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Volume 10 Issue 3 - November 2004

  • Text
  • November
  • Toronto
  • Jazz
  • Theatre
  • December
  • Arts
  • Orchestra
  • Musical
  • Ensemble
  • Symphony

Quoolibet by Allan

Quoolibet by Allan Pulker Earlier today (Sat October 23) I of the fingers, hand and arms attended a memorial tribute to the taught inde·pendently," which may life of Geoffrey Payzant, musician, lead to flawless technique, but philosophy professor, world-re- technique divorced from the nowned authority on the work of "voice" of the performer. Eduard Hanslick, the l 9th Century writer on the aesthetics of music. Payzant also wrote Music and Mind, ( l 978) the first book ever about Glenn Gould's ideas on music, and was the founder and editor during its six-year lifespan of The Canadian Music Journal. Amoog those who spoke at the event was U of T music professor emeritus and composer, John Beckwith, a close friend and also the Music Journal's record review editor, who gave a moving account One artist who has successfully of Payzant's contribution to this used her technique for the revelation of the "artistic emotion" be­ country's musical evolution. Some months ago I was fortu­ hind the music is the American nate to be given copies of The Ca- mezzo-soprano, Frederica von Stanadian Music Journal, quarterly, de, who will perform at Roy from Autumn 1959 to its final is- Thomson Hall on November 10. sue, Summer 1962. Browsing In an interview that I found on a through them I came across an website she said, "Music, art and obituary by John Beckwith of the literature are the expression of the Chilean-born Canadian pianigt, human soul. If we take them out writer and teacher, Alberto Guer- [of education] we're taking out a rero, best remembered now as the whole half of the person. Music teacher of Glenn Gould. Beckwith and art are for life [and have] a -quoted something Guerrero wrote spiritual and religious overtone. in The Royal Conservatory Bulle- It's part of our human spirit." tin in 1950, emphasizing the im- While she doesn't say how she has portance of helping students with managed to integrate technique and "the integration of the movement expression,. she does say earlier in [of the] hands as part of the mind the interview that she began liscollaborating in the discovery of tening to music at a very early age the artistic emotion and its expres- and that singing was a significant sion." Beckwith commented that part of her education at school. Guerrero "felt that if physical ef- Another of the "greats" visiting ficiency could be developed by the Toronto this month is the Russian early teens, the individual temper- violist, Yuri Bashmet, who will ament would have a vehicle for perform on November 20 at John whatever it had to say." W. Bassett Theatre, Metro Toron- Having decided to. write this to Convention Centre. He has been month about some of the "greats" described in the New York Times who are performing in Toronto this as "a string player of altogether month, I found this interesting be- uncanny powers [who] is ... exprescause it suggested what it is that sively vocal, devoid of artifice, makes a musician "great," that [who] can move you from the most distinguishes the great from the hushed, liqid legato to a huge, "good" or even the "excellent". hall-filling fortissimo." We have all heard many musicians This is also obviously a musiwho have "tons" of technique, but cian who has united expression, who do not seem to move us, who temperament and technique to appear "to have nothing to say." bring music to life. All of us who It may be truer that they have not love music and all of us who teach learned to make a connection be- it, owe it not only to ourselves, tween their an and their experi- but also to our students, to get out ence and their individual tempera- at least a few times a year to hear ment. In the same article Guerre- those artists who really understand ro warned against placing "too how to communicate through mumuch emphasis on the decomposi- sic. And let's also encourage our t i o n o f t he =-= f8 EASTMAN. REPORT Some of the 700 or so musical events taking place annually at the world-famous Eastman School of Music may be of interest to readers who live in Toronto or other parts of southern Ontario. In good conditions Rochester is only a three-hour drive from Toronto, closer than you may have thought. Eastman Opera's November 4-7 production, East and West by Eastman graduate, Charles Strouse; the composer of the award-winning musicals Bye Bye Birdie and Annie, bridges opera and musical theatre. The show brings together his 1985 opera, Nightingale ("East" - based on the famous Hans Christian Andersen story) and the premiere of his new opera, The Future of the American Musical Theatre ("West"). In EAST Strouse has characters who are Broadway musical theatre stereotypes perform within the conventions of traditional opera, while in WEST his music is operatic although idiomatically closer to musical theatre. If you decide to make the trip to see East and West, you'll have a point of comparison for another worthwhile evening out--Can­ Stage's upcoming production of Charles Strouse Side by Side by Sondheim, a musical revue tribute to a towering figure in American music theatre, one who can lay claim to having thoroughly blurred the boundaries between opera and music theatre. Back to the subject of Rochester, on Monday, Nov 8 the Eastman new music ensemble "Musica Nova" will perform works by guest composer, Luca Francesconi, Gyorgy Ligeti and Elliott Carter. At the other end of the spectrum Eastman's early music ensemble, Collegium Musicum, directed by the famous lutenist, Paul O'Dette, will perform Dec 6. To find out more about these or the many other events at the Eastman School go to www. rochester. edu/Eastman/concerts or telephone 585-454-7885. a = ct o f ·p l ay = in g a ctio -= = n st _:_: = u d ent s = = = t o ge = t o ut to concerts. = :_:: 7-7.'"'""" : :. WWW.THEWHOLENOTE.COM NOVEMBER 1 - DECEMBER 7 2004

