I made my annual trek to lovely Elora this past Saturday afternoon, and in spite of a plethora of traffic on the way up there, which appears to be endemic now anywhere in Ontario during the summer of 2024, I had a delightful albeit short visit.
Sophie and I started going to Elora early on in our time together, and in fact I recall my first visit on my own goes back to about 1986 when I recall attending a recital at the Elora Mill Inn during the annual Guelph Spring Festival. Well, that wonderful music festival is now long gone and the Elora Mill Inn, though still there, has undergone a major overhaul and looks simply grand.
There is simply something about this little corner of Ontario that has always appealed to me...the people especially, the shops, the dining establishments, and of course the scenery. Take a walk around the Elora Gorge next time you're in the area and you'll know what I mean.
Last year was my first visit back to attend the Elora Festival since Sophie passed away and the onset of COVID, and although emotional for me, I was glad I did it. It felt good to be back and I felt I had returned to our second home there.
This year I anticipated my return visit early on this spring, and thanks to a kind invitation from the Elora Festival, I attended one of the four Bach-themed concerts on Saturday, dubbed "Bach Day at The Festival". The concert I chose to attend was J.S. Bach's Long Walk in the Snow, a 1:30 performance at the cosy St. John's Anglican Church in the heart of the town. This is the home church for the Elora Singers the rest of the year as well.
This concert was more or less a follow-up to last season's performance that featured Bach's music and stories, told with great wit and wisdom by CBC Music host Tom Allen. Last year appeared to me to be based a bit more on fact; this year it seemed a good dose of "what ifs" and "we can only surmise" peppered the narrative offered by Allen.
No matter. As always, it was informative, entertaining and well worth our time. Tom Allen is a master story-teller and to hear him in person rather than on the radio is always a joy.
His supporting cast of musicians were up to the task of entertaining the near capacity audience admirably, with several laughing along with the audience at some of Allen's clever lines.
There was a nice blend of updated and traditional Bach here, covering a formative period in the young composer's life as he was finding his way in the world, both musically and personally. How much of the story-line is actually true is up to the listener of course, but the journey was an enjoyable one.
The musicians were comprised of Dylan Bell on bass, Lori Gemmell, former principal harpist with the now defunct K-W Symphony, Rebekah Wolkstein on violin and Suba Sankaran as lead vocalist, Suba's voice and stage presence are both wonderful, and it was a joy to hear both her and her musical friends have a bit of fun with music by a master musician.
The final weekend of this year's Elora Festival is set to get underway starting tonight, with all four of the final concerts taking place at the spacious and acoustically-sound Gambrel Barn on the edge of town. Tonight beginning at 6:30 the Elora Festival Barn Dance will be held, tomorrow night at 8 pm it will be a concert entitled Talbot: Path of Miracles, Friday night at 7:30 will be Constantinople: A Filetta, and Saturday night at 7:30 the Festival closes with a rousing performance of Carl Orff's ever-popular Carmina Burana.
For more information and tickets, go to www.elorafestival.ca. It should be a great closing weekend!
Thanks to everyone at the Festival for allowing me the pleasure of returning to the musical fold again this year, and here's to an even more successful 46th season next July.
Have a great weekend!
July 17th, 2024.
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