Views
4 years ago

Volume 25 Issue 6 - March 2020

  • Text
  • Composer
  • Performing
  • Arts
  • Faculty
  • Orchestra
  • Musical
  • Symphony
  • Theatre
  • Jazz
  • Toronto
FEATURED: Music & Health writer Vivien Fellegi explores music, blindness & the plasticity of perception; David Jaeger digs into Gustavo Gimeno's plans for new music in his upcoming first season as music director at TSO; pianist James Rhodes, here for an early March recital, speaks his mind in a Q&A with Paul Ennis; and Lydia Perovic talks music and more with rising Turkish-Canadian mezzo Beste Kalender. Also, among our columns, Peggy Baker Dance Projects headlines Wende Bartley's In with the New; Steve Wallace's Jazz Notes rushes in definitionally where many fear to tread; ... and more.

Gramophone’s 2013

Gramophone’s 2013 Young Artist of the Year, now 25, joins former TSO music director, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, in two programs featuring Beethoven’s much-loved Leonore Overture No.3 and his exultant Piano Concerto No.5 “Emperor”. On April 1 and 2, at Roy Thomson Hall, Schoenberg’s symphonic poem, Pelleas und Melisande, considered one of the “last gasps of Romanticism”, completes the concert. It’s replaced by Beethoven’s dramatic Piano Concerto No.3 on April 4, at RTH, and on April 5 at George Weston Recital Hall. !! APR 3, 7PM: Violinist Pamela Frank and pianist Emanuel Ax resume their productive musical partnership with this Koerner Hall recital comprised of two Mozart violin sonatas (K379 and K454) and Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No.10 in G Major, Op.96 “The Cockcrow”. !! APR 3 & 4, 8PM: The youngest of the three musical sisters of the Skride family (Baiba’s impressive TSO debut in Brahms’ Violin Concerto four years ago still lingers in my memory), Lauma Skride, is the soloist with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and conductor Andrei Feher in Schumann’s masterful Piano Concerto. Brahms’ profound Symphony No.4 completes the program. !! APR 3, 8PM: Gifted cellist, Stéphane Tétrault, headlines Sinfonia Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio concert in Schumann’s ravishing Cello Concerto. Conductor Nurhan Arman also leads his string orchestra in works by Bacewicz and Prokofiev. Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969) was a Polish composer and violinist, only the second Polish female composer to have achieved national and international recognition. According to Sinfonia Toronto’s program note, her Concerto for String Orchestra, composed in 1948, became one of her most frequently performed compositions. “This masterpiece of neoclassicism fascinates as much by its invention and virtuosic brilliance as its harmonious combination of formal elements of a traditional nature with new tonal ideas.” !! APR 5, 1PM: Vietnamese-Canadian pianist Dang Thai Son caught the world’s attention in October 1980, when he won the Tenth International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, becoming the first Asian-born competitor to do so. Montreal-based, his teaching and coaching skills are in demand as is his concertizing worldwide. For this rare local appearance in Mazzoleni Hall, he performs works by Debussy and Chopin. Free tickets will be available from the RCM beginning March 30. Paul Ennis is the managing editor of The WholeNote. Music at Metropolitan presents REQUIEM AETERNAM GRANT US PEACE Timeless music for Good Friday Wolfgang A. Mozart Requiem, K. 626 Gisele Kulak, soprano Valeria Kondrashov, alto Charles Davidson, tenor John Schneider, bass Metropolitan Festival Choir & Orchestra Dr. Patricia Wright, Conductor FRIDAY APRIL 10 / students 416-363-0331 metunited.ca RalphVaughn Williams Dona Nobis Pacem Chelsea Van Pelt, soprano Nicholas Higgs, baritone 7:30 PM 56 Queen St E, Toronto Beat by Beat | Early Music “Im Deutsch” Exploring Germanic Musical Identity MATTHEW WHITFIELD Over the last seven centuries, German-speaking artists have provided a powerful and innovative influence in almost every artistic discipline, from the region’s beginnings as a constellation of independently governed states to the present day, setting a standard for excellence in music, art, and architecture, and producing a roster of artists and artworks that are exemplars within their chosen fields. Consider, for example, these composers from what now constitutes a unified Germany: Bach, Handel, Beethoven, Brahms, Strauss and Schoenberg; each is a pivotal figure in the Western art music tradition, their music appearing countless times each year on concert programs throughout the world. Also consider these interpreters, conductors who have revolutionized the way we think of the batonwielding orchestral leader: Mendelssohn, von Bülow, Furtwängler and Klemperer. Their recordings are some of the best-selling of all time. Expand our lists of German-speakers to neighbouring Austria, and the list becomes even more astoundingly impressive: Mozart, Mahler, Karajan, Böhm, Kleiber …. Impressive as this “grocery list” rundown may be, the most significant point to be made is the extent to which these figures produced entire systems of creativity that permeated all of Europe. The concept of tonality, that hierarchy of tones and semitones that gives function to chords and directionality to progressions, is widely considered to have been codified in the works of J.S. Bach. Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms expanded the tonal vocabulary to create what we today call musical Romanticism, Mahler took this vocabulary to its breaking point and Schoenberg dissolved it altogether, establishing an organizing principle of these same tones and semitones that deliberately removed any and all reference to “tonality.” We see, then, just how important the German contribution was to the history of music. It can be stated, with a good deal of certainty and confidence, that art music as we know it today would be a different species altogether without German musical engagement. Amidst this pantheon of superlative performers and interpreters however, there are lesser figures, often no less interesting than their more renowned counterparts, and it is these secondary stories that we direct our attention to this month. 400 Years of Rosenmüller Johann Rosenmüller, depending on who you ask, was either a composer or an anatomist famous for his discovery of the pharyngeal recess, known as the fossa of Rosenmüller. The two Rosenmüllers lived almost sequentially, the composer from 1619-1684 and the anatomist from 1771-1820, and they are certainly two distinct and unique people. Rosenmüller (from here onward we will assume the composer) was born in Oelsnitz, near Plauen, studied at the University of Leipzig, and served as organist of the Nikolaikirche Leipzig from 1651 to 1655. In 1655, Rosenmüller was involved in a scandal involving alleged homosexual activities and fled to Italy to avoid prosecution and prison, eventually gaining employment at St. Mark’s in Venice and teaching at an orphanage for girls. In his last years, Rosenmüller returned to Germany with Duke Anton-Ulrich of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, at whose court he served as choir master. This return to Germany is significant, for with him Rosenmüller brought the influence of Legrenzi and Corelli, two Italian masters with whose style Rosenmüller became familiar and eventually adapted in 28 | March 2020 thewholenote.com

