In a beguiling fusion of poetry and music, TPE connects two miniature masterpieces by Ravel and Stravinsky with a new premiere by Dutch composer Richard Rijnvos. All 3 works are composed for the same instrumentation and will be sung by soprano Robyn Driedger-Klassen. Also included are Christopher Butterfield’s striking Jappements à la Lune with poetry in an invented language by Claude Gauvreau, and Jocelyn Morlock’s playful et je danse, setting poetry of Arthur Rimbaud.
Trois poésies de la lyrique japonaise by Igor Stravinsky
Trois poèmes de Mallarmé by Maurice Ravel
Riflesso sull’ aria by Richard Rijnvos
…et je danse by Jocelyn Morlock
Jappements à la Lune by Christopher Butterfield
“Concerts can, when programmed with imagination instead of autopilot, reveal and relish paradoxes and parallels of time and place. The Turning Point Ensemble brought one such occurrence to Vancouver.
The connecting thread of the concert was three works for female voice and the identical ensemble of two flutes, two clarinets, piano, and string quartet, two written coevally and one written earlier this year. Likely owing to the expensive instrumentation, too irregular for ensemble and orchestra alike, the classics by Maurice Ravel and Igor Stravinsky rank as rarities in performance.”
— Dan Albertson, La Folia (Link to article)