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MUSICA CAMERATA
FOUR DECADES OF INSPIRATION
PHOTO: ALAIN GRYNBERG
IN THE PHOTO (FROM LEFT TO RIGHT):
Luis Grinhauz and Van Armenian, violins; Mariève Bock, cello; Marie-
Andrée Benny, flute; Berta Rosenohl, piano; Michael Dumouchel, clarinet
and Lambert Chen, viola.
Kristine Berey
Music lovers are quiet in anticipation
of the first notes of one of
the most respected and established
chamber ensembles in
Canada’s 40 th season of exceptional
music making. On November 21, in the first
of four concerts planned for this year, Musica
Camerata presents Two Giants, a concert of music
by Beethoven and Dvořák, at Redpath Hall.
“Chronologically we are celebrating 40 years,”
said Luis Grinhauz, violinist and musical director
of the group. “But every season is a celebration.”
There is much to celebrate. The group, varying
from two to eight or more depending on the program,
has received consistent acclaim for the
quality of its performances and recordings.
Recently Jim Lowe of Times-Argus claimed that
the members of the Camerata “are among
Canada’s finest musicians and play in a natural,
expressive and convincing manner. Rosenohl’s
piano is clear, clean and precise, and subtle and
powerful as needed. Grinhauz plays with a rich
warmth, as well as precision, and an interpretive
sophistication.”
From the outset, the ensemble was formed by
high-calibre musicians who had solid careers as
soloists, orchestral players and teachers,
explained Berta Rosenohl, who is, with her husband
Luis Grinhauz, another founding member
of the group: “At the time there was only one
symphony orchestra and the McGill Chamber
orchestra. There was no outlet for professional
musicians to play chamber music [in Montreal]—
an activity we all love and treasure.”
The ensemble began as the initiative of businessman
and “great music lover” Hans Nemenoff,
who regularly held musical evenings at his home
on Circle Road. In 1970, recalled Robert Verebes, a
retired MSO violist, Conservatoire professor and
one of the original Camerata musicians,
Nemenoff suggested
starting a concert
series by local musicians
for a musical
organization on
whose board he
served. He was duly
rebuffed but decided
to go ahead with his
plan anyway:
“Immediately after
that disastrous
meeting, Charles
Reiner and I brought
in Larry Combs, a
fabulous clarinet
player. Then I had
the job of recruiting
some string players. First of all, I talked to
Grinhauz and I got to know Berta. In a few weeks
we prepared our first concert.”
That seminal concert took place at a former
Ermitage gym, “acoustically wonderful, otherwise
a dirty hole,” in early March 1971 and featured
Mozart and Brahms Trios as well as music
by Otto Joachim, music that some considered
“way out” at the time.
“The group became a steady chamber music
society,” Verebes said. “We used to play up to 14
concerts a year, to full houses of an absolutely
steady crowd, free of charge.” Musica Camerata
continued to offer free concerts up to its ninth
season. The Canada Council, which had by that
time begun funding them, encouraged the group
to become more proactive regarding financing. A
year later, when Nemenoff died, his widow Imy
took up the administrative duties.
The audience loyalty Musica Camerata has
enjoyed throughout the years is something to
celebrate as well. Boris Brott, conductor of the
venerable McGill Chamber Orchestra, said it is “a
real challenge” to keep a chamber music-based
ensemble going in Montreal. “Chamber music
has in its very nature a contemplative intimacy
that requires a musically-developed audience,”
he said. Longstanding groups like Camerata have
a role to play in building future audiences: “Any
ensemble that stays together that long has within
it a group of people who support it. That creates
further interest in classical music which is
vital, in young people in particular.”
Rosenohl says she is proud of the fact that the
audience returns year after year. Musica Camerata
sometimes receives inquiries regarding pieces
they have played from members of the public who
want to explore them further. “Some read the
scores before they come to the concert,” she said.
“We have a serious, knowledgeable audience.”
The musicians have developed a special rapport.
“Chamber music is such a close collaboration
that it needs lots of dedication and give and
take from all participants,” Verebes said. Luis
Grinhauz expresses the same views:“It’s not easy
to find colleagues who will be our accomplices.
We are all equal in chamber music and sometimes
it’s hard to come to a compromise if you
have strong opinions.” On a personal level, his
high regard for his wife, whom he describes as “a
great pianist,” comes through when he speaks of
the piano’s role in chamber music. “In chamber
music the piano is the vital column, the most
important instrument,
from Mozart to
Beethoven, to
Brahms, Schumann,”
he explained.
The mandate of
Musica Camerata is
an affirmation of the
power of music to
communicate across
time, distance, and
even cultures. “We
prefer to play works
that are unknown or
seldom played,”
Grinhauz said. “Each
year we add because
each year we look for new work.” Two primary
sources of hidden musical treasures for Grinhauz
were the Grove Dictionary of Music and the CBC.
“The CBC had fantastic programming for classical
music. Not any more,” he lamented.
Covering four centuries of chamber music, in
four decades Musica Camerata has played over
300 works and premiered about 100. This season
brings little-known music by 19 th century composers
Vitezlav Novak and Sergei Taneyev, charming
and jazzy Café Music by contemporary composer
Paul Schoenfeld, as well as works by
beloved composers Elgar, Franck and more. As
well, the group has recorded music by Anne
Eggleston, not well known even by professional
musicians, whose 1955 Quartet on just one hearing
reveals itself to be authentic and beautiful
music. The significance of bringing to light and to
life voices that might otherwise have been
shrouded in obscurity or buried in silence is driven
home when one recalls that, for almost a century
after his death, Johann Sebastian Bach was
mostly a forgotten composer. Hendrik van Loon
tells us that the copper plates used for printing
Bach’s The Art of the Fugue were sold for what
they were thought to be worth at the time—the
price of copper, and no more.
“We interpret our beliefs to the best of our abilities,”said
Rosenohl.“The moment music enters our
lives it never leaves us. It allows us to better communicate
and if it helps us transmit our feelings to
others then we succeeded in our mission.” ■
PHOTO : KRISTINE BEREY
Novembre 2009 November 27