Once in a blue moon

I had the rare opportunity to hear Heather Schmidt's Lunar Reflections, today, commissioned by the Gryphon Trio, who were at the Dominion Chalmers Church to give the work its World Première. The composer herself, same age as my daughter, strode on stage to give us an introduction to its five movements, each representing a full moon, she said:

Blue Moon
Pink Moon
Wolf Moon
Snow Moon
Thunder Moon

The Blue Moon only comes once a year, being the 13th one in the lunar cycle. The fast, rippling, "pink" movement stood for sprays of April blossom. The middle movement was "darker", bringing to mind hunger and the darkness of January. The "snow" moon of February gave birth to beautifully ethereal music, like shimmering snow, and the thunder of July was of course loud, with rumbles and flashes from all three instruments. The music was complex and impressive, really effective; when she came up to take a bow the composer looked pleased by the trio's performance.

Before that we'd heard Stéphane Lemelin and Paul Merleyn (from Reading, England, and now 'cello Prof at the University of Ottawa—lucky Ottawa!) playing Bloch's Hebrew Meditations—echoes of Bruch's Kol Nidre here—a lamentation, with hints of middle-eastern quarter tones.

Mr Lemelin also participated in the last item, Beethoven's Quintet in E-flat for Winds and Piano, the winds being the oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon (played by the principal player of each respective instrument in the NACO). I see that the reviewer on this web-page agrees with me that Beethoven was under Mozart's influence when he composed this quintet. The Adagio Cantabile middle movement is lovely, each instrument, beginning with the piano, taking its turn to play the melody line.