Concert Review: Oberon Guitar Trio at Leacock Theatre, Mount Royal University

By on September 8, 2011 in Canadian Concert Reviews, Guest Posts

This is a guest post by:
Brett Gunther, artistic director of the Classical Guitar Society of Calgary
from a series of posts pertaining to Guitarfestwest 2011

The Oberon Guitar Trio (Murray Visscher, Brad Mahon, Ralph Maier)
Monday, August 8th, 2011
Leacock Theatre, Mount Royal University

Oberon Trio at Guitarfestwest (photo via Mount Royal Facebook - click to visit)

 

The first Guitarfestwest festival got started off on the right note on Monday night with Calgary’s own Oberon Guitar Trio.  The first half of the evening opened and closed with pieces that showcased the trio’s shared affinity towards rock and popular styles of music, including a stunning arrangement of Keith Emerson’s Eruption from Tarkus by Ralph Maier.  The centerpiece of the program came early, however, with a premiere performance of Incantatio written for the trio by Pascal Sasseville Quoquochi.  Its Brouwer-like first movement, hypnotic second movement, and rhythmically driven third movement came across very well and is sure to become an audience favourite.

The trio was not afraid to take the program in an entirely different direction for the second half with a selection of 19th century material performed on authentic replica instruments owned by Murray Visscher.  The tongue and check humour in Diabelli’s Gran Trio, Op. 62 (executed with a wonderful sense of dialogue), topped off with the comedic stylings of Brad Mahon, left the audience with smiles on their faces and looking forward to many more Guitarfestwest festivals to come!

-Brett Gunther

Guitarfestwest 2011 posts:

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