Every spring and fall violinist Angela Snyder travels from her home base in Virginia to “play second fiddle” in the various configuration of the chamber ensemble La Cafamore.  At this time of year, in one form or other (Trio, Quartet, or Quintet), La Cafamore tours the Kootenays for a series of Chamber music concerts. Over the years they have presented programs that have included some of the best of the Baroque, Romantic and Modern repertoires. The ensemble is not adverse to taking risks with their programming. There are not many ensembles that would dare to tackle Steve Reich’s Different Trains and George Crumb’s Black Angels. Local patrons have been lucky enough to hear La Cafamore present these startlingly modern compositions at the Knox Presbyterian Church in Cranbrook. For this tour the “modern meat” in the sandwich was Serenade Op.12 by Zoltan Kodaly. This composer is a contemporary and fellow national of the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok. Both composers drew heavily on the folkloric heritage of their native country. While acknowledging the composers folkloric inspirations there is no mistaking the modernity of their compositions. Serenade is no exception. Kodaly’s composition may have been the meat in the sandwich but there was plenty of other “garnishes” on the menu. The program opened with Lionel Bart’s (1930-1999) Where is Love from the musical Oliver. From there it was a huge leap back in time to the Inventions #13, #14, and  #15 by Johann Sebastian Bach.The other “BIG B” in classical music (Ludwig von Beethoven) was represented by a series of 12 German Dances. The final hefty piece on the program was Antonin Dvorak’s Terzetto Op.74 (Introduction / Larghetto / Scherzo and Theme and Variations. Unfortunately La Cafamore’s concert clashed with the larger SoWeCa Chamber Music festival that was running concurrently at the Key City Theatre. Despite the small audience in this wonderful performance space La Cafamore did not let us down. The next tour of LaCafamore will be in the fall and every effort will be made to avoid any programming clashes in the future. As always I will be looking forward to whatever is pulled out of the Chamber Music hat.

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