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Volume 10 Issue 8 - May 2005

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Women's Musical Club of

Women's Musical Club of Toronto Subscribe to mu,jic in the Afternoon 2005-2006 SetMon Five great concerts for the early-bird price of 5. (until May 30'' Thursday afternoons at 1.30 p.m. Pre-concert lecture 12.15 p.m. Vienna Piano Trio October 27, 2005 · Alain Trudel, trombone November 24, 2005 & members of the TSO Jupiter String Quartet January 1'9, 2006 2004 Banff ISQC Winner Xiang Zou, piano March 9, 2006 2003 Honens 1s1 Laureate Meredith Hall, soprano April 20, 2006 Bernard Farley, guitar Sylvain Bergeron, lute : For more information or to subscribe, call 416-923-7052 www.wmct.on.ca EDITOR'S (ORNER This month we welcome a new reviewer to DISCoveries, one of Toronto's premiere contemporary music specialists and all-round musicians, pianist David Swan. David came 10 national attention as the first winner of the Eckhardt­ Gramatte National Competition for the Performance of Canadian Music in 1976. He is the' organist at St. Paul's United Church in Toronto and for some years has served as New Music Concerts' principal pianist. It was in this latter capacity that he had the opportunity to work under the direction of Glenn Gould Prize Laureate Pierre Boulez in 2002 and so it is eminently fitting that his first review for us should be of the three piano sonatas by that preeminent French composer. Please see David's review in the Discs of the Month section. Another one of Toronto's piano elite, Eve Egoyan, is also featured in our Discs of the Month, not as reviewer in this instance, but s performer - see John S. Gray's musings on Eve's release of Rudolf Komorous' Wu. in the following pagt:s). Another was Barbara Hannigan's stunning performance of Henri Dutilleux' Correspondances. Although not the dedicatee of the work, the Toronto soprano had previously performed .it in Amsterdam and Paris, and the 89 year old composer, who was in attendance, seemed thrilled by Hannigan 's performance. I'm sure Dutilleux is also thrilled by Anne-Sophie Mutter's performance of the 2003 "nocturne for violin and orchestra" Sur le meme accord which brings me to my first CD pick, a Deutsche Grammophon release that also includes 20th century classic violin concertos by Bartok (No.2) and Stravinsky (00289 477 5376). Reach 105,000 concert-goers throu h WholeNote Ma azine Picked up by music lovers at over 1100 locations, WholeNote offers unparalleled opportunities to promote summer music festivals in Southern Ontario and beyond. Be noticed. I) General information about your festival. This will appear at no charge in "Festivals a la carte" in the June issue. Deadline: Monday, May 9. 2) WholeNote membership. A 175-word profile in the June issue. Year-round 25% discount on advertising, and WholeNote web presence. Deadline: Monday, May 9; cost: 0 + GST. 3) Advertising. To suit every budget. For rates or to book an ad, call us at 416-323-2232. Deadline Monday May 16. 4) Free event listings. June issue (events from June I to July 7): Friday May 13 July/August issue (events from July I to Sept 7): June 13. Advertising, membership, "Festivals a la carte" and listings inquiries: 416-323-2232. Editorial inquiries: 416-603-3786. E-mail: summerfest@thewholenote.com Reach your audience through WholeNote Magazine. I was sorely tempted to keep. both of those discs for myself, but it seemed more appropriate to let the piano experts have their way with them. I did however manage to sequester several new music discs for my own purposes. Two of these have distinctly Canadian connections, and all have some bearing on the local scene. I spent three evenings recently at the TSO's New Creations Festival and had the pleasure of hearing a number o_f distinctive works. While for the most part I found the music to be traditional enough in its focus that almost all of the works could have been included in any of the TSO's regular season concerts without raising too many eyebrows, the festival did proviqe the opportunity to hear roughly a dozen more or less contemporary works in close proximity, and without apology. While there was a certain sameness within the repertoire, there were several highlights. One of these was R. Murray Schafer's Four Forty, a concerto for string quartet and orchestra featuring the St. Lawrence Quartet (see the review of their new CD Awakenings The Dutilleux, performed with the Orchestre National de France under Kurt Masur, is a world premiere recording, combined here with Bartok (Boston Symphony/ Ozawa) and Stravinsky (Philharmonia/Sacher) reissues. It makes a great sampler of significant works for violin and orchestra by three of the major voices of the 20th century. (You can also read about Dutilleux's Sonatine in these pages in Allan Pulker's review of Patrick Gallois and Lydia Wong's Naxos release "French Flute Music".) The next release I'd like to draw your attention to also relates in a way to the New Creations Festival. This most recent incarnation of a Toronto Symphony new music festival had its precursor in the Made in Canada Festival instigated by Jukka Pekka Saraste in his first years at the TSO. The festival eventually evolved into the Massey Hall New Music Festival and ultimately "NUMUFest" before expiring in 200 I . In one of the early years of the festival Joshua WWW. THEWHOLENOTE.COM MAY 1 - ]UNE 7 2005

