The New & Familiar come together this Festival

For the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Artistic Director Barry Shiffman always makes a point to mix things up programmatically. Yet he also puts great emphasis on developing a broad range generationally, bringing today’s brightest young ascendant stars together with those firmly entrenched at the top of their careers.  A note from Barry Shiffman on the Festival,

“It is always a time of incredible anticipation as we approach the beginning of the festival. I am so excited to finally get to share the concerts with our Rockport Festival family. We have a sensational line up of artists this summer, and all share a genuine love of sharing and connecting with audiences. Can’t wait!!!”

In Barry’s role as Executive Director of the Banff International String Quartet Competition, he gets to hear the world’s greatest emerging quartets perform and compete at the start of their blossoming professional life.  Lucky for us, he then presents these top winners in Rockport so you can hear why these quartets are taking the world by storm. This past year’s Top Prize Winners, the Isidore Quartet, bring a thrilling program on July 1 in a concert which includes Brahms’s beloved Quintet in F minor, as well as works by Benjamin Britten and contemporary composer Dinuk Wijeratne, who wrote his piece for the 2022 Banff Competition (see video). The composition is full of fun and whimsy, inspired by the real-life theft of the Mona Lisa.

The Balourdet Quartet, makes their Rockport debut in June and will present two concerts—one with Marc-André Hamelin and the other as part of the J.S. Bach/Arvo Pärt concert. With Hamelin, the Balourdet perform Franck’s Piano Quintet as well as Mendelssohn’s String Quartet, Op. 44. Winners of the Concert Artists Guild 2021 Competition and 2020 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the Balourdet is currently serving as Professional Quartet-in-Residence at New England Conservatory.

Connecting with other festival artists is important aspect of the festival programming. The Bach/Pärt concert has the Balourdet joining the incredible soloists–violinists Livia Sohn and Kerson Leung–along with New York Philharmonic oboist Ryan Roberts. This program shares Bach’s double concerto for oboe and violin, but it culminates with Pärt’s moving Tabula Rasa for two violins and chamber orchestra.  The versatile Balourdet Quartet will leave Rockport with a range of artistic experiences.

Opening weekend revels in blending the new with the familiar, kicking off with Festival favorites (and 2013 Banff Competition Winners), the Dover Quartet. The Dover, who will be introducing violist Julianne Lee, is joined by two Festival newcomers— 2023 Sphinx Competition winner violinist Njioma Grevious and violinist Andrew Wan, the concertmaster of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal.

Despite still being in his 20’s, the astounding Deutsche Grammophon pianist Jan Lisiecki (who performs on June 10) will already be quite familiar to audiences. The former child prodigy returns to Rockport for the first time since 2021 and will perform a much-anticipated program of Chopin’s Études and Nocturnes. Another beloved returnee this summer is acclaimed pianist Gilles Vonsattel who comes back to Rockport for an evening of Schumann and Schubert, including the latter’s celebrated Trout Quintet.

It’s been a long six years since the great Escher Quartet performed at the Festival, so this summer we are treated to two nights—the first being a program of Mozart, Bartók and Dvorák’s gorgeous Quartet, Op. 61. They then join with the revolutionary harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani in a mostly Bach program, but also featuring the world premiere performance of RCMF composer-in-residence Mark Applebaum’s new work October, 1582. The piece is an intriguing work about the ten days lost when switching from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. Here’s the composer talking about his inspiration:

The Julian Calendar was getting farther and farther afield from astronomical reality. This problem—the incorrect length of the solar year—was known for centuries. Finally, in October, 1582, the Gregorian Calendar—the one we still use today—was implemented. To bring it into astronomical alignment, ten days had to be eliminated all at once. Folks went to sleep on October 4 and woke up on October 15. No harpsichord playing (or butterfly wing flapping) happened during October 5-14 because October 5-14 never happened. But if those ten days had happened, our world today might be different, a little bit or a lot, for better or worse— or both. October, 1582 is a thought experiment: a surreal, speculative imagining of ten things that might be the consequence—400+ years later—of those missing days.

Another recent competition winner and Festival first-timer coming this summer is cellist Santiago Cañón Valencia. A 2022 BBC Next Generation Artist and Silver Medalist of the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition, Valencia performs a rich and varied program ranging from Ravel to Ginastera. The following night, violinist Stefan Jackiw returns to our hall.  Known to many of our patrons, most recently as part of the Junction Trio, Jackiw performs a Schumann and Brahms program along with clarinetist Yoonah Kim (who happens to also be his wife) and Festival favorite, pianist Max Levinson. Many will remember Yoonah’s breathtaking performance last summer of Brahms and Beethoven. In this concert, the ensemble performs works by both Clara and Robert Schumann, and then culminates with Brahms’s Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major.

Some other returning artists include Jens Lindemann with his All-Star Brass, pianist Stewart Goodyear brings a program of some of Beethoven’s “greatest hits,” and the incomparable a cappella ensemble Chanticleer performs a concert entitled Labyrinths with works from Stephen Paulus and Caroline Shaw to songs by Joni Mitchell and traditional spirituals.

In the closing weekend, the all-Schubert concert will, of course, be very popular, but don’t miss the always dynamic A Far Cry ensemble as well as the Grammy Award-winning, boundary-breaking Third Coast Percussion their spirited program of works by Philip Glass, Mark Applebaum and much more.

Closing the summer of classical concerts this year is a true legend—violinist Gidon Kremer—who brings a powerful and emotional program that serves as a tribute to war-torn Ukraine. It’ll be a fittingly compelling cap to what looks to be a wonderful summer of classical music in Rockport! We hope to see you there!