MORE "GREATS" A D 0 ES TO WATCH There are listings in this issue of concerts featuring three more highly accomplished singers from abroad. In chronological order they are: the Russian soprano, Olga Trifonova, who will perform in the Off Centre Series concert on November 7; the Latvian mezzo-soprano, Antra Bigaca. who will give a recital of arias and art songs including rarely heard works by Latvian composers for the Latvian Concert Association on November 14; and the English Wagnerian soprano, Jane Eaglen, who will appear with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Andrew Davis on December 2 in an all Wagner program. November 20 will present some very difficult choices: Yuri Bashmet, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Sinfonia Toronto, Russian soprano Tatiana Bondar, and a revitalized Toronto Wind Orchestra, all perform that evening. Harpist Sharlene Wallace's career has taken another step forward with the release of her second CD, Beyond the Waves, which she is celebrating with recitals at the Edward Day Gallery in Toronto on November 12 and at the Bookstore Cate in Camden East near Kingston on November 13. There is lots of chamber music in November, beginning with the NOVEMBER 1 - DECEMBER 7 2004 Talisker Players on November 3, the St. Lawrence String Quartet on November 4, pianist Eve Egoyan and Les Amis on November 7, the Faculty of Music Chamber Series on November 8, the Gryphon Trio on November 14, Torontoborn cellist Elizabeth Dolin with pianist Bernaden Blaha on November 16, the Caliban Bassoon Quartet on November 21, the Solti Chamber Orchestra on November 24, 25 & 26, a French horn "orchestra" at the Faculty of Music on November 26 and Mooredale Concerts with pianist Claude Frank on November 28 to name a few. The distinguished cellist Steven Isserlis performs with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra on November 24, and another cellist well known to audiences in Southern Ontario, Paul Pulford, makes his conducting debut with the Mississauga Symphony Orchestra on November 27. The Bach Consort presents Bach's Christmas Oratorio on November 26, and pianist Catherine Wilson performs in Toronto, also on November 26. And finally, a combination that perfectly illustrates the theme of the column: Toronto has a new orchestra, The Toronto Chamber Symphony, which gives its inaugural performance on Nov 25 at Glenn Gould Studio under the direction ofTomo Matsuo. Vladimir Orloff, one of the great cellists of the 20th century, will perform Haydn's Concerto in C Major. • Opera Ontario presents " 0 0"')1( 0 •:) 0 PO pet " . .:Y a TM A concert evening of opera's favourite arias, duets and ensembles. Starring Kathleen Brett, soprano Jean Stilwell, mezzo-soprano Roger Honeywell, tenor John Avey, baritone November 25, 27 at 8pm Hamilton Place Theatre November 28 at 3pm Centre In The Square OPERA HAMILTON (Q) KITCHENER WATERLOO OPERA 1.800.265.8977 www.operaontario.com ROBERT LOWREY Proudly Introduces the BECHSTEIN FAMILY OF PIANOS C. Bechstein •Wm. Knabe • Sohmer . • Kohler & Campbell • Hazelton They Join Bosendorfer, Schimmel, Vogel, Baldwin, Chickering, Heintzman, and Nordheimer To Provide Robert Lowrey's Piano Experts with the finest and largest selection of pianos in Canada! • Concert Rentals • Appraisals • Rebuilding ROBERT LOWREY'S ----- PIANO EXPERTS i tt i i 943 Eglinton Ave. East 416 423-0434 pianoexperts.com www:THEWHOLENOTE.COM 19

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