“I wore myself out trying to work a piece of music divided into four segments of such length that each of them was likely at any moment to break.” When George Enescu described his Octet in C major, Op. 7 in these terms, he framed it less as a chamber work than as an engineering feat.
Photo: Chung Ling Lo
On May 31, Arkel Chamber Concerts places this challenge at the centre of its program, Grand Romance, at Toronto’s Trinity St. Paul’s Centre, taking on a work that demands both precision and collective imagination. For 13 years, the Toronto-based series has built its identity on this kind of artistic ambition. Founded by violinist Marie Bérard, concertmaster of the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, and cellist Winona Zelenka of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Arkel has grown from Trio Arkel into a platform for collaborations shaped by trust and musical instinct. “There’s nothing more rewarding for string players than playing chamber music with great colleagues,” says Bérard.
That collaborative instinct becomes essential in Enescu’s Octet. As Bérard explains, the solution lies in acute score awareness: “The composer gives us all the material necessary to alternate between orchestral and more intimate settings; we just have to observe his careful markings and be very clear in each musician’s mind what role their part plays in the grand scheme of things.”
Photo: Chung Ling Ho
The program traces a natural path from classical to late-romantic works. Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet, Op. 33 No. 1, opens with a sense of experimentation beneath classical form. As Bérard notes: “The quartet is in a minor key, which is quite unusual for Haydn. He’s focused on the virtuosity of the first violin part, as in most of his quartets, but has introduced here a unison string crossing that is quite new and interesting. There are a couple of fermatas in the last movement where he seems to invite us to improvise.”
Richard Strauss’s Sextet from his opera Capriccio follows, bringing in a lyrical dimension. As Zelenka observes, Strauss “explores the idea of whether the text or the music is more important in opera, so he opens his Capriccio with a gorgeous piece of chamber music.”
However, everything leads to Enescu. “The octet is such a monumental piece, nothing can follow it,” Bérard notes. Zelenka adds: “We can’t wait to experience the very opening. It is such a majestic beginning.”
Arkel Chamber Concerts’ Grand Romance plays at Toronto’s Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church on May 31.
