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Volume 14 - Issue 7 - April 2009

Tow Hill

Tow Hill April 18, and the Vancouver Symphony brings JeffreyRyan's Linearity of Light (which you can hear online through CentreStreams)to Roy Thomson Hall May 2. So, be sure to delve intothe WholeNote online listings and search out what else is going onin your neighbourhood. There's plenty for your calendar and budget.MUSIC INTHEAFTERNOONWOMEN'S MUSICAL CLUB OF TORONTOTRUE NORTH BRASSDECEMBER 3, 2009 • 1.30 PMSTORIONI TRIOOCTOBER 22. 2009 • 1.30 PMISABEL BAYRAKDARIAN, sopranoSEROUJ KRADJIAN, pianoat Koerner Hall, The Royal Conservatory of MusicFEBRUARY 25, 2010 • 1.30 PMConcert sponsor: WMCT Centennial FoundationPENDERECKI STRING QUARTETMARCH 25, 2010 • 1.30 PMJANINA FIALKOWSKA, pianoAPRIL 29, 2010 • 1.30 PMArtist's sponsor:B: o· Fimmcial GroupFive concerts for 5Early-bird five concerts available May 1-31, 2009 - 0Limited subscriptions available - don't be disappointed -subscribe nowSingle tickets available for February 29, 2010For information and to subscribe call 416-923-7052Walter Hall, Edward Johnson Building, Museum SubwayAll artists and programmes are subject to change without noticeSupport of the Ontario Arts Council and the City of Toronto through the Toronto ArtsCouncil is gratefully acknowledged.PRESENTED BYA Tribute to Talivaldis KeninsTalivaldis Kenins wrote some 200works in just about all genres, fromhis self-proclaimed "Opus 1" forstring quartet to his viola concertoof 1998. Combined, his completeopus would take over 20 concerts toperform. However, his final yearsuntil his passing in January 2008 atage 88 were not prolific, so theimpact of this Canadian composer ofLatvian heritage and French schoolinghas become less and less felt. Atribute concert slated for the middleof this month will break this silenceand place Kenins deservedly amonga growing pantheon of pioneering Canadian composers.In his early years, Kenins was an amazing talent. Nadia Boulanger,George Enescu, Arthur Honneger, Jacques Ibert and FrancisPoulenc collectively gave him the "premiere prix" of the Paris Conservatoryin 1950 for his Cello Sonata. He went on to travel in thesame circles as Henri Dutilleux, legendary film composer MichelLegrand, and Pulitzer Prize-winner Karel Husa.It was these early achievements and influences that opened thedoor to teaching at the University of Toronto in 1952, only a yearafter his arrival in Canada. At U of T he groomed outstanding Canadianmusicians such as Edward Laufer, Bruce Mather, Imant Raminsh,Arthur Ozolins, James Rolfe and Ronald Bruce Smith, amongmany others.The Toronto Latvian Concert Association will pay tribute to TalivadisKenins April 19 at 7pm in the Glenn Gould Studio. (Like theCanadian Music Centre, where Kenins is represented as an AssociateComposer, the TLCA is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2009.)The April 19 program spans over 45 years of the composer's music,from the career-launching Cello Sonata to the Piano Quintet (1994).Performers include rising stars of Latvian heritage (mezzo VilmaVitals, violinist Una Tone), past students (pianist Arthur Ozolins,cellist David Hetherington) and colleagues to whom works werededicated (flautist Robert Aitken and pianist William Aide) .For full details visit www .torontolatvianconcerts.com/whatson.html. For tickets, visit www .masseyhall.com and click onthe "Buy Tickets" link, or call 416-872-4255.. ~.t'.-! tfie §2.!!.1.!!f postViolins, violas, cellos, and bowsComplete line of strings and accessoriesExpert repairs and rehairsCanada's largest stock of string musicFast mail order service20wmctrawmct.on.ca I www.wmct.on.ca I 416-923-7052@.,.,,,-rwww.thesoundpost.cominfo@thesoundpost.com93 Grenville St., Toronto MSS 184tel416.971.6990 fax416.597.9923WWW. THEWHOLENOTE.COM APRI L 1 - M AY 7 2009

BEAT BY BEAT: QUODLIBETby Allan PulkerChamber wealthWhat a wealth of chamber music there is on offer this month! Theearly days of April offer two opportunities to hear Arnold Schoenberg'sseminal early work, Transfigured Night - April 2 in itsoriginal string sextet version by the St. Lawrence String Quartetcomplemented by former quartet members, cellist, Marina Hooverand violinist/violist, Barry Shiffman, and April 3 by Sinfonia Torontoin the string orchestra version.April 3 Amici will present "Poulenc's Musings," a program ofFrancis Poulenc's chamber music, including his famous Sextet withthe brilliant TSO wind principals, and his "Story of Bahar" for piano,with Steven Page (formerly of the Barenaked Ladies) as narrator.Definitely not your average evening out!Those who love Haydn's string quartets will have two opportunitiesto hear the Eybler Quartet play an entire program of them: onApril 6 at the Church of St. George-the-Martyr, and on April 9 atthe Music Room of the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society.And all this in just the first 9 days of the month. (See the listings formany others, or better still search for chamber music in the listingson our website.)Wolfgang BottenbergMay 3 there will be a concert that will feature the music of the German-bornMontreal composer, Wolfgang Bottenberg, presented byAlex and Nadia Jacobchuk, under the auspices of the EtobicokeMusic Festival. Born in Frankfurt-am-Main in 1930, Bottenbergcame to Canada in 1958, and began formal musical studies at theUniversity of Alberta, then at the University of Cincinnati. He beganhis teaching career at Acadia University in 1965 and retired as a fullprofessor from Concordia University in 1997. He views the earlytwentieth century as a time of "super romanticism," which he explainsas "putting originality before craft," with "problematic" results.For the past ten years he has set himself the challenge of seeingwhether it is still possible to composetonal music, using the techniquesof the eighteenth and nineteenth centurymasters, that also relates to contemporarysensibilities. "An amalgam ofSchubert and Brahms" is how he putsit.I have always been interested in theidea - expressed by such differentthinkers as the English editor AlfredOrage and the Russian writer BorisPasternak - that by absorbing an artistictradition an artist gains access to thenew and the original. Listening to a CD Wolfgang Bottenbergof Bottenberg's music, I found myself feeling that he is engaged inthe journey of discovery that they wrote about.Vocal RecitalsWhen the singer knows how to communicate with an audience,including adjusting his/her voice to the dimensions of the hall, andthe collaborative pianist is truly collaborative, there is nothing betterthan a vocal recital. The first vocal recital of the month in Torontoor beyond is soprano Melanie Conly' s performance for SyrinxSunday Salons on April 5 of Andre Prevost's Improvisation forsoprano, Samuel Barber's Knoxville - Summer of 1915, KurtWeill's Youkali and Debussy's Ariettes Oubliees. Melanie' sthoughts on the program are that it is about the tension between theinnocence of childhood and young love and the inevitabledisillusionment that comes with experience. The Barber piece, shetold me, with its movement in the text between the author's childhoodvoice and his adult voice, captures this most poignantly, asdoes Youkali' s evocation of longing for an unattainable peace andharmony.Again I invite you to peruse (or search) the listings for the wealthof vocal recitals this month.CONTINUEOf 'APRIL 1 - M AY 7 2009WWW. TH EWHOLENOTE.COM

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