his own compositions. Heinrich Schütz is often credited with singlehandedly bringing the Italian style to Germany and continuing its evolution from the Renaissance into the early Baroque, but we see through this brief biography of Rosenmüller that he too brought southern stylistic influences north at approximately the same time as Schütz. Many of Rosenmüller’s published instrumental works are dance suites, including Paduanen (1645), Studenten-Music (1654) and the Sonate da camera (1667). His vocal music, nearly all of it sacred, includes two published collections of small sacred Lucas Harris, artistic director, Toronto Chamber Choir concertos, and it is this sacred vocal music that the Toronto Chamber Choir presents in their “Rosenmüller@400” concert on March 14. Featuring the Missa Brevis, Siehe an die Wercke Gottes, Ad dominum cum tribularer and the Magnificat in B-flat à 10, this concert will provide a comprehensive overview of Rosemüller’s style and is ideal for anyone who enjoys the music of Schütz, Buxtehude and their pre- Bach contemporaries. Telemann’s Fantasies Georg Philipp Telemann was enormously prolific, writing over 3,000 works, and was one of the most celebrated composers of his time before falling into relative obscurity. A contemporary of Bach, Telemann’s professional life coincided with Bach’s, and they were well acquainted on a personal level. Telemann, for example, was first offered the position of cantor at the Thomaskirche, and Bach only received his fateful offer after Telemann (and one other applicant) turned down the post. Carl Philipp Emannuel Bach was Telemann’s godson and Bach bought and studied a number of Telemann’s compositions. All this changed in the early 19th century, when Telemann’s popularity abruptly ceased. Considered a Vielschreiber, a writer for whom quantity came before quality, Telemann’s works were judged as inferior to Bach’s and lacking in deep religious feeling. For example, by 1911, the Encyclopedia Britannica lacked an article about Telemann, and in one of its few mentions of him referred to “the vastly inferior work of lesser composers such as Telemann” in comparison to Handel and Bach. The revival of interest in Telemann began in the first decades of the 20th century and culminated in the Bärenreiter critical edition of the 1950s; his music has since been performed regularly. On March 21, at St. Barnabas Anglican Church, on the Danforth, Valerie Gordon and a cohort of violinists (including, among others, Patricia Ahern, Kailey Richards, Michelle Odorico and Rezan Onen- Lapointe) perform Telemann’s 12 fantasias for solo violin, an opportunity to hear rarely performed music by this relatively recently discovered mastermind. Published in Hamburg in 1735, these fantasias comprise one set of Telemann’s collections of music for unaccompanied instruments, with other volumes for flute, harpsichord and viola da gamba. For modern audiences familiar with the contrapuntal density of Bach and the rhythmic vitality of Handel, Telemann’s music might seem rather simple and transparent – but do not be fooled. Hiding within Telemann’s massive oeuvre are works of remarkable 2019-2020: The Fellowship of Early Music Great seats start at only ! 416-964-6337 | TorontoConsort.org CROSSING COUNTRYSIDE Hebreo: the and ROSSI’S CHANNEL COURT MANTUA with OCTOBER Guest guest 25 Director vocal ensemble, & 26 at Scott 8pmMetcalfe Profeti della Quinta MARCH Artistic JANUARY Direction 6 31 & 7 & at by FEBRUARY 8pm Katherine Hill, 1 at with 8pmEmilyn Stam TRINITY-ST. TRINITY-ST. PAUL’S PAUL’S CENTRE, CENTRE, 427 427 BLOOR BLOOR ST. ST. WEST WEST Whether enjoyed in refined 16th-century courts or in The Join today’s contenance celebrated traditional angloise: vocal ensemble, music fashionable Profeti scene, the undeniable harmonies della Quinta appeal from the for of French dissonant an unforgettable music courts has endured of evening England, of through France madrigals the centuries! and Burgundy. and other Blue works We kick Heron’s by 17th-century off the Scott season Metcalfe, Mantua’s whirling guest famed and twirling directs Jewish a composer through program the exploring Salamone Rossi, featuring works for five popular male “voix the marvellous voices, de ville” theorbo, songs 15th century music of John Dunstaple, and exquisite harpsichord. courtly Come music of Claude Le Du Fay, and contemporaries, for voices, experience Jeune and his the contemporaries, tonal beauty combined recorders, percussion, fiddle and and harp. authentic with magic of guest traditional fiddler thewholenote.com March 2020 | 29

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)