I ~';i I; Lane" (Catfish Records IPJ10313) at the Montreal Bistro on October 3. The fourth release by this Alberta (and Florida) based artist is co-produced by her partner Eric Allison and features Reg Schwager, Phillip Strange, Neil Swainson and Terry Clarke. It runs the gamut, covering Ellington's In a Mellow Tone, standards I Can Dream Can't I and Let's Get Lost to Dave Frishberg's Dear Bix and several originals by Cheryl Fisher. Fisher shows herself to be comfortable in all the various decades and styles represented on this disc. The one surprise for me was finding that the title track, Joyride, is a ballad. From an artist pictured in a top-down red convertible I expected sirens chasing her "joyride". All in all however, a solid performance. r t~ Another disc that came to my attention, thanks to our listings coordinator Vanessa Wells, is the powerful debut CD from The East Village Opera Company (Decca B000518102). This is a fresh new take on the concept of Rock Opera (think Queen's" A Night at the Opera" brought into the 21st century). With power guitars, electric violins and cellos and a rhythm section at times reminiscent of Led Zepplin's Kashmir, vocalists Tyler Ross and AnnMarie Milazzo give us surprisingly sensitive takes on such classic arias as Nessun Dorma, the Flower Duet, La Donna e Mobile, Au fond du temple saint and When I am laid in earth . Oh, and did I mention EVOC's heavy metal take on the overture from Le Nozze di Figaro which incorporates the organ line from Pete Townsend's Won't Get Fooled Again? The booklet includes full liner notes with texts and translations, but I wish they had provided more information about The East Village Opera Company itself. Conceived and directed by Canadians Tyler Ross and Peter Kiesewalter, they are touring to O CTOBER 1 - N OVEMBER 7 2005 Back to Ad Index promote this eponymous CD and will perform at The Mod Club on College St. November 5. If you can handle opera with a back-beat this group must be heard to be believed. To others it will seem a travesty, but Freddy Mercury would be tickled pink. The final disc I will mention is a little more up my usual alley - a reissue of the Fine Arts Quartet's 1975 recording with violist Francis Tursi of the Mozart Viola Quintets. Originally released on Vox, the tapes have been re-mastered, maintaining all of their original warmth, by Music & Arts (CD-1159-2). These pieces are especially dear to my heart because the B flat Major Quintet, K.174, was the first piece of chamber music I ever had the pleasure of working on in the environment of CAMMAC's summer camp at Lake MacDonald. A marvelous introduction to the repertoire and to the art of making music with others, the piece brings shivers to my spine even now, some fifteen years later. And the quintets "saved my life", or at least my sanity, again this summer. Returning from a friend's cottage there was a lane closure on the QEW that resulted in a traffic jam in which it took 90 minutes to traverse 6 kilometers. Thank goodness I had this marvelous two disc set in the car to relieve the tension. It seems that Mozart can provide a marvelous antidote to the symptoms of "road rage". Perhaps he really does make us smarter. We rarely get the opportunity to hear live performances of the string quintets, so I am very pleased to note the Tokyo Quartet will be joined by violist Steven Dann to pe rform the D Major Quintet, K.593 on October 20 in the first of 3 all-Mozart programs for Music Toronto this season. We welcome your feedback and invite submissions. Catalogues, review copies of CDs and comments should be sent to: The WholeNote, 720 Bathurst St. , Suite 503 - Toronto ON M5S 2R4. We also welcome your input via our website, www .thewholenote.com. David Olds Editor, D/SCoveries CONTINUES ON PAGE 58 ROBERT LOWREY Proudly Introduces F/lZIOLI® n.,1 I Grandi Italiani Now only in Toronto (and nowhere else in North America) Can you compare The World's finest pianos Side - By - Side ~iisrnboffPf F/lZIOLr BECHSTEIN 't!Y::1 SCHIMMEL Plus ~ BECHSTEIN FAMILY OF PIANOS C. Bechstein •Wm.Knabe • Sohmer • Kohler & Campbell • Hazelton Five other new brands and IR >Roland·'· 01G1TAL PIANos All backed by our 20 person service facility Tour our famous piano workshops • Concert Rentals • Appraisals • Rebuilding ROBERT LOWREY'S~ - PIANO EXPERTS i ~i i 943 Eglinton Ave. East 41 6 423-0434 pianoexperts.com WWW. TH EWHO LE NOTE.COM 15
