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Volume 25 Issue 4 - December 2019 / January 2020

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  • Faculty
  • Performing
  • Musical
  • Arts
  • Jazz
  • Theatre
  • Symphony
  • December
  • January
  • Toronto
Welcome to our December/January issue as we turn the annual calendar page, halfway through our season for the 25th time, juggling as always, secular stuff, the spirit of the season, new year resolve and winter journeys! Why is Mozart's Handel's Messiah's trumpet a trombone? Why when Laurie Anderson offers to fly you to the moon you should take her up on the invitation. Why messing with Winterreisse can (sometimes) be a very good thing! And a bumper crop of record reviews for your reading (and sometimes listening) pleasure. Available in flipthrough here right now, and on stands commencing Thursday Nov 28. See you on the other side!

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an Ontario government agency The WholeNote VOLUME 25 NO 4 | DECEMBER 2019 & JANUARY 2020 Centre for Social Innovation 720 Bathurst St., Suite 503, Toronto ON M5S 2R4 PHONE 416-323-2232 | FAX 416-603-4791 Publisher/Editor in Chief | David Perlman publisher@thewholenote.com Chairman of the Board | Allan Pulker directors@thewholenote.com EDITORIAL Managing Editor | Paul Ennis editorial@thewholenote.com Recordings Editor | David Olds discoveries@thewholenote.com Digital Media Editor | Sara Constant editorial@thewholenote.com Social Media Editor | Danial Jazaeri dan@thewholenote.com Listings Editor | John Sharpe listings@thewholenote.com jazz@thewholenote.com SALES, MARKETING & MEMBERSHIP Concert & Event Advertising / Membership | Karen Ages members@thewholenote.com Advertising Art /Production Support / Operations Jack Buell | adart@thewholenote.com Classified Ads | classad@thewholenote.com Website/Systems Support | Kevin King systems@thewholenote.com Circulation/Subscriptions | Chris Malcolm circulation@thewholenote.com SUBSCRIPTIONS per year + HST (9 issues)* *international subscriptions: additional postage applies THANKS TO THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS Beat Columnists Wendalyn Bartley, Paul Ennis, Jack MacQuarrie, Jennifer Parr, David Perlman, Lydia Perović, Colin Story, Menaka Swaminathan, Steve Wallace, Matthew Whitfield Features Wendalyn Bartley, MJ Buell, Gary Corrin, Paul Ennis, Robert Harris, David Jaeger, Jennifer Parr CD Reviewers Stuart Broomer, Daniel Foley, Raul da Gama, Janos Gardonyi, Lucas Harris, Tiina Kiik, Kati Kiilaspea, Roger Knox, Pamela Margles, Lesley Mitchell-Clarke, David Olds, Ted Parkinson, Ivana Popovich, Allan Pulker, Cathy Riches, Terry Robbins, Adam Scime, Michael Schulman, Michael Schwartz, Adam Sherkin, Colin Story, Bruce Surtees, Andrew Timar, Ken Waxman, Dianne Wells, Matthew Whitfield Proofreading Sara Constant, Paul Ennis, Danial Jazaeri, John Sharpe Listings Team Ruth Atwood, Tilly Kooyman, John Sharpe, Gary Heard, Colin Story, Katie White Design Team Kevin King, Susan Sinclair Circulation Team Lori Sandra Aginian, Wende Bartley, Beth Bartley / Mark Clifford, Jack Buell, Sharon Clark, Manuel Couto, Paul Ennis, Robert Faulkner, Terry Gaeeni, James Harris, Micah Herzog, Jeff Hogben, Bob Jerome, Chris Malcolm, Luna Walker-Malcolm, Sheila McCoy, Lorna Nevison, Garry Page, Andrew Schaefer, Tom Sepp, Julia Tait, Dave Taylor BEAT BY BEAT 25 Jazz Notes | STEVE WALLACE 27 Art of Song | LYDIA PEROVIĆ 30 Early Music | MATTHEW WHITFIELD 32 Choral Scene | MENAKA SWAMINATHAN 36 Classical & Beyond | PAUL ENNIS 39 In with the New | WENDALYN BARTLEY 42 On Opera | DAVID PERLMAN 44 Music Theatre | JENNIFER PARR 46 Bandstand | JACK MACQUARRIE 71 Mainly Clubs, Mostly Jazz | COLIN STORY LISTINGS 48 A | Concerts in the GTA 64 B | Concerts Beyond the GTA 69 C | Music Theatre 71 D | In the Clubs (Mostly Jazz) 73 E | The ETCeteras DISCOVERIES: RECORDINGS REVIEWED 79 Editor’s Corner | DAVID OLDS 81 Strings Attached | TERRY ROBBINS 83 Keyed In | PAMELA MARGLES, IVANA POPOVICH, ADAM SHERKIN, ROGER KNOX 86 Vocal 88 Classical and Beyond 90 Modern and Contemporary 93 Jazz and Improvised Music 97 Pot Pourri 98 Something in the Air | KEN WAXMAN 100 Old Wine, New Bottles | BRUCE SURTEES MORE 6 Contact Information 7 Upcoming dates and deadlines 76 Classified Ads 37 un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario 6 | December 2019 / January 2020 thewholenote.com

