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Volume 23 Issue 1 - September 2017

  • Text
  • September
  • Toronto
  • Jazz
  • Orchestra
  • Musical
  • October
  • Recording
  • Composer
  • Symphony
  • Theatre
In this issue: a look at why musicians experience stage fright, and how to combat it; an inside look at the second Kensington Market Jazz Festival, which zeros in on one of Toronto’s true ‘music villages’; an in-depth interview with Elisa Citterio, new music director of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra; and The WholeNote’s guide to TIFF, with suggestions for the 20 most musical films at this year’s festival. These and other stories, in our September 2017 issue of the magazine!

Mario Ciferri in concert

Mario Ciferri in concert Beat by Beat | Classical & Beyond Gould Revisited PAUL ENNIS On September 25, 2017, Glenn Gould would have been 85. To mark the occasion, the TSO is presenting a tribute concert to him on September 22 and 23 with two works of great significance to his biographical and musical legacy. Timothy Eaton Memorial Church Friday, September 22, 7:30 p.m. General Admission $ 35.00, RCCO Members $ 25.00. Tickets available online at www.organixconcerts.ca. Scroll to the concert date. Presented ByGlionna Mansell Siegfried Idyll In July 1982, just weeks before suffering the stroke that led to his premature death on October 4, 1982, Gould began recording Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll in its chamber version for 13 instruments. It was released by Sony on a CD that also included Gould’s own piano transcriptions of other Wagner works, but it was Gould’s role as conductor (of Siegfried Idyll) that caught people’s attention. The recording was stunning in its transparency, rigorous in its controlled Romanticism and finely balanced as a large chamber work. The orchestral version of this piece is one of the programmatic keys to the TSO tribute this month. Remarkably, four members of the current TSO participated in the Gould recording, among them associate concertmaster Mark Skazinetsky. He graciously took the time to fill WholeNote readers in on the nuts and bolts of that historic occasion. Mark Skazinetsky in 1981 17 A Music Series unlike any other www.organixconcerts.ca in collaboration with Timothy Eaton Memorial Church, Royal Canadian College of Organists, Istituto Italiano di Cultura UPCOMING ORGANIX CONCERTS ORGANIX 17 KINGWAY SERIES AT ALL SAINTS ANGLICAN CHURCH, 2850 BLOOR STREET WEST, TORONTO, M8X 1B2 September 13: Imre Olah September 27: Christopher Dawes October 11: Aaron James October 25: Alison Clark November 8: Michael Capon November 22: William O'Meara December 6: Hanné Becker December 20: Stefani Bedin All lunchtime concerts at the Anglican church of All Saints Kingsway are FREE and start at 12:30 pm. ending approximately 1:15 pm. For more details, please visit www.organixconcerts.ca ALL SAINTS KINGSWAY ANGLICAN CHURCH ORGANIX CONCERTS is the recipient of the Royal Canadian College of Organists 2017 national Award of Excellence WN: What are your memories of the recording sessions of Siegfried Idyll? MS: First of all was the fact that I was going to work with GLENN GOULD himself! It was a hot summer day and he came dressed in a heavy coat, wearing gloves, kind of looking a little strange, but when he started to talk he struck me as being a very kind and friendly, respectful person. WN: How much rehearsal time was there? MS: We didn’t have much rehearsal time but everyone could sense something very special and unique was happening and that made the rehearsal more effective. WN: Do you recall Glenn Gould’s approach? Any specific instructions? MS: Glenn Gould’s approach was very unique. At first we thought that all the tempi were very slow, or slower than we expected. But as we were getting deeper into the music it started to make more and more sense. His interpretation of this piece was so sincere and deeply 26 | September 2017 thewholenote.com

