Three East Kootenay piano teachers and three of their students are gathered in the new Cranbrook piano shop of Dr. Kendall Hafermehl and and Lynn Reid Hafermehl, Calgary-based piano specialists who have opened a studio in Cranbrook.
It’s Saturday, Nov. 9, and Dallevin Lapaire, Jonathan Talbot and Grace Vandermolen are in the studio space, amongst Kawai pianos — small uprights, large uprights and a couple of baby grands. They are playing their way through Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 13 in C major, each taking one of the three movements, playing from memory. Their piano instructors — Cara Webb, Arne Sahlen and Tim Plait, respectively, accompany their student on another grand, playing the orchestral part as arranged for pianoforte.
Lapaire, Talbot and Vandermolen will be taking the stage with the Symphony of the Kootenays, as part of the ”Midnight Clear” concert Nov. 30 at the Key City Theatre.
To hear a Mozart concerto performed this way, parlour fashion, is an astonishing experience. The power of Mozart’s music — sophisticated, melodic, contrapuntal, and joyous — is enhanced by the small, intimate space. One can’t wait to hear the full effect with the Symphony.
Once a regular feature of the program, it has been nine years since the Symphony last held the student pianist concertos. It has been revived for 2024.
“The concerto was chosen primarily at the skill level of the participants,” said Tim Plait, whose student Grace Vandermolen is playing the third movement. “There are Mozart concertos that are wildly difficult, and there are some that were written for younger students. This is a nice mid-level concerto, and it has some of the characteristics that each of the performers would enjoy.”
It is still Mozart, nevertheless. Nothing simple about the playing. And they have been prepping this way for weeks. At the teachers’ studios and now at the new piano centre in Cranbrook opened by the Hafermehls.
Concerto No. 13 in C major is one of three concertos Mozart wrote in quick succession for his subscription series, in 1782-83. And, apparently, it was one of the composer’s favourites.
“He only wrote cadenzas for the concertos he liked,” said Jonathan Talbot, playing the second movement (Andante, in F major). “This is one of those.”
In music, a cadenza is an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played by soloists in a piece, usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and often allowing virtuosic display. During this time the accompaniment — the orchestra —will rest, or sustain a note or chord. While Mozart wrote original cadenzas for each movement of Concerto No. 13, the three performers have added their own flair, extending them and incorporating their own uniqueness.
“The concerto is fast and I really enjoy fast pieces,” said Dallevin Lapaire, who is playing the first movement (Allegro in C Major). “The first movement is really lively, and some good contrast with some minor keys in the middle of the piece. One thing Mozart does is mix a minor and major key in the middle.
“I took my favourite parts of the cadenza and embellished them.”
“The second movement is very beautiful,” said Talbot. “Mozart incorporates the piano with the orchestra very well. Mixes both of them together. One interesting thing I found with the second movement is the long phrases of music. Two phrases per page of music, long phrases that draw it out. Long and lyrical phrases.”
“[The third movement, Allegro in C Major] might be different from the others,” said Vandermolen. “It’s fast, but it has these random two really slow parts. Usually a concerto has three movements, and the third one will always be quite fast. Mine is allegro, then goes to adagio.
“I had space for three cadenzas. There was a lot of writing involved, I spent a lot of time writing cadenzas. We pieced them together, wrote parts of our own, embellished them.”
The experience of playing with an orchestra, to take the stage with the power of an ensemble behind them, will be a new experience for the three.
“I’ve played in front of a festival, in front of an adjudicator,” Talbot said. “Playing with the orchestra is something I’ve never done before, and something I never thought I would have the chance to do until later in the future.”
“I feel very blessed — how many pianists get to play with the symphony,” Vandermolen said. “It’s an opportunity very few get.”
There’s not a lot of time: a rehearsal with the Symphony the night before; the open rehearsal the day of; then the show. Preparation is key. Hence the work they’ve been doing with their teachers. That they are on top of the music, channelling and interpreting the great composer, is apparent from the rehearsal, which this writer was privileged to hear at Hafermehl’s studio.
Cara Webb remembers the inaugural Symphony student concerto, back in 1996. “I played the very first one. It was Andrea Chiu, Ben Hyde, and me. I had the third movement (Mozart’ s F major concerto). Today, I still can’t believe I did that. Words cannot describe the feeling of being up there with the orchestra. What we as teachers do here with the keyboard isn’t anything close.”
“We are so blessed not only to have a symphony orchestra, but it’s just wonderful to be nurturing our young, aspiring musicians. And to bring it together at the concert at this time of the year, a joyous celebratory time — it will inspire all the young musicians.”
Also on the bill Nov. 30 at “Midnight Clear” will be James Hill and Anne Janelle, an East Coast duo bringing a Celtic-infused program of Christmas music, backed by the Symphony.
