Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
Press Acclaim
Selected Press Review Excerpts
"'Forever .. forever .. forever ..'Those repeated words culminate Gustav Mahler's extraordinary meditation on life and death and eternal renewal, 'Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth).'Susan Graham, one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of our time, rendered them with floating grace and delicate intensity, conveying the full power of one of the more transcendent moments in all of classical music. It was a memorable conclusion Sunday evening to the first of two perfor-mances of "Das Lied" before a packed audience at the St. Francis Auditorium — a high point of this summer's Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. ... She has long been recognized for her sophistication, elegance and impeccable technique. At age 50, Graham is in her absolute prime as a singer — her tawny mezzo-soprano having attained a mature richness of depth and dimension. Though clearly the center of attention, she was hardly the only one on stage. Paired with her was another fine singer, tenor Paul Groves. He more than held his own in three of the songs, wonderfully animating 'Der Trunkene im Frühling (The Drunkard in Spring)'. 'Das Lied' was originally written for two voices and orchestra. But for this concert, the work was performed in a little-known reduced arrangement, conceived in 1921 by famed composer Arnold Schoenberg. ...Under the vibrant baton of conductor David Zinman, who resigned as music director of the Aspen Music Festival shortly before its summer season was set to begin, the first-rate ensemble assembled for these concerts performed with commendable brio. Deserving special note was the impassioned playing of pianist Jeremy Denk, an internationally known soloist, and violinist William Preucil, concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra. The level of talent assembled for these performances of "Das Lied" would have been impressive for any series in the world, and the obviously ambitious Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival deserves kudos for pulling it off."
Denver Post 2010
"One of the great strengths of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival is its inclusion of many worthy works rarely heard in concert."
Albuquerque Journal 2010
"Among more than 40 concerts this summer, the festival is offering premieres of three commissioned works: a quintet for horn and strings by Gunther Schuller, George Tsontakis’s 'Stimulus Package' for cello, piano and percussion and Mark-Anthony Turnage’s 'Grazioso!,' which is to be played later this week by eighth blackbird. …I attended midday and evening concerts on Aug. 6, and, while neither offered any of those new works, both were a testament to the imaginative programming and stellar roster of performers one has come to expect from this annual event. At noon, Tara Helen O’Connor, flute, Ricardo Morales, clarinet, and Milan Turkovic, bassoon, were joined by New York Philharmonic first chair players Liang Wang on oboe and Philip Myers on horn for an interpretation of Carl Nielsen’s Wind Quintet, Op. 43, that nicely projected the appeal of this pleasant, stylistically diverse work. …Oboist Wang returned to lead off the evening concert with two ambitiously programmatic works by Benjamin Britten, 'Six Metamorphoses after Ovid,' Op. 49, and 'Two Insect Pieces' (1935). It’s pretty clear what Britten is driving at in the second work, which found Wang paired with Neikrug at the piano: a two-note hopping figure described a grasshopper’s ambulatory progress and scurrying trills and runs the more aggressive wasp. The micro-portraits of six mythological characters in the Metamorphoses are considerably less obvious, but Wang played with such nuance and impressive breath control that listening to them as pure music was rewarding enough. …And finally, early 19th-century composer Ludwig Spohr had a moment in the sun with a captivating performance of his Nonet in F major, Op. 31, in which wind players O’Connor, Wang, Morales, Turkovic and Myers were joined by NY Phil Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow on violin, along with Teng Li, viola, Nicholas Canellakis, cello and Marji Danilow, double bass."
MusicalAmerica.com 2009
"Pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin's Aug. 18 noontime recital for the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival was a blend of exceptional musicality, astute taste, and staggering technique.... ...a transcendent reading of Berg's potent Piano Sonata, Op. 1 that was an ideal fusion of piece and performer. Hamelin's spare use of pedal and smooth fingering kept the ever-changing harmonic sequences moving without blurring, and he demonstrated, as he did throughout the recital - an amazing command of dynamic range at every tempo and through every kind of touch, from legato to staccato and beyond. ...The concert ended with French composer Charles-Valentin Alkan's Symphony for Solo Piano, from his set of 12 etudes in all the minor keys. Alkan, a mystic and a recluse for most of his life, possessed an uncanny ability on the piano, pedal piano and organ, and this symphony is not only phenomenally hard, but absurdly so. It seems designed to test the limits of human bone, sinew, flesh and brain. Yet under Hamelin's hands, the four movements never became an exercise in showmanship for its own sake but a case of dexterity at the service of art."
The New Mexican 2009
"[Inon] Barnatan moved from fantasy to nobility for Schubert's big-scaled Sonata No. 21 in B-flat Major, giving us a performance full of light and shade as well as majesty. He quite rightly played as if he were invoking voices rather than hammers striking strings, so that even in the scampering Scherzo and the Preso finale, lyricism was key. This was a recital and a performer to remember - and to keep a keen eye out for."