felt that it “infected” us very much. He was asking for very long lines and phrases and that made the whole piece like one big painting. The end result was amazing!!! Brahms Concerto No.1 Glenn Gould was 22 when he first recorded Bach’s Goldberg Variations for Columbia Masterworks in 1955. Jan Lisiecki is now 22 and a graduate of the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory. His fourth recording for Deutsche Grammophon, Chopin Works for Piano and Orchestra, was released last March. For his part in the TSO Gould tribute, Lisiecki will play Brahms’ Piano Concerto No.1 in D Minor, Op.15, the same work that prompted Leonard Bernstein to address the audience in Carnegie Hall on the evening of April 6, 1962, when Gould played it with the New York Philharmonic. Bernstein said that he could not agree with Gould’s “remarkably broad tempi and frequent dynamic departures” but that “Mr. Gould is so valid and serious an artist that I must take seriously anything he conceives in good faith.” I asked Lisiecki about his relationship with Gould and what he thought about Bernstein’s pre-performance words. WN: When did you first become aware of Glenn Gould? JL: I cannot even describe a particular moment when I became aware of Glenn Gould. He seems to have been a part of my musical life from the very start, and is inseparable from it in my view. WN: How has he been important to you? JL: There are many inspirational aspects about Mr. Gould. For one, I love his answers to interviews. They were different, insightful and fun. I also like his approach to making music, and adhering to the principle that if there’s nothing new to say, then there’s no point in performing or recording it. He was also never afraid to break with the tradition, and as a result, completely changed the way the entire world sees and experiences some music. WN: What do you think of Bernstein’s famous words to the audience before Gould and the New York Philharmonic performed Brahms’ First Piano Concerto? JL: I actually think these words could have been spoken at many other concerts, and that it is frankly not a surprise that a conductor and soloist don’t get along. After all, each musician is very individual, and when you add in someone’s personality (their amenability and openness, or lack thereof), musical disagreements do occur. WN: How long have you been playing the concerto? JL: This concerto is actually very new to me, and I performed it for the first time in Warsaw only on August 12. My “debut” with this work was a full immersion, too, with live broadcast on radio, YouTube and TV recording. WN: What is your approach to it? JL: I’m not sure how I can answer this question in words. I invite the audience to listen and assess for themselves. :-) WN: Have you played much Brahms in concert? JL: I have included Brahms in my recitals before, but my closer association is with Schumann. In fact, I recorded one of Schumann’s last works for the piano, his Introduction and Concerto Allegro Op.134 for Piano and Orchestra, which inspired Brahms when writing this concerto. I’m reasonably certain that TSO conductor Peter Oundjian will address the Roy Thomson Hall audience before the Brahms concerto is performed. And I’m also confident that Lisiecki will have a few words to say at its conclusion. The prospect fills me with great anticipation. Mooredale Concerts Season Opener Again this summer my musical life in Toronto was bound up in the Toronto Summer Music Festival, the first under artistic director Jonathan Crow. This year – the festival’s 12th edition – was primarily a celebration of chamber music performed almost entirely by Canadian-born or Canadian-resident musicians. It was a roster driven by the notion of celebrating Canada’s sesquicentennial. The overwhelming artistic success of TSM was an affirmation of the high level of talent our country has produced. The total audience of 15,000 was a 20-percent increase over last year and included several sellouts and 2017.2018 SEASON OF EVENTS Chamber Music (FALL 2017) Enrico Elisi, New Orford String Quartet, Faculty Artists Ensemble, and Joseph Johnson and James Parker Choirs in Concert and Early Music (FALL 2017) Celebrating the Music of Imant Raminsh, Sing and Rejoice!, Handel’s Messiah and The Tallis Scholars Opera Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing Thursdays at Noon (FALL 2017) Gryphon Trio with James Campbell, members of the TSO, Dave Young, Dave Restivo and Gordon Foote, and Elizabeth McDonald, Giles Tomkins, Kathryn Tremills and Achilles Liarmakopoulos Visitors Judith Forst, Imant Raminsh, George E. Lewis, Nicole Lizée, Johannes Debus, Howard Shore, John Hess and Renee Rosnes and much more! For complete 2017-2018 listings visit music.utoronto.ca. Tickets on sale now! 416.408.0208 The Faculty of Music gratefully acknowledges the generous support of our presenting sponsors: thewholenote.com September 2017 | 27

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