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Volume 19 Issue 9 - June/July/August 2014

  • Text
  • Jazz
  • Toronto
  • August
  • Festival
  • Quartet
  • Musical
  • Concerts
  • Sept
  • Theatre
  • Arts

11714TH SEASON15MUSIC IN

11714TH SEASON15MUSIC IN THEAFTERNOONWOMEN’S MUSICAL CLUB OF TORONTOOCTOBER 2, 2014 | 1.30 PMJean-Marc Phillips-Varjabédian, violin;Raphaël Pidoux, cello; Vincent Coq, pianoNOVEMBER 13, 2014 | 1.30 PMJoel Link, violin; Bryan Lee, violin;Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola; Camden Shaw, celloMARCH 12, 2015 | 1.30 PMJENSLINDEMANNtrumpet; with Kristian Alexandrov, piano, percussion;Mike Downes, bass; Ted Warren, drumsCHRISTIANNESTOTIJNmezzo-sopranoJULIUSDRAKEpianoWalter Hall, Faculty of Music, University of Toronto (Museum Subway Station)TRIOWANDERERDOVERQUARTETAPRIL 16, 2015 | 1.30 PMMAY 7, 2015 | 1.30 PMARTISTIC DIRECTOR: SIMON FRYERProgramme includes a new work by Christopher Mayo(WMCT Commission and World Première)TORONTODEBUTTORONTODEBUTTORONTODEBUTConcert Sponsor:WMCT FoundationENSEMBLEMADE IN CANADAElissa Lee, violin; Sharon Wei, viola;Rachel Mercer, cello; Angela Park, pianoFive Concerts for 5 | Early-bird price May 1 - 31, 2014 – 0For information and to subscribe call 416-923-7052Also available: Tickets for live Career Development Award competitionSunday, April 26, 2015, Walter Hall: All artists, dates, and programmes are subject to change without notice.Support of the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario, andthe City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council is gratefully acknowledged.PRESENTED BYwmct@wmct.on.ca www.wmct.on.ca 416-923-7052Beat by Beat | Art of SongDaniel Lichti’sJubilee YearHANS DE GROOTSchubert’s song cycle Die Winterreise has long been a favourite ofmine, initially through recordings and then through a fine performanceby the late John Shirley-Quirk in Oxford, sometime in the late1960s. But there have been two other performances which havebeen especially memorable: one was by the young Jonas Kaufmannin Edinburgh, the other byDaniel Lichti at St. ThomasChurch in Toronto, a muchdarker reading, as one wouldexpect from a bass-baritone.(Lichti has also recorded thework, with the pianist LeslieDe’Ath, on Analekta.) I wastherefore delighted to readthat Lichti is performing thework, on the occasion of his40th anniversary as a singer,in Waterloo on July 16 at theKitchener-Waterloo ChamberDanielLichtiMusic Society Music Room,and in Toronto on July 20 atHeliconian Hall. The pianist isEphraim Laor.Sondra Radvanovsky, who recently dazzled us all in the role ofQueen Elizabeth I in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux, will sing the FourLast Songs by Richard Strauss with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra,conducted by Shalom Bard, on June 5 and 7. The TSO is alsopresenting a Gershwin concert, with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir,conducted by Bramwell Tovey, in which the soloists are MarquitaLister and Lisa Daltirus, soprano, Gwendolyn Brown, alto, JermaineSmith, tenor, and Alfred Walker, baritone, on June 20 and 21; all at RoyThomson Hall.GTA: By June the frequency of concerts starts diminishing butthere is a compensation in the arrival of several summer festivals. Ofspecial interest is Toronto Summer Music. This year its focus is onthe early 20th century and it will feature modernists like Schoenbergand Bartók as well as late-Romantic composers like Richard Straussand Vaughan Williams. A number of the concerts offered are vocalrecitals: on August 6, baritone Christopher Maltman and pianistGraham Johnson will present a concert commemorating the 100thanniversary of the Great War; the program, “The Soldier – from Severnto Somme,” will include some of the Housman settings by GeorgeButterworth and others, as well as songs by Mahler, Mussorgsky, Ivesand Poulenc. The August 7 concert includes the Schoenberg arrangementof Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer, to be sung by baritone PeterMcGillivray. On July 31, Sondra Radvanovsky will perform songs byVerdi, Rachmaninoff, Copland and Duparc. The coaching of youngperformances has always been central to the programs of TorontoSummer Music. This year eight singers and four pianists have beenselected; their mentors are Graham Johnson and the baritone FrançoisLe Roux. They will perform on August 8 at noon and 4pm. Theseconcerts are all in Walter Hall, except for the Radvanovsky recitalwhich is in Koerner Hall.It is common now for singers to end their recitals with crossoveritems: jazz, musicals, even pop. The results are rarely satisfactory asone has the sense of a classical singer letting her (or his) hair down.But I expect something rather special from Measha Brueggergosman’srecital for the TD Toronto Jazz Festival on June 26. I had the goodfortune of hearing Measha Gosman (as she then was) when she wasstill an undergraduate and what I remember especially were her24 | June 4, 2014 – Sept 7, 2014 thewholenote.com

