A New Musical Season !
Dear Readers,
I guess it’s time for a new Diary post. The past months were filled up with chamber music sessions, masterclasses, rehearsals, teaching, traveling, concerts, my sister’s wedding and even a few weeks break !!
I started the 2013-2014 musical season with a brand-new class at the University of Montreal, including some wonderful, passionate and talented students. They all work admirably well, which is very gratifying as a teacher !
I opened my concerts season with Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor as guest soloist with the Drummondville Symphony, Canada, under conductor Pierre Simard on October 3, 2013. This concerto always had a special place in my life. Since my childood, my parents were listening to Jascha Heifetz’s recording, and I used to sing the first phrase of the concerto all the time. I first performed the concerto at age 13 when I was in Vilna, Lithuania. I was participating in a summer masterclass program directed by David Oistrakh’s former students such as Igor Oistrakh, Viktor Pikayzen, Khalida Akhtiamova. It was an honour to play for these artists and perform this concerto for them, knowing that they grew in the 20th century Golden Age of violinists… Since then, I played the concerto many times, including two performances as guest soloist with the Basel Symphony, Switzerland, under conductor Pavel Kogan, himself a violinist and son of two great Russian violinists, Leonid Kogan and Elizabeth Gilels (pianist Emil Gilels’ sister). I was then 15 years old and the experience of those two concerts is still an unforgettable one…
The second movement of Prokofiev’s G minor Violin Concerto is certainly one of the most gorgeous pieces written for the violin !!
Three weeks later started the violin and cello concerts project in Toronto, Ontario. Cellist Elizabeth Dolin and myself are regularly performing together since a few years in different chamber music ensembles. This year, we decided to work on a new project involving only violin and cello works. Aside from the famous Brahms Double Concerto, the unaccompanied repertoire for those two instruments is unfortunately limited, but there are two outstanding (and very difficult and challenging !) duos ; the Duo by Zoltán Kodály inspired by Hungarian gypsy music, and the transparent Sonata by Maurice Ravel ! Both works were written around World War I (1914 & 1920-22), and the duos are characterized by interesting sound effects, including pizzicati, harmonics, varied bowings etc. Two J.-S. Bach’s works are completing this program : the Suite No. 1 for Solo Cello performed by Elizabeth, and I’m playing the Chaconne in D minor for Solo Violin. This program was very well-received by our public in Ontario, Canada.
We gave three performances in a period of four days in Toronto. The first concert took place at the University of Guelph. We were exhausted but also very excited with this artistic challenge of concentration, reflexes and attention !! Other concerts might take place in British Columbia next season. In the meantime, other performances of this program will be presented in Montreal this season, including a concert on December 1st, 2013 at the Montreal Conservatory of Music and Dramatic Arts (please, see my website Events calendar for more details).
Last Thursday, on November 7th 2013, I fulfilled a dream that had been accompanying me for a long time : playing Tchaikovsky’s gorgeous sextet “Souvenir de Florence”. This event was the opening concert of a brand-new concert series in Montreal created by talented young cellist, Eli Weinberger. The members of the sextet were myself and Ewald Cheung, violin – Lambert Chen and Scott Chancey, viola – Elizabeth Dolin and Eli Weinberger, cello. The concert took place at Pollack Hall, McGill University. This hall has excellent acoustics, although we had some scary moments during the general rehearsal in the afternoon. We couldn’t hear each other on stage due to some time delays in the sound caused by an empty hall… But all went beautifully in the evening. We were welcomed on stage by a warm and an enthusiastic public !
A new recording project is scheduled for next year. The project is still young, but the current developments seem to be interesting and inspiring ! More details to come.
I would like to thank some of the young violinists and music lovers for sending me their violin questions. It’s been a very busy period, but I’ll try to answer some of your questions ASAP. I’ll be posting in my Diary !
Meanwhile, many thanks for your great support, your kind messages and for attending performances !
Hope you all had a great Halloween 🙂
Until next time,
Laurence
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