Pasatiempo 2009
"The July 26 concert offered the premiere of Gunther Schuller's Quintet for Horn and Strings. He wrote it for the superb Julie Landsman, a longtime CMF artist and principal French horn of the Metropolitan Opera orchestra. The Miro Quartet collaborated - violinist Daniel Ching, violist John Largess, cellist Joshua Gindele, and filling in for Sandy Yamamoto, Tereza Stanislav as second violinist. Schuller, 83, is an elder statesman of classical music and even more so of jazz. He's also a horn player, so Landsman's part was cleverly and deftly written. It gave her plenty of chances to rummage in the hornist's box of tricks, which she did with luminous tone and deft use of fingers, lips, and breath support. The Miro wove their angular lines tightly around Landsman's, with nice attention to dynamic balances. The Quintet is written in Schuller's aggressively intellectual style; it's fun to figure out..." The New Mexican 2009"...the program centered on [Kuok-Wai] Lio's performance of two works: Schubert's 'Impromptu in F Minor, D. 935' and Sergei Rachmaninoff's arrangement of that swell Fritz Kreisler bibelot, 'Liebesleid.' A friend wondered how such a youthful artist could convey the depth and richness of the Schubert. Believe it, Lio could and did. His reading of this probing, multifaceted work was marked by lucid maturity and extraoridinary unmannered refinement. The 'Liebesleid,'an insouciant salon showpiece, gave Lio a chance to demonstrate technical dexterity (lots of notes!) and more importantly, effervescent with that transcended pianistic display."
Santa Fe Reporter 2009
"a one-of-a-kind event that is not to be missed."
IntervalWorld.com 2009
"Actress Claire Bloom, celebrated for her many fine roles onstage and on the screen, was the fluent, poised and engaging narrator in both works [Debussy's Chansons de Bilitis and Caplet's Conte fantastique]. Sitting with eyes shut and ears open, I understood every word of the 12 poems in the Debussy, which she recited in an uncredited English translation. The flute, harp and celesta lines - performed by Tara Helen O'Connor and Bart Feller, June Han and Giuseppina Ciarla, and festival artisic director Marc Neikrug, respectively - sometimes bracketed her words, sometimes supported them, and always conveyed a vivid sonic sense of the poems' colorful language. ...Violinist Soovin Kim and cellist Peter Stumpf from the Johannes, along with pianist Shai Wosner, delivered a soul-soothing yet incandescent reading of Brahms' great Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major. They were a superb team. ...This was chamber music at its most heartening."
The New Mexican 2009
"The five-week Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, now in its 36th summer season, is fortunate to have St. Francis Auditorium as its principal setting. The attractive and acoustically vibrant hall is part of the New Mexico Museum of Art, located just off the tree-filled main plaza in the center of this pleasant city of adobe charm and aggressive tourism. ...The festival, which this summer offers 39 concerts of 100 works, including premiers, rarities, and favorites, also presents some programs in the city's 821-seat Lensic Performing Arts Center, an elaborately decrated vaudeville house from 1931, renovated in the late 1990's. While here, I caught two concerts at St. Francis Autitorium: an appealing Schumann program on Thursday at noon and a fascinating contemporary-music program featuring Anssi Karttunen, a brilliant Finnish cellist, early on Friday evening. ...The noontime series, with concerts lasting about an hour, is popular with tourists. And most evening concerts begin at 6, leaving plenty of time for a postperformance dinner and enabling voracious classical music buffs (and critics) to drive the few miles north to the Santa Fe Opera in time for a production. Accompanied by the pianist Jon Kumura Parker, Mr. Ulffers opened the Schumann program with the Adagio and Allegro in A flat. The piece begins with the instruments conversationally trading the phrases of an amiable melogy, then segues into a rousing main section. Though a few of the virtuoso flourishes for horn gave Mr. Ulffers a little trouble, he played over all with vitality and character. Mr. Parker played beautifully for Cythial Phelps, the superb principal violist of the New York Philharmonic, in "Marchenbilder," a suite of four moody, fanciful pieces from Schumann's curious late period. Ms. Phelps brought lyrical nobility and lush tone to the melancholic final piece. ...Mr. Karttunen's concert on Friday offered diverse contemporary works for solo cello, with a few short exceptions: three tango-tinged pieces for three cellos by the Argentine composer Pablo Ortiz. Mr. Karttunen began with a recent solo work by Mr. Ortiz, "Manzi," quirky music with pungent harmony and Baroquelike passages that surely pay homage to Bach. Luigi Dallapiccola's arresting "Ciaconna, Intermezzo e Adagio" (1946), for, cello solo, is the kind of visceral music that may cause listeneers who fear the term "12 tone" to have an epiphany. Berio's "Sequenza XIV" (2002) ingeniously explores the sound possibilities of the cello, including long stretches in which, by tapping on the body of the instrument and rapping the strings, the cellist evokes Sri Lankan drum rythms. Mr. Karttunen played both works commandingly. The Finnish composer Kaijia Saariaho, whose "Adriana Mater" is receiving its American premiere production at the Santa Fe Opera this summer, was in attendance for Mr. Karttenen's performance of her "Sept Papillons" ("Seven Butterflies"), from 2000, a suite of short (roughly a minute each), capricious, vividly colorful fantasy pieces in the spirit of Schumann. Each explores a different cello technique or muscial element, like fluttering rhythmic riffs or eerie, thin tunes hovering over weird pedal tones."
The New York Times August 2008
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