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Volume 20 Issue 2 - October 2014

  • Text
  • October
  • Toronto
  • Choir
  • November
  • Concerts
  • Jazz
  • Musical
  • Arts
  • Orchestra
  • Theatre
Includes the 2014 Blue Pages Member Directory

CANADIANCHOPINSOCIETYCanadianChopin FestivalFourth CanadianChopin PianoCompetitionOctober 17- 26, 2014John Paul II Polish Cultural Centre4300 Cawthra RoadMississauga, OntarioThe Festival includes concerts,lectures, workshopsand master classes,along with theFourth Canadian ChopinPiano CompetitionFor more information please visit:www.canadianchopinsociety.comBelcea String QuartetBach’s Italian Concerto andBeethoven’s “Pathétique.”“I’ve always enjoyedimagining the timbreof various other instrumentswhen I play certainpassages in Classicalsonatas,” the pianist haswritten. “While workingon Haydn, Beethovenor Mozart, I’ve oftenattempted mentally to‘orchestrate’ the work, orpart of it, whenever I haddoubts as to articulation,pedalling or timbre. Afterperforming this ‘instrumentationin the mind,’those doubts about interpretationwould disappear... it would be wrong tosuppose that Classicalcomposers felt a differentkind of joy, sadness, hopeor despair than the Romantics. The fundamental nature of emotionis always the same; only its expression changes. When playing worksfrom the Baroque, Classical, Romantic or even Impressionist repertoire,I often feel that these composers always convey the samesubstance, feelings and emotions, even though the style and approachof each is unique.”The Canadian Chopin Festival begins its celebration of the belovedcomposer October 17, with a Mississauga concert featuring formerwinners Leonard Gilbert, Anastasia Rizikov and Li Wang, andconcludes with the winners of this year’s competition performingin Koerner Hall October 26. In addition to three days each of seniorand junior competitors vying for honours, the festival will feature amasterclass with pianist and pedagogue James Anagnoson, the deanof the Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School, a lecture by Dr. AlanWalker, a workshop and demonstration of Polish dances as well as anevent October 24 that promises a modicum of intrigue. “Chopin andFriends: 19th Century Salon Recital” features the competition’s jury,pianists Krzysztof Jablonski, William Aide, Bernadene Blaha, KentMcWilliams and Lisa Yul.Everybody loves Chopin, including Ira Sachs, director of the lovelynew film Love Is Strange. “We wanted to use Chopin not unlike howSimon & Garfunkel are used in The Graduate, to create a whole worldfor the movie while at the same time maintaining the integrity andbeauty of the original.” For more see my Music and the Movies blogon thewholenote.com.Janina Fialkowska’s entrée onto the world’s stage was launched in1974 by Arthur Rubinstein after her prize-winning performance athis inaugural Master Piano Competition in Israel. She plays Chopinwith a clarity and rigour that is formidable. Music Toronto hostsher October 28 and the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Societydoes likewise October 30 in an identical program that includes threemazurkas and a ballade by Chopin among works by Grieg, Schubertand Ravel.In her story in People magazine almost 40 years ago, BarbaraRowes told it like it was: “In January 1975 Fialkowska was summonedby Rubinstein to a series of auditions at Manhattan’s Drake Hotel.‘I was the dessert after his elegant lunches,’ she smiles. He wouldpuff on a cigar and request ‘sonatas and études I hadn’t touched inyears.’ Janina would then rush home and practice through the nightfor the next day’s recital. Mornings, her stomach knotted and herpalms turned clammy. The pace was exhausting, and the exactingmaster showed no mercy as he tested her range, touch and determination.After six days her prowess and endurance were proved, andRubinstein became her mentor. Lest anyone leer, Janina insists thatRubinstein, an avowed womanizer, never made non-musical overturesto her. But he helped swing a record deal with RCA’s high-toned22 | October 1 - November 7, 2014 thewholenote.com

