2009: ICONS
The 2009 Festival got off to a fantastic start with a full house at the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building for the opening concert which ended with a stirring performance of the Schubert Octet. We were delighted to welcome back many familiar musicians in 2009 as well as greet some new faces. I am sure everyone had their favourite concert, but some memorable moments during the festival were Sister Wendy Beckett’s talk, Ivry Gitlis’ performance of the Kreutzer Sonata, the exhilarating ChamberJam session in the Old Library and the performance of two entertaining works by Cage during the Saturday brunch concert: the list of delights could go on and on.
We were very happy that the 2009 festival welcomed back many friends: violinists Ivry Gitlis, Katherine Gowers and Daniel Rowland, cellists Bjørg Vaernes–Lewis and David Cohen, double bassist Zoran Marković, oboist Nicholas Daniel, clarinetist Chen Halevi and pianist Polina Leschenko. Also, some wonderful musicians new to OCMF: pianists Alexander Lonquich and Christina Barbuti and viola player Lise Berthaud.
The programme this year included Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata, Mendelssohn’s Double Concerto for violin, piano and strings, Schubert’s String Quintet in C, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring for Piano Four Hands and Shostakovich String Quartet No. 8.