Vetta Chamber Music launches 2022-23 season with a concert dedicated to that which ignites a creative spark
Inspiration features a performance by Jane Coop and a composition by Marcus Goddard, two Vancouver-based artists of international acclaim
Jane Coop.
Vetta Chamber Music presents Concert 1: Inspiration on October 14 at 2 pm at West Point Grey United Church, October 15 at 7:30 pm at West Vancouver United Church, October 16 at 2 pm at Pyatt Hall, and October 17 at 7:30 pm at ArtSpring on Salt Spring Island
NO MATTER THE genre, artists often get asked where they draw inspiration from. Perhaps it’s nature, a fever dream, travel, falling in love, or any other life experience. For Vetta Chamber Music’s 2022-23 season-opening concert, the through line for what ignites that creative spark is art itself.
Called Inspiration, the mixed program consists of four distinct works and features acclaimed Vancouver pianist Jane Coop alongside Joan Blackman and David Gillham on violin, David Harding on viola, and Zoltan Rozsnyai on cello as well as a piece by local composer Marcus Goddard.
“This concert is based on works that have been inspired by other artists–not necessarily musicians,” says Blackman, Vetta’s artistic director, in a phone interview with Stir. “And Jane Coop is such an inspiration as well, and that helps tie the program together.”
An internationally respected trumpet player (and associate principal trumpet with Vancouver Symphony Orchestra), Goddard has a catalogue of more than 50 compositions, including 10 pieces for large orchestra, several chamber works, and works for solo instruments and electronics. Vetta will perform Goddard’s Three Wings, which was inspired by O Virtus Sapientiae by Hildegard von Bingen. The German mystic was one of the few prominent women in medieval church history; Pope Benedict XVI declared her a saint in 2012. (Vetta will perform the overture from O Virtus Sapientiae.)
Cellist Ariel Barnes, artistic director of the Archytas Ensemble, which released a 2019 recording of Three Wings, describes Goddard’s music as having “a way of connecting with and expressing the essence of the elemental forces of nature. He manifests in sound a sense of the inevitable; of what was, what is, and what shall be, with a deep emotional connection to the wonders of existence.”
Also on the program is Janáček’s String Quartet No. 1 "Kreutzer Sonata". Janáček was inspired by Leo Tolstoy’s tragic novella “Kreutzer Sonata”, which is about a man who murders his pianist wife, whom he’s convinced is having an affair with a violinist. Tolstoy named his novella after Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 9, dedicated to Rudolph Kreutzer, a revered violinist of the era. The woman in the story and her alleged lover play Beethoven’s sonata together at a key plot point, and Janáček’s music has been called a “wordless opera” for the way it so conveys the characters’ emotions and torment so acutely. “It tells the story in musical terms in his very, very unique language,” Blackman says. “He was also inspired by the very dark beauty of Romanticism.”
The concert also features Brahms’s Piano Quintet in F minor, Opus 34, a masterwork that, Blackman says, gives Coop a chance to shine. The Juno-nominated pianist, a member of the Order of B.C. and Order of Canada, is a Steinway artist who has performed all over the world.
Joan Blackman.
Vetta’s 2022-23 season marks an expansion of its performance reach; in addition to offering concerts in Vancouver and on Salt Spring Island, the ensemble will appear on the North Shore. Plus, each concert will be recorded at Pyatt Hall and available to watch for free via Vetta’s website.
Also on the roster for the upcoming season are Concert 2: Bach and Mendelssohn in December, with Vetta’s all-woman ensemble, back by popular demand, in the spirit of mentorship; Concert 3: Romanticism Unleashed in January with Barcelona violinist Kai Gleusteen and pianist Catherine Ordronneau; and Concert 4: Joan and Joe in March (with Joe Trio, featuring Cameron Wilson, violin/arranger; Charles Inkman, cello; and Allen Stiles, piano).
After the drawn-out effects of the pandemic on live shows, Blackman says the musicians can’t wait for what’s ahead—not only for the opportunity to play works that they love; part of Vetta’s approach is to share conversations with artists on-stage and to continue those discussions with audiences post-show.
“Our performances are really intimate and friendly,” Blackman says. “We like our audience to feel like they can come and talk to us afterward. That was always important even before COVID and now even more so; we need the audience and we need the audience to be moved. We are moved by the music, and we want to have them talking to us about how they experienced that music. Even if somebody didn’t like a piece—I want to hear that too.
“It is a conversation between the audience and the musicians,” she adds. “And that conversation is so important.”
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