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Volume 11 Issue 6 - March 2006

  • Text
  • Toronto
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  • April
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  • Quartet
  • Mozart

18 ti+~infqnia 1oronLo

18 ti+~infqnia 1oronLo NURHAN ARMAN MUSIC DIRECTOR BEVERLEY JOHNSTON Percussionist Saturday, March 4 8 pm JOHN BURGE Flanders Fields Reflections world-premiere VIVALDI Marimba Concerto CHROSTOS HATZIS Love Among the Ruins (in the aftermath of 9/11) TCHAIKOVSKY Quartet No. 1 ~".') orchestral version ..£ \ i CARLO PALLESCHI, Conductor RAFAEL HOEKMAN, Cellist Saturday, April 8 8 pm ELGAR Serenade HA YON Cello Concerto in C BARTOK Divertimento HA YON Divertimento in D SCOTT ST. JOHN , Violinist Saturday, May 6 8 pm POPOVIC! Codex Caioni SCHUBERT Rondo SARASATE Zigeunerweisen HONEGGER Symphony No. 2 MOZART Divertimento K 136 Glenn Gould Studio 250 Front Street W. , , 416 205 5555 orwww.sinfoniatoronto.com Ge~o , & Co. Limited CONSERVATORS & PURVEYORS OF Fine & Rare Violins 20 I Church St., Toronto, ON. M5B I Y7 Tel: 416-363-0093 • Fax: 416-363-0053 Email: ghcl@idirect.com www.georgeheinl.com Canada's foremost violin exp.erts. Proud of our heritage. Exciled about the future. Quoolibet by Allan Pu Iker Early in month the inspiration for which was un­ In the first week of March there are doubtedly J .S. Bach's work in the many outstanding p~rformance~. same genre. Free up as many everungs as possi- "Non-traditional" Venues ble in order to get to at least some. Something that becomes very appar­