This was the first concert at Wesley for the year and a worthy gig with distinct Canberra connections. How fascinating! Jennifer Hou and Patrick Galvin met while studying Masters at the San Francisco Conservatorium of Music. During that time, Patrick's teacher, Camilla, died. Patrick had studied with Camilla for some time and it was a great loss. The result was this musical recital and historical recitation dedicated to Camilla. Camilla had been a notable violinist of international standard, performing personally to Sibelius, soloing with the NY Phil, playing a Stradivarius. Her career was interrupted and she sold the Strad to later return with the violin Patrick was playing, by Australian luthier AE Smith. Wikipedia speaks of AE Smith and his renowned varnishes and Ernest Llewellyn who played one of his instruments and Isaac Stern's admiration and friendship and other AES players including Yehudi Menuhin and David Oistrakh and his eventual death in Canberra on 16 May 1979. So this story has particular local resonances. Patrick and Jennifer have presented this musical narrative in several concerts around Australia and will tour to UK and US and their recording (Dear Camilla,) is online and mostly match the musical components played at Wesley although without the recollections. Here Camilla's story was punctuated by Sibelius, Chopin, Part along with Emma Greenhill, Ernest Chausson, Amy Beach and Jennifer Higdon and included a commission and world premiere from Jolin Jiang, Every wheel turns, including a short Chinese folk song sung by Jennifer. The playing was fluent and together, quick but ever-expressive, and rich in harmonics, and that violin tone was strong and inviting as promised. So, a very satisfying first part of a good night.
Patrick Galvin (violin, raconteur) was accompanied by Jennifer Hou (piano, raconteur, vocals) at Wesley to recount stories of his teacher, Camilla Wicks.
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