Original compositions by Lévesque and Dufour also graced the bill, most dramatically with Breizh Tango and Garam Marsala respectively. In the former, the raw earthiness of Brittany’s gypsies was visceral, as was the sense of the heat, the colours, and taste of the spices of India in the latter; especially when Séb flipped his guitar, laid it horizontally on his knees and drummed it like a tabla while Glenn tightened and loosened a tuning peg on his to make it whine like a sitar.

MG3 is not merely a guitar trio; it is an ensemble of first-rate performers.

These three Montréal musketeers communicate through the pores of their skin, with honesty, humour, integrity and energy from the moment they strut on stage to when they march off, tous pour un; un pour tous.

Christine Pilgrim is a freelance writer who reviews the NOCCA season for The Morning Star.

Reproduced with the kind permission of Christine Pilgrim and

Concert Review: Van Django Concert Adds Some Heat

March 30, 2014May 4, 2014 by SillyGilly, posted in Review

by Christine Pilgrim – Vernon Morning Star
Published: March 26, 2014

Vancouver-based acoustic string quartet Van Django breathed fire into gypsy jazz and left the audience smokin’ at the North Okanagan Community Concert at the Performing Arts Centre.

Named in tribute to guitarist Django Reinhardt, Van Django is Vancouver’s answer to Paris’s Quintette du Hot Club de France, founded by Reinhardt and his equally inspiring violinist partner Stephane Grappelli in the 1930s. Yet the backgrounds of the two ensembles are very different.

Grappelli spent his early years starving in an orphanage and took his first lessons from street musicians, while Van Django’s violinist Cameron Wilson was classically trained and works as much with symphonic music as with jazz.

Django Reinhardt only used his first two fingers to play because his left hand was crippled as a result of the burns he sustained when his gypsy caravan caught fire. The tragic accident that cost him the use of his third and fourth fingers gave birth to a style now emulated by countless guitarists. Yet Van Django’s Budge Schachte’s four fingers danced along the neck of his expressive guitar like a dandy spider on steroids. “I’ve got them, so I might as well use them,” he smiled.

The quartet’s rhythm guitarist Finn Manniche is as accomplished as his counterpart, Reinhardt’s brother Joseph, who would step in for Django when he sometimes didn’t turn up for a gig. But Joseph Reinhardt didn’t compose whimsical waltzes like Finn Manniche’s Waltz in the Shape of a Tree, a tune that could charm the birds off that, or indeed any tree.

The Quintette du Hot Club de France boasted a second rhythm guitarist because Django felt the need for two guitars to back him when he played solo. But Cameron Wilson’s understated, sensitive rhythm accompaniment on violin worked just as well, if not better, for Van Django.

Bassist Brent Gubbels, a younger, leaner counterpart to the Hot Club’s Louis Vola, was the only Van Django member not to have his composition included in Friday’s program. Cameron Wilson’s Tea for Three cheekily juxtaposed the notes of its namesake Tea for Two to witty effect, while Schachte named his snappy Estaban for a man in a black hat selling guitars in a TV commercial.

Speaking of television, Van Django’s arrangement of TV themes such as Spiderman and the Flintstones, interspersed with glimpses of Take Five and I’ve Got Rhythm, tickled our toes and our funny bones. And when they invited us to hum Ode to Joy in their happy jazz tribute to Beethoven, we needed no second asking. We were at our most ecstatic when Van Django played, in every sense, with Beethoven’s 5th and 9th symphonies, along with such classics as Dvorak’s Humoresque, and their encore: Reinhardt’s arrangement of Grieg’s Norwegian Dance No. 2.

Lennon and McCartney would have revelled in their rendition of Norwegian Wood. At moments, the fab four seemed to slip into the skins and spirit of that other Fab Four.

In her review of the group’s 2007 appearance at the PAC, Lisa Talesnick quoted Vernon’s guitar maestro Neil Fraser, whom the North Okanagan Community Concert Association invited, along with several of his students, to sit in the front row once more.

So it seemed appropriate to leave the last word to him.

“I love it,” he said, “The gypsy rhythm is so infectious and direct that it gets to you right away.” I agree. Here’s to Van Django getting to us again and again!

The next NOCCA concert is with the Montreal Guitar Trio, Friday April 25th at 7:30pm. Tickets are available at the Ticket Seller in the Performing Arts Centre or ticketseller.ca.

Reproduced with the kind permission of Christine Pilgrim and

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: