Oxford chamber music festival 2023

Freigeist

‘...a world-class gathering by any standards’

Time Out

‘a musical miracle’

The Daily Telegraph

we are proud in helping the OCMF magic to materialise! Robin Swailes Design and Development

Freigeist - a state of being and a free spirit - source of all great art and the life blood of creativity!

We celebrate the geniuses who wrote and lived with FREIGEIST as their credo and gave us all the extraordinary music we will share with you. From the several meanings of the German term “Freigeist” our chosen interpretation is the simplest: the free spirit and romantic manifestation of all that is creatively unfettered, the opposite of material and manipulated. As we emerge from the curbs and restraints of the last few years we all long to express our humanity and connectedness. What more inspiring pathways to this than the compositions of pioneering minds and spirits like Mozart and Stravinsky?

Join us this October to experience the unique OCMF atmosphere in historic venues in Oxford. We very much look forward to warmly welcoming you at the concerts!

Priya Mitchell

© Stefan Bremer, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival

OCMF Artists

Violins

Tetiana Lutsyk

Priya Mitchell

Viola

Sascha Bota

Cello

Julian Arp

Claude Frochaux

Double bass

Misha Mullov-Abbado

Jordi Carrasco Hjelm

Piano

Polina Leschenko

Heini Kärkkäinen

Julius Drake

Clarinet

Reto Bieri

Mezzo Soprano

Dorottya Láng

Singer / violin

Alice Zawadzki

Readings

Sally Bayley

Just as the moon influences the tides, it has long been blamed for wayward human behaviour, especially in love. Our opening concert this year reaches for the moon in glorious songs by Schumann and Schubert, thinking of distant lovers;

Fauré and Reynaldo Hahn evoking the same exquisite moonlit wood; Henry Mancini‘s ‘dream maker and heart breaker’; and Fauré again, observing human fickleness under the light of the moon. The songs are framed by Pärt‘s meditation on the famous Moonlight sonata; Debussy‘s unforgettable translation of moonlight (‘clair de lune’) into sound; and Chopin‘s ultimate romantic nocturne.

de Lune

WEDNESDAY 4th OCT

Holywell Music Room | 8pm

this concert is generously sponsored by Robin Swailes

Arvo Pärt Spiegel im Spiegel

Reto Bieri clarinet | Heini Kärkkäinen piano

Franz Schubert An den Mond D.193

Robert Schumann Mondnacht

Gabriel Faure ‘Clair de Lune’

Dorottya Láng | Julius Drake

Claude Debussy ‘Clair de lune’

Priya Mitchell | Heini Kärkkäinen

Gabriel Fauré

‘La lune blanche luit dans les bois’ from La bonne chanson

Dorottya Láng | Julius Drake | Priya Mitchell | Tetiana Lutsyk

Sascha Bota | Claude Frochaux

Reynaldo Hahn L’heure exquise

Dorottya Láng | Julius Drake

Henry Mancini Moon River arr. voice and strings

Dorottya Láng | Festival strings

Interval

Frédéric Chopin Piano concerto no.2 in f minor op.21 arr. for piano solo and chamber ensemble

I – Maestoso • II – Larghetto • III – Allegro vivace

Polina Leschenko | Priya Mitchell | Tetiana Lutsyk | Sascha Bota

Julian Arp | Reto Bieri | Jordi Carrasco Hjelm

The

THURSDAY 5th OCT

Holywell Music Room | 1pm

Vivaldi‘s scorching treatment of an eighteenth-century ‘standard ’ – La Folia – is the baroque equivalent of hot jazz, and Piazzolla‘s devilish and angelic tangos are marinated in the same fiery spirit. In between we have the subtle, complex jazz style of Gershwin (including the immortal Summertime) and Stravinsky‘s dry, ironic tale of a poor fiddle-playing soldier‘s temptation by a very suave devil. Wealth untold! A princess bride! – if you give me your violin... It would be madness to resist!

Antonio Vivaldi Variations on La folia (the madness) in d minor (Trio sonata op1/12)

Priya Mitchell | Tetiana Lutsyk | Claude Frochaux

Igor Stravinsky Suite from The soldier‘s tale for clarinet, violin and piano

1 The soldier‘s march • 2 The soldier‘s violin • 3 Little concert

4 Tango–Waltz–Rag • 5 The devil‘s dance

Tetiana Lutsyk | Heini Kärkkäinen | Reto Bieri

Morton Gould from Benny‘s gig, for clarinet and double bass

1 Slow and nostalgic • 2 Brisk, with drive • 8 Jaunty

Reto Bieri | Jordi Carrasco Hjelm

George Gershwin songs

But not for me • The man I love • Summertime

Dorottya Láng | Heini Kärkkäinen

Astor Piazzolla Three pieces

Ave Maria Tanti anni prima (Many years earlier)

Claude Frochaux | Heini Kärkkäinen

Romance del diablo (Ballad of the devil)

Priya Mitchell | Heini Kärkkäinen | Jordi Carrasco Hjelm

Muerte del ángel (Death of the angel)

Priya Mitchell | Claude Frochaux | Heini Kärkkäinen

Songs of

THURSDAY 5th OCT

Holywell Music Room | 7.30pm

In memory of dear friends and generous supporters of the festival Sir Oliver and Lady Phoebe Scott

Sephardic and Mediterranean songs for voice, violin and bass

Alice Zawadzki and Misha Mullov-Abaddo

Interval

Antonín Dvořák Piano quintet in A major, op.81

I – Allegro ma non tanto

II – Dumka. Andante con moto

III Scherzo (Furiant). Molto vivace –poco tranquillo

IV – Finale. Allegro

Polina Leschenko | Priya Mitchell

Tetiana Lutsyk | Sascha Bota

Claude Frochaux

Alice Zawadzki is a vocalist, violinist, songwriter and composer loosely connected to the jazz scene but described as “a genuine original” by The Guardian. With bassist, improviser and composer Misha Mullov-Abbado she has recorded her latest album for new-music label ECM, and here they explore Sephardic and Mediterranean songs of freedom. Dvořák‘s exuberant piano quintet, filled with life and colour, centres on a gorgeous dumka – a form based on the epic ballads written to demand national freedom for nineteenth-century Ukraine.

FRIDAY 6th OCTOBER SJE | 1pm

Gypsy heart

Impulsive, flamboyant and soulful, Gypsy music and musicians have been the toast of central Europe for centuries. So addictive was their style that Haydn could not resist putting a gypsy rondo into an otherwise delicate piano trio. Later, Dvořák‘s Gypsy songs – including Songs my mother taught me –passionately declared both freedom and music to be basic human needs. In between, Brahms – who soaked up the music from his friend the gypsy violinist Remenyi – had worldwide hits with his Hungarian Dances, and took the style to incandescent heights in the wild finale of his piano quartet.

Joseph Haydn Rondo all‘ongarese from Piano trio no.37 in G major Heini Kärkkäinen | Tetiana Lutsyk | Claude Frochaux

Johannes Brahms Hungarian Dances no.s 1, 17, and 5 in the original versions for piano four hands, and as arranged for violin and piano by Joseph Joachim

Priya Mitchell | Tetiana Lutsyk | Heini Kärkkäinen | Julius Drake

Reto Bieri | Jordi Carrasco Hjelm

Antonín Dvořák Gypsy songs op. 55

1 My song sounds of love

4 Songs my mother taught me

5 The string is tuned

Dorottya Láng | Julius Drake

Johannes Brahms Piano quartet in g minor, op25

I – Allegro

II – Intermezzo: allegro

III – Andante con moto

IV – Rondo alla zingarese

Heini Kärkkäinen | Tetiana Lutsyk

Sascha Bota | Julian Arp

Dem

Three extraordinary soundworlds collide. Schnittke‘s sonata (presented again by popular demand after July‘s launch concert) mixes deep mystery, madcap energy, brutality and beauty (and even a touch of boogie-woogie?); the Arensky, with its rich two-cello sound and its justly-famous variations on a Tchaikovsky tune, enters the incenseladen Orthodox church with its mystical chants; while Messiaen‘s Quartet, written in the hell of a Nazi prison camp, truly is the music of divine revelations.

PonicAngelic rophetic

FRIDAY 6th OCTOBER SJE | 6.45pm

this concert is generously sponsored by James Malcomson

Alfred Schnittke Violin sonata no.1

I – Andante

II– Allegretto leading to III – Largo

IV – Allegretto

Priya Mitchell | Polina Leschenko

Anton Arensky Quartet in A minor for violin, viola and two cellos, op35

I – Moderato

II – Variations on a theme by Tchaikovsky

III – Finale: Andante sostenuto – Allegro moderato

Priya Mitchell | Sascha Bota | Julian Arp | Claude Frochaux

Interval

Olivier Messiaen from Quartet for the end of time extracts with readings from TS Eliot read by writer Sally Bayley

III. Abîme des oiseaux (Abyss of the birds)

V. Louange à l‘éternité de Jésus (Praise to the eternal Jesus)

VI. Danse de la fureur, pour les sept trompettes (Dance of fury, for the seven trumpets)

VIII. Louange à l‘immortalité de Jésus (Praise to the immortality of Jesus)

Tetiana Lutsyk | Reto Bieri | Julian Arp | Julius Drake

FRIDAY 6th OCTOBER

Convocation House, Bodleian Library | 9.30pm

Six rare spirits join us tonight in the seventeenthcentury inner sanctum of Oxford University. Two are dedicatees of these pieces – Mozart‘s incomparable clarinettist Anton Stadler, and the musical philosopher (and mushroom expert) John Cage. Our 2017 composer-in-residence, the celebrated Latvian Pēteris Vasks, has written that very rare thing: a great double-bass solo. Kurtág‘s supremely distilled music is unlike anyone else‘s; Berio wrote much of the most vivid, original, yet approachable music of the late twentieth century. And for emotional insight and intensity, Mozart‘s quintet has few peers in any century.