FOR OPENERS | DAVID PERLMAN Simple Gifts, Period Very few topics stir the emotions of copy editors and proofreaders quite as much as the place and placement of the comma in written English. At The WholeNote we don’t quite come to blows about it, but only because we’re either too busy wrestling the next magazine into the dipping tank or, after the fact, too damned tired to fight. The formula: the number of correct opinions on whether or not to use any clearly optional comma is equal to the number of copy editors and proofreaders who examine the instance, plus one: the “plus one” being that the editor-in-chief, moi, is free to change his mind and does, resorting to quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson (A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds) or Oscar Wilde (Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative) whenever pressed, by a crew member close to counselling mutiny, to explain why what was perfectly OK two pages ago suddenly isn’t. As to the definition of a “clearly optional comma,” and when it should be placed inside or outside quotation marks, these are questions which, if I am ever going to get to the point of all this, will have to be left for another day. The point? That if I, dancing with my angels during the bright midday of my editorial soul, pause to examine my own fascination with the comma, what it all boils down to is whether in any specific context its use either helps or hinders the reader’s ability to hear the voice of the writer, including when and where they pause, or not, either to catch breath or to caress some particular phrase. It’s analogous, perhaps, to the choices a conductor must make in terms of when to use a baton or set it aside, when to hold the orchestra tightly by the hand in order to help it across a busy street, or when letting it run free is the greater gift. Or perhaps it’s like the difference between the sound of a choir where the singers are grouped by voice type, rank and file, and the sound of an opera chorus where little heterogeneous knots of singers deploy all over the stage in the service of the story being told. Or like the difference between the sound of a “Hallelujah” chorus, or Frosty the Snowman for that matter, emanating from a sing-along audience, compared to the same things being sung by the choir on the stage. For me it’s all about voices: about the way our writers make room wherever possible for the words of the people they are writing about; and about the extent to which their own individual voices shine through in what they write: whether, like me, they are vicarious observers of the scene or, as many are, passionate practitioners of the things they write about. Nothing gives me greater pleasure at moments like this, giving the pages about to go to press one final read, than hearing in my mind their individual voices, blending into a great collective musical murmuring from the heart, rising from these pages. This struggle and friendship is very satisfying to watch, as well as fun. I got that first library job in Phoenix. “The reason I really love the stars, is because we cannot hurt them.” This time it’s a special project for her, one in which she’s invested her creativity on many levels. (It’s also been a special project for me.) Given my carol obsession, I guess I should be sympathetic to these arguments – but I’m not sympathetic to them at all. “Everything: concision, precision, savagery, nobility, discomfort, freedom, knowledge, sweetness... These words are more relevant to this music than to any other.” During the customary playing of The Last Post from the rear of the chapel, I was stunned to hear a real bugle, not a trumpet, being played, in full uniform, by the bugler from The Queen’s Own Rifles Band, flawlessly and with beautiful tone. Speaking about children and sing-along Messiahs reminds me, in a topsy-turvy roundabout way, of a column I recently wrote … One rarely hears such candour expressed by an up-and-coming performer. Messing with Winterreise is a growing and delightful industry within classical music performance. That the work had the incipient power to make me care enough to be pissed off about its deficiencies is a big deal though. Our neighbourhoods begin to look like those in cheesy TV movies, though perhaps without the requisite miracles. Listen to how the songs you know are transformed, revivified, re-presented in ways that break the cynical purgatorial cycle of streaming-platform playlists, emerging, finally, alive again. Finally, here’s jazz columnist Steve Wallace on the act of giving inherent in jazz: The exchange is circular, as there is an unspoken pact between jazz players and their audience which goes something like this: give us your attention, your ears, and we musicians will give you our very best – or at least try to – and make some music, out of thin air. To all our contributors who month in and month out throw your voices into the thin air, and to all our readers who give us your ears, thank you for your gifts. publisher@thewholenote.com Upcoming Dates & Deadlines for our February 2020 edition Free Event Listings Deadline Midnight, Wednesday January 8 Display Ad Reservations Deadline 6pm Wednesday January 15 Advertising Materials Due 6pm Monday January 20 Classifieds Deadline 6pm Saturday January 25 Publication Date Tuesday January 28 (online) Thursday January 30 (print edition) Volume 25 No 5 “February 2020” will list events February 1, 2020 to March 7, 2020 WholeNote Media Inc. accepts no responsibility or liability for claims made for any product or service reported on or advertised in this issue Printed in Canada Couto Printing & Publishing Services Circulation Statement NOVEMBER 2019 24,000 printed & distributed Canadian Publication Product Sales Agreement 1263846 ISSN 14888-8785 WHOLENOTE Publications Mail Agreement #40026682 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: WholeNote Media Inc. Centre for Social Innovation 503–720 Bathurst Street Toronto ON M5S 2R4 COPYRIGHT © 2019 WHOLENOTE MEDIA INC thewholenote.com thewholenote.com December 2019 / January 2020 | 7

Volumes 26-29 (2020- )

Volumes 21-25 (2015-2020)

Volumes 16-20 (2010-2015)

Volumes 11-15 (2004-2010)

Volumes 6 - 10 (2000 - 2006)

Volumes 1-5 (1994-2000)