Red Seal classical seriesand then helped set upher first series of concertsthrough his management.‘For me, he saidafter one of her performances,‘Janina was arevelation. I have neverheard any pianist play thegreat Liszt sonata withthe power, temperament,understanding, beauty oftone and, above all, theemotion and completetechnical command shehas shown.’”Víkingur Ólafsson,Iceland’s award-winningrising star pianist andhost of the Icelandic TVseries Útúrdúr (roughlytranslated as OutofTune),makes his Toronto debutOctober 27 at RemenyiHouse of Music and October 28 at the Richard Bradshaw Ampitheatre,performing Nordic music while also paying tribute to one of hisgreatest inspirations, Glenn Gould, in a performance of Bach’sGoldberg Variations.“I got the idea to do a TV series on music as early as in 2008, whenI played the opening phrases from Beethoven’s Sonata Op.101 in anIcelandic TV interview, demonstrating how their impact can changedrastically, depending on how one shapes them – you know, directionof line, balance between the voices, dynamics, pedal etc … The reactionI got took me by surprise, quite a few people told me that they reallyhad no idea there was so much involved in playing a seemingly simplephrase, that they had a really vague idea about the elements which weinterpreters spend our lives on refining.“I kept this idea at the back of my mind for a few years (studyingamong other things the great stuff that Bernstein and Glenn Goulddid on TV), and then started working seriously on the project inlate 2011.”Also appearing in a COC noontime concert (October 15) is awardwinning15-year-old Canadian pianist Anastasia Rizikov who,as mentioned earlier, helps launch the Canadian Chopin festivalOctober 17. In this COC concert she showcases her virtuosity andpassion in a demanding program of Russian repertoire: Tchaikovsky’sRomance in F Minor, a selection of Rachmaninoff preludes,Mussorgsky’s Pictures at anExhibition and Balakirev’sknuckle-busting Islamey.Bavouzet with the LondonPhil: French pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet joins VladimirJurowski and the LondonPhilharmonic OrchestraOctober 17 in Roy ThomsonHall for Prokofiev’s PianoConcerto No.3. Bavouzet’sChandos recording of all fiveJean-Efflam Bavouzetof Prokofiev’s piano concertoswith the BBC Philharmonic under Gianandrea Noseda was recentlynamed the Gramophone award-winner in the concerto category.Toronto audiences are fortunate to be able to hear the most popularof these concertos. Rob Cowan wrote in the magazine that Bavouzet’s“superb cycle of the concertos promotes a combination of lyricismand chutzpah that lies at the very heart of these endlessly fascinatingworks” and that Bavouzet’s “way with the Third is chipper and cool.”The Moscow-born Jurowski will undoubtedly connect with theemotional core of the major work on the program, Shostakovich’sSymphony No.8, which was composed at the height of WWII in 1943B EALOVEGAand confronts the catastrophic violence and suffering Russians werebeing forced to witness daily in chilling, tragic and mysterious ways.TSO: Shostakovich’s formidable Violin Concerto No.1 alternatesprofound melancholy with searing sarcasm; it highlights the TSOprogram October 22 and 23 conducted by Stéphane Denève. Scottishbornand Sistema Scotland-raised Nicola Benedetti will tackle thiscomplex work that David Oistrakh premiered in 1955 – written in1948, the composer wisely deemed it too dangerous to play in publicuntil after Stalin’s death. Oistrakh reportedly begged Shostakovich togive the opening of the finale to the orchestra so that “at least I canwipe the sweat off my brow” after the daunting solo cadenza thatconcludes the third movement.Earlier in the month, October 8, 9 and 11, another violinist,Tokyo-born and Montreal-raised Karen Gomyo, will play Sibelius’shimmering, sensuous Violin Concerto and string quartets. Guestconductor Jakub Hrůša will lead the TSO in Dvořák’s tuneful audiencefavourite, Symphony No.9 “From the New World.”A Sextet of Quartets: Music Toronto is bringing two worldclassstring quartets to the St. Lawrence Centre this month. TheSt. Petersburg String Quartet was formed in 1985 by graduatesof the Leningrad Conservatory under the guidance of VladimirOvcharek, the first violinist of the Taneyev String Quartet. As glasnostsettled in and the Cold War thawed, their fame grew and theirname changed from Leningrad to St. Petersburg just as the city’s did.Their complete Shostakovich string quartet recordings were greetedglowingly – Shostakovich’s String Quartet No.8 Op.110 from 1960 isincluded in their October 9 Toronto program. That program concludeswith Tchaikovsky’s exquisite String Quartet in D Major Op.11, thecomposer’s first chamber work, a masterpiece by the 30-year-oldRussian, noteworthy as the first work of Russian chamber music. Itssecond movement contains one of classical music’s greatest hits and,according to Tchaikovsky’s own diary, it moved Tolstoy to tears.The Belcea (pronounced BEL-chah) are musicians of diversecultural backgrounds, a characteristic that may account in part fortheir dynamic and free interpretative style. Founded at the RoyalCollege of Music in London in 1994, the Belcea is based in GreatOur spectacular2014-2015 cOncert seasOnseasOn subscriptiOnsOn sale nOw!Save 35% or more with ourpopular 6-concert packageOrder online today at spo.caor email spo@spo.ca torequest a copy of our FREEseason brochurescarboroughphilharmonicOrchestra@spOGreatMusicHalloween trick or treatSaturday November 1, 2014Festive Music for theHoliday seasonSaturday November 30, 2014Music from France, canada,south asia & More!Saturday January 17, 2015a canadian panoramafor windsSaturday March 20, 2015an italian FestivalSaturday March 28, 2015Masterworks of beethovenand brahmsSaturday March 20, 2015an Ontario government agencyun organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontariothewholenote.com October 1 - November 7, 2014 | 23

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