Photo: Run in the shadows
The At The Worlds Edge Festival is an annual event, aimed at bringing world-class music and musicians to the Central Lakes region in the South Island. The festival directors are Justine Cormack and Benjamin Baker, who also play violin in all of the programs. This concert was held in Bannockburn and features mainly music that is inspired by Klezmer, Jewish folk music. The theme of the festival in 2024 is folk music inspired chamber music. This concert is full of this deeply expressive musical language of Klezmer.
Photo: SOUNZ
The musicians in this concert are:
Julian Bliss - clarinet
Benjamin Baker, Justine Cormack, Alexi Kenney, Marike Kruup, Lorna Zhang - violin
Bryony Gibson-Cornish, Serenity Thurlow - viola
Sterling Elliott, Ian Greenberg - cello.
Daniel Lebhardt, Madeleine Xiao - piano
We start with a piece by American composer Paul Schoenfeld. It’s his Trio for clarinet, violin and piano, which was composed in the early 2000s. Each movement is based on a different Klezmer folk melody. Here are Julian Bliss, with violinist Benjamin Baker and pianist Daniel Lebhardt.
Photo: SOUNZ
Now Benjamin and Daniel stay on stage to perform a piece by Eve de Castro-Robinson, who is the composer in residence of the At The World’s Edge Festival in 2024. Her piece Split the Lark for violin and piano was written in 1991 and was inspired by an Emily Dickinson poem. However, Eve says the music isn’t really about anything, but it plays with tension and release. Here are Benjamin Baker and Daniel Lebhardt with Split the Lark.
And now we have a deeply moving piece by Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov. In The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind Golijov tries to mimic the sound of the languages spoken through the history of Judaism: Aramaic, Yiddish, and Hebrew. Each movement imitates one of the languages. Julian Bliss uses a range of clarinets for this piece. The B-flat, the A, which sounds slightly darker, and the bass clarinet with its extended base range. Golijov wants some of the bass clarinet parts to be played as high as humanly possible, which creates a very interesting sound. The clarinet parts mimic the human voice with its glissandos that sound like wailing and singing.
The musicians who mastered this difficult work are violinists Alexi Kenney and Marike Kruup, viola player Serenity Thurlow, and cellist Sterling Elliott. And of course, they’re joined by clarinetist Julian Bliss.
Photo: SOUNZ
The last piece of this concert is also inspired by Klezmer music. This piece is by Sergei Prokofiev. Overture on Hebrew Melodies for clarinet, and string quartet and piano. One more big play for Julian Bliss on the clarinet, Justine Cormack and Lorna Zhang on violins, Bryony Gibson-Cornish on viola, Ian Greenberg on cello, and Madeleine Xiao on piano.
Recorded on 06 October 2024 at Coronation Hall, Bannockburn
Recording Engineer & Producer: Adrian Hollay
