Langvad Chamber Music Jamboree
Langvad Chamber Music Jamboree 2009
Concerts July 28th and 30th, August 1st and 2nd
For more on the event please visit langvadchambermusic.com
This year’s Langvad Chamber Music Jamboree will be an exciting one. We might call it “Vibrations from the past”, or some such earnest title, as all the repertoire, in differing ways, reflects the filtering down the centuries of our heritage of folk song and dance. 21st century Northern Europe is no longer the most fertile ground for folk music in its raw state, but Langvad will prove very fertile ground for an adventure in its re-discovery and influences.
Our resident composers this year are the American Paul Schwartz and last year’s sensation Marius Ungureanu.
While Marius’s piece will again feature elements of music-theatre, Paul’s ‘cello quintet pays homage only in its instrumentation to Schubert’s masterpiece. He calls it “Midsummer Dances” and says of the new work “The title comes from pre-Christian fertility rituals and in particular the fire-holidays in Northern Europe. In Denmark it’s the night before Summer Solstice, St. Johns Day. No human sacrifice as in SACRE, it's more about sexuality and purification...”
Along with the heavenly Schubert Quintet our encounters with mainstream repertoire are Schumann’s exuberant and ever fresh Piano Quartet and Piano Quintet along with the latter’s titanic successor from Brahms. But this year I felt brave enough to have a definite English angle and we’ll hear works by Vaughan Williams, Walton and the lesser known Frank Bridge.
The Jamboree’s opening concert on Tuesday July 28th will fittingly kick-off with a Danish premiere, the late Kenneth Leighton’s Fantasy Octet – itself a powerful homage to Percy Grainger and his pioneering work on English folksong.
Further concerts, all at the wonderful new concert hall, will be on Thursday 30th July, Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd August.