performances of spirituals. I fully realize that jazz and spirituals arenot the same thing but I think she will bring the same intensity to thejazz as she did to the spirituals many years ago. Another singer to hearat the Toronto Jazz Festival is the Spanish vocalist Maria ConcepciónBalboa Buika, better known by her stage name, Buika. That concert ison June 25; both concerts are at Koerner Hall.Beyond the GTA: July 5 and 6, with a preview on July 4, the WestbenArts Festival Theatre in Campbellford will present the TorontoMasque Theatre production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with LaurenSegal, mezzo, as Dido and Alexander Dobson, baritone, as Aeneas;directed by Larry Beckwith. On July 10 Donna Bennett, soprano, andBrian Finley, piano, will perform works by Mozart, Robert and ClaraSchumann, Chopin and Rachmaninoff. From July 23 to 26 there willbe four concert performances of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom ofthe Opera with Mark DuBois and Donna Bennett singing the mainparts. On July 27, sopranos Virginia Hatfield and Joni Henson andmezzo Megan Latham will perform the trio from Richard Strauss’ DerRosenkavalier as well as music from The Tales of Hoffmann, MadamaButterfly and Carmen.If you cannot get to Campbellford for Dido and Aeneas, you willhave another chance to see it in Parry Sound at the Festival of theSound on July 30. Lauren Segal is again singing Dido and PeterMcGillivray is taking over the role of Aeneas. There will also be songsand instrumental music by Purcell. Also at the Festival of the Sound:Robert Pomakov, bass, will sing Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances ofDeath on July 22; Richard and Lauren Margison will give a joint recitalon July 27; Leslie Fagan, soprano, and Peter McGillivray, baritone, willsing a program of Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms onAugust 1; on August 5 Tom Allen, Lori Gemmell, Kevin Fox, PatriciaO’Callaghan and Bryce Kulak will perform in the “Judgement of Paris”– a neat pun, since the performance will be about the rivalry betweentwo Parisian composers, Debussy and Ravel (August 5); the Festivalwill end on August 10 with a performance of Beethoven’s NinthSymphony, in which the soloists are Leslie Fagan, soprano, MarionNewman, mezzo, Michael Colvin, tenor, and Russell Braun, baritone.These performances are all at the Charles W. Stockey Centre. Also atthe Festival of the Sound: the Toronto Consort presents “Shakespeare’sSongbook” at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, July 25.Stratford Summer Music presents several concerts of music associatedwith Shakespeare, given by the Folger Shakespearean Consort (arecorder group) and the Consort Arcadia Viols. On July 23 “CourtingElizabeth: Music and Patronage in Shakespeare’s England” willpresent music by Dowland, lyra viol pieces by Tobias Hume as wellas consort songs and lute ayres of Shakespeare’s time. The singer isthe tenor James Taylor. On July 24 songs with texts by Shakespeare –or quoted by him – will be performed along with an operatic versionof The Tempest as well as broadside ballads and country dances. Thesinger is the countertenor Drew Minter; the lutenist is Mark Rimple.Both concerts are in St. Andrew’s Church. In addition you can hear adiscussion of “An Examination of Shakespeare in Song” on July 24 at2pm at the University of Waterloo, Stratford Campus with music byThomas Morley, Robert Johnson and John Wilson. Minter and Rimplewill again perform.The Elora Festival includes the “Da Vinci Codex” with the TorontoConsort on July 15 and “Canada, Fall In! The Great War Rememberedin Words, Images and Song” on July 19, both in St. John’s Church; the“Judgement of Paris,” July 18, Richard and Lauren Margison, July 19,“Songs from the Stage and Silver Screen,” July 23, and The Tenors,July 25; all at the Gambrel Barn.And one other event: “Summer Nights: Languor and Longing” isthe title of a recital to be given by soprano Melanie Conly and pianistKathryn Tremills. The program includes Samuel Barber’s Knoxville,Summer of 1915 and Les nuits d’été by Berlioz as well as music byPurcell, Weill and Gershwin at the Heliconian Hall, June 19.Hans de Groot is a concert-goer and active listenerwho also sings and plays the recorder. He can becontacted at artofsong@thewholenote.com.thewholenote.com June 4, 2014 – Sept 7, 2014 | 25

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