On Saturday August 27 at 2:30 pm, Concerts Denman will present Vanessa Marcoux, violin, and Marie-Christine Poirier, piano (a.k.a Duo Cordelia), in the Denman Island Community Hall. Called “De l’autre côté du miroir” (Visions from the Other Side), their program is an unusual combination of four Russian works from the 19th and early 20th centuries, a Romance by Gabriel Fauré, plus five works by composers who were or are active in my lifetime, including two compositions by Vanessa herself.
Vanessa and Marie-Christine believe that audiences should also hear the music of classical composers of our own time in addition to well-established composers from the past. Vanessa’s compositions are drawn from a variety of folk and classical traditions. Also included will be a sonata by Fazil Say with motifs from Turkish folk music; a melancholy work by Barbara Heller based on an Iranian song about a mother’s resistance against the Shah; and energetic minimalist music by Philip Glass.
Our Denman audience became familiar with members of the Duo Cordelia ensemble when Vanessa improvised on gypsy motifs with the Oktopus Band, and when Marie-Christine performed piano duos with Amélie Fortin including a composition by Vanessa. Virtuosity on their respective instruments is assured. Moreover, in their programming, the rich combination of traditional classical repertoire and lesser-known works affords us the opportunity to draw bridges between musical universes that are usually disassociated from each other.