The 22nd Macau International Music Festival

What to look forward to – and what's missing – in this year's edition.

Next month in Macau is an exciting one. For most of the year, music lovers may feel culturally isolated here, waiting anxiously for the next overseas act to visit the Cultural Centre, perhaps even taking the ferry to Hong Kong for an extra live music fix now and again. Then, at last, autumn arrives, and musicians from all over the world descend on Macau for a month-long festival of concerts. This year’s International Music Festival (MIMF)programme has at least one treat in store for just about everyone, but whether the eager concertgoer will find it an embarrassment of riches depends on his or her taste.

Even more so than in seasons past, the MIMF’s 22nd edition is overwhelmingly devoted to Western Classical music. Eleven of the 17 performing groups will play the music of time-honoured European composers. That being said, the classical offering is diverse in format and features truly world-class talent such as Great Britain’s Royal Philharmonic and American violin virtuoso Hilary Hahn.

Nevertheless, with such a preponderance of classical music this year, the multicultural element is noticeably reduced. In addition to the requisite concerts targeted to the local Chinese audience hosted by the Macau Chinese Orchestra – one with a Cantopop star and another with Chinese classical soloists – there are just two evenings of ethnic music.

Even more disappointing is a complete lack of the avant garde. Cutting-edge music seemed to have established a foothold in the festival with the presence of artists like Ryuichi Sakamoto and Finland’s Kimmo Pohjonen on programmes in the last two years. Alas, despite a healthy attendance at both of those concerts, riskier programming was avoided this season.

The good news is that jazz lovers are seeing their genre represented again – after its conspicuous absence last year – by both a fusion quintet from Switzerland and an American big band with a focus on Latin tunes.

All that jazz

With two free concerts staged in the picturesque environment atop Mount Fortress, jazz makes a comeback to the MIMF. The Pedro Giraudo Jazz Orchestra, from the US, is a big band with a specialised repertoire. In addition to the bandleader’s own compositions are tunes by Tito Puente and the oft-overlooked Argentine folk-jazz pianist Cuchi Leguizamón. This evening of tango and Latin grooves, on October 19th, is one not to miss.

Ten days earlier, Switzerland’s Kolsimcha, known for a time also as The World Quintet, bring their unique jazz formula to another concert under the stars. Their all-original compositions, blending improvisation and symphonic ensemble playing with Mediterranean melodies and jaunty Balkan rhythms, are sure to prove a musical highlight of this year’s MIMF.

In a concert on October 29th, in the intimate Dom Pedro V Theatre, the guitar duo of Slava and Leonard Grigoryan combines jazz and classical repertoire on a challenging programme that will test the limits of the brothers’ virtuosic prowess. The Kazakhstan-natives adopted Australia as their new home in childhood and have quickly taken the Land Down Under and the rest of the world by storm. Equally at home in classical, jazz and crossover spheres, the two guitarists will interpret pieces by

Debussy, de Falla and Ralph Towner, among others.

The right space for subtle sounds

Of the four chamber music ensembles gracing the historic Dom Pedro V Theatre stage this MIMF season, the Grigoryan Brothers are the smallest group on the list, which ranges through every configuration from duo to quintet. Germany’s Trio Apollon brings to the inviting acoustics of Dom Pedro a collection of Romantic masterworks by composers from their native land. The threesome of clarinet, viola and piano – a grouping Schubert called “the most romantic combination of instruments” – performs works by Schumann, Mendelssohn and Brahms on October 8th.

A chamber music series would be incomplete without a string quartet, and the MIMF has invited one with strong credentials. The Haydn Quartet is based in Austria’s Esterházy Castle, inhabited by the great composer himself for over thirty years. On their October 25th programme is a quartet by their namesake, as well as works by Mozart, Schubert and the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, whose crystalline, minimal and hauntingly beautiful music will find an apt setting in the Dom Pedro ambience.

On October 7th, the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet inaugurates the MIMF’s chamber music series. Following in the footsteps of some of their orchestral colleagues – members of the Berlin Trio and Divertimento Berlin – this quintet becomes the third group formed from the ranks of the prestigious Berlin Philharmonic to be invited to Macau by the festival in the last three years. They are sure to uphold the tradition of excellence for which their parent orchestra is known.

Symphonic grandeur

The opening concert of the 22nd MIMF is given by the world-renowned Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Led by esteemed guest conductor Leonard Slatkin, they bring their refined symphonic playing to a programme culminating in Mahler’s highly effective First Symphony at the Macau Cultural Centre’s Grand Auditorium on October 5th.

The Grand Auditorium also hosts the only international household name on the festival season, American violinist Hilary Hahn. This young performer with a commanding stage presence and flawless technique joins the Vancouver

Symphony Orchestra (VSO) for the beloved Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto on October 14th. Following the concerto is the sombre, streamlined Fifth Symphony of Shostakovich, giving the VSO and its musical director, Bramwell Tovey, a chance to flex their musical muscle. The Macau Orchestra will collaborate with the Ars Nova Vocal Ensemble, from Hungary, in an all-Mozart concert at St. Dominic’s Church and with returning Finnish opera conductor Jari Hämäläinen for the season-closing performance of Puccini’s trio of one-act operas, Il Trittico.

The October 17th concert at St. Dominic’s will feature the Hungarian choir with soloists from the cast of the opera in sacred works by Mozart, after which the Macau Orchestra will perform Mozart’s treasured Symphony No. 40 under the baton of their brand new Musical Director, Lü Jia.

A production of Opéra de Nice, the operatic triple-bill that concludes the festival celebrates the 150th anniversary of Giacomo Puccini’s birth year. The triptych runs the gamut of emotions – from the sinister Il Tabarro to the uplifting, all-female Suor Angelica to the comic connivery of Gianni Schicchi – and features some of the Italian composer’s most rewarding music.

Songs from around the world

Vocal music is abundant in this years MIMF. The Ars Nova Vocal Ensemble perform a concert of their own on October 21st at Our Lady of Fátima Church, affording the public a rare opportunity to hear masterworks from the choral literature of Hungary. Two more concerts, featuring children’s choirs – the St. Florian Boys’ choir, from Austria, and the Hannover Girls’ Choir – present programmes ranging from classical to light music.

The Macau Chinese Orchestra shares the stage with singer Adam Cheng for three nights of Cantopop favourites and a week later performs a concert of classical Chinese music with pipa soloist Zhang Jiang and dizi virtuoso Dai Ya.

Representing the Dong and Miao (Hmong) minorities from Mainland China are vocal and instrumental folk troupes, presenting their unique musical traditions in yet another free concert on Mount Fortress to take place October 26th. The only other world music concert in the MIMF comes from the sole Portuguese artist appearing this year. Júlio Pereira is a multi-instrumentalist and composer, specialising in incorporating performance on traditional Portuguese instruments into contemporary musical idioms. He presents his programme, titled Geografias, at the Dom Pedro V Theatre on October 24th.

by Ray Granlund