merable recordings in recent years for the Analekta, CBC Records and Chandos labels, surprises us in the role of multi-instrumentalist. The English Black Box recording John Adams: Road Movies (BBM1098) features Ehnes playing second piano in a duet with American Andrew Russo in Hallelujah Junction for two pianos, and violin in the title work. The major piece on the disc is however an early solo pi­ Bel l was the featured soloist in a ano work from 1977, Phrygian "'Chaconne for Violin and Orches- Gates which clocks in at roughly tra" derived from John Corigliano's half an hour. This first work in music for the award-winning Ca- Adams' mature style (i.e. mininadian film by Franc;ois Girard, malist bored with minimalism) The Red Violin. Bell returned to the takes us on a journey that juxtaposfestival this year to perform a born- es Phrygian and Lydian modes bastic concerto by lranian-Ameri- while working through the cycle of can composer Behzad Ranjbaran fifths, which is to say that there is that was a real crowd pleaser, but more melodic development here I was left wondering after all the than in the works of say Philip sizzle, "where's the beef"? But Glass or Steve Reich. The "gates" that's not really what I wanted to of the title, terminology borrowed say. The prestigious English label from .electronic music, refer to Chandos has just released a SACD abrupt shifts of mode as with the featuring Corigliano's Symphony opening or closing of a gate - no No.2 (for strings) and the Suite gentle transitions here. The two from rhe Film "The Red Violin" fea- works that involve Ehnes date from turing the renowned Canadian the mid-l 990s and are in some chamber orchestra I Musici de ways much more lyrical although Montreal with concert master and there is still a rough edge to them. soloist Eleonora Turovsky and con- This release shows us sides of both ductor Yuli Turovsky (CHSA John Adams and James Ehnes of 5035). Actually the "Suite" should which we may not have been prenot be confused with the "Cha- viously aware. Adams has become i.:onne" nor the later "Concerto" known for large works of grand extracted from the same film. The scale - operas, ballets, concertos Suite gives more of an obbligato and other orchestral works - and role than that of star soloist to the Ehnes is known to us an interpretviolin, but Eleonora Turovsky takes er ready to stray from the beaten full advantage ot"every available track upon occasion to explore the opportunity to shine. The Pulitzer world of lesser known composers Prize-winning Second Symphony like Hummel, but most at home that is also included here is a dark with l 9th and early 20th century reworking of an earlier stringquar- repertoire (his recordings of tet replete with ghostly quotations "French Showpieces", works of of quasi-Renaissance horales and Kreisler, Dvorak and Prokofiev Doppler-effect siren passages. spring to mind, and of course the Quite striking in a quiet sort of way. Juno Award winning recording of Bruch's Second Concerto and Scottish Fantasy). "Road Movies" is a welcome addition to our body of knowledge about both these important artists. , ' h', ,x,":{7;; hhh h'' v , '::.z ANAl.i:EKTA· Wsour,"name: It's your musi.c .,., v ';>«h.,\#.,, > h: ' BRAHMS Piano Concertos and Piano Solo Works ANTON KUERTI I piano ORCHESTRE MtTROPOLITAIN DU GRAND MONTRtAL I JOSEPH RESCIGNO The final disc that I'd like to talk about this month also features a renowned Canadian violinist, James Ehnes. But on this occasion the young man who has made innu- MAY 1 - )UNE 7 2005 We welcome your feedback and invite submissions. Catalogues, review copies of CDs and comments should be sent to The WhgleNote, 503 - 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4. We also welcome your input via our web­ site, www.thewholenote.com. David Olds Editor, D/SCoveries DISCOVERIES continues on page 60

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