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Volume 10 Issue 4 - December 2004

  • Text
  • Toronto
  • December
  • Theatre
  • January
  • Jazz
  • Ensemble
  • Symphony
  • Choir
  • Musical
  • February

when opera-trained

when opera-trained voices take on lighter fare. The disc also includes the lovely Serenade for Strings. Samuel Barber's first published work. Another treat that came my way this month is entitled "English Fancy"' (Analekta AN 2 9905) with a Montreal period instrumem ensemble I was not previously aware of, Masques, founded by artistic director Olivier Fonin and featuring soprano Shannon Mercer. This charming collection includes such vocal gems as Purcell's Nymphs and Shepherds and Music for a While, and Campion's Come Away and Her Rosie Cheeks, cleverly interspersed with instrumental selections by Purcell and John Jenkins. Highly recommended. Concert Note: Music of Campion (and Dowland) will be featured in the Musicians in Ordinary presentation "Contayning Divine and Moral! Songs" on January 29. Jumping forward several centuries and leaping an ocean as well, we come to the CBC Records release "So much to tell'" (SMCD 5234) which features the exceptional voice of Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosman. Accompanied here by the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Roy Goodman, Brueggergosman seems particularly at home in the mid-century American an song re.pertoire presented: Copland's Eight Poems of Emily Dickinson and Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915, a setting of James Agee's autobiographical stream-of-consciousness text. She is equally comfortable with the three Gershwin songs included here in orchestral arrangements by Adrian Williams: Embraceable You: By Strauss and I've Got a Crush 011 You. These are performed in a totally convincing manner and don't suffer from the over-singing that so often occurs GREAT MUSIC NOW ONLINE OVE R 40,000 CLASSICAL & JAZZ TITLES IN OUR ONLIN E CATALOGUE My final selection this month is something quite different, a concc:r1ed work for electric guitar by Montreal composer Tim Brady. The title work from "Playing Guitar: Symphony #1" (Ambiances Magnetiques AM 125 CD) was composed for Lorraine Yaillancourt's Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. Al times Brady's guitar with its many electronic extensions is fully integrated into the 15-piece ensemble and at times this is more of a concerto, with guitar solos and an extended cadenza. Clocking in at nearly 50 minutes Playing Guitar varies from energy-driven, quasi-minimalist "wall of sound" movements that present Brady at his most boisterous and ebullient, to lengthy contemplative sections dominated by mournfully tuneful brass instruments and "weeping" guitar - this really is a work of symphonic scale. Concert Note: Tim Brady will be in Toronto performing with Bradyworks at the Music Gallery on December 12. On January 22 and 23 New Mµsic Concerts presents his chamber opera Three Cities in the Life of Dr. Norman Bethune. That evening will also include guitar works by Wende Bartley, R. Murray Schafer and Rene Lussier. along with a solo guitar movement from Brady's Playing Guitar: Symphony# 1. We welcome your feedback and invite submissions. Catalogues, review copies of CDs and comments should be sent to: The WholeNote, 720 Bathurst St.. Suite 503, Toronto ON M5S 2R4. We also welcome your input via our website. www.thewholenote.com. David Olds Editor, DlSCoveries DISCoveries continues on page 74 DECfMB(R 1 2004 - FEBRUARY 7 2005

Masques Olivier Fortin, direction Shannon Mercer, Soprano a I , .. Jenkins, Purcell, ENGLISH FANCY Campion Ideal Gift Ideas for the Holiday Season .. Duo Campion-Vachon Piano Four Hands A quintessential Baroque Christmas.,, Traditional carols, a twist of jazz and a pinch of classical _...,...-..- .. music. Available at g·_1;.1. .. rlg_orlan (416) 922-6477 (905) 338-2360 DECEMBER 1 2004 -FEBRUARY 7 2005 5= og .. WWW. THEWHOLENOH.COM www.analekta.com 15

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