Pēteris Vasks (*1946) Bass Trip

Jordi Carrasco Hjelm

György Kurtág (*1926) Hommage à John Cage

Sascha Bota

György Kurtág In memoriam Györgyi Kroó

Julian Arp

Luciano Berio Lied

Reto Bieri

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Clarinet quintet in A major, K581

I – Allegro

II – Larghetto

III – Menuetto – Trios 1 & 2

IV – Allegretto con variazione

Reto Bieri | Priya Mitchell | Tetiana Lutsyk

Sascha Bota | Julian Arp

FreeSpirits

Whether or not Wagner and Mathilde Wesendonck had an affair under the noses of their respective spouses, there was certainly a raging mutual attraction. The songs he made from her poems led directly to the explosive passion of his masterpiece, Tristan and Isolde. Around the songs, we hear two more utterly unmistakeable voices: Poulenc, in his moving and dazzling tribute to fellow-composer Honegger; and Rachmaninov, in the epic cello sonata he wrote immediately after his second piano concerto conquered the world.

SATURDAY

Holywell Music Room

1pm

The Power of Love

Francis Poulenc Sonata for clarinet and piano, FP184

I – Allegro tristamente (Allegretto –

Très calme – Tempo allegretto)

II – Romanza (Très calme)

III – Allegro con fuoco (Très animé)

Reto Bieri | Polina Leschenko

Richard Wagner Five poems for a female voice WWV91, arr. for voice and piano trio

1 – The Angel • 2 – Be still!

3 – In the greenhouse • 4 – Sorrows

5 – Dreams

Dorottya Lang | Julius Drake

Priya Mitchell | Claude Frochaux

Sergei Rachmaninov Sonata in g minor for cello and piano, op19

I – Lento – Allegro moderato

II – Allegro scherzando

III – Andante IV – Allegro mosso

Heini Kärkkäinen | Julian Arp

Untamed

SATURDAY 7th OCT Holywell Music Room | 7.30pm

To close our festival, here are startlingly vivid fantasies by three of the great romantics. Schumann‘s mercurial clarinet pieces swerve between melancholy, optimistic playfulness, and almost frenzied passion, ending in triumph. Beethoven‘s extraordinary ‘Ghost’ slow movement evokes the chilly horror of Macbeth‘s meeting with the witches; and the fourteen-yearold genius, Mendelssohn, mashes together Baroque habits, Beethoven‘s structure, and tender Romantic feeling to produce something exhilaratingly new.

Robert Schumann Fantasy pieces for clarinet and piano, op73

I. Tender and expressive

II. Lively, light

III-Quick and fiery

Reto Bieri | Polina Leschenko

Ludwig van Beethoven Piano trio in D major, op70/1 – ‘Ghost’

I. Allegro vivace e con brio

II. Largo assai ed espressivo

III. Presto

Heini Kärkkäinen | Tetiana Lutsyk | Claude Frochaux

Interval

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

Concerto for piano, violin and strings in D minor, arr. for chamber ensemble

I – Allegro • II – Andante • III – Allegro molto

Priya Mitchell | Polina Leschenko

Tetiana Lutsyk | Sascha Bota | Claude Frochaux

Jordi Carrasco Hjelm

OCMF 2023 TEAM

Louise Hughes - Festival Manager

Jackie Holderness - Front of House & Promotion Manager

Satu Hoogeveen - Executive Producer & Artist Liaison

Dora Rakar - Stage & Artist Manager

Graham Topping - Programme notes

Barbara Abraham - Catering Manager

Trustees

Robert Warner, Nicky Brown, Kalwant Gill, Clare Harbord

Warmest thanks to Festival Angel and designer Hanne Abendroth who created this beautiful programme and the multi talented Julian Arp for his inspiring photos that he kindly allowed us to use.

Huge thanks and gratitude also go to those who have hosted artists and team members this year, as well as many supporters who have volunteered to be a part of our team.

Thank you to Will Pouget and The Vaults and Garden Cafe for many years of fantastic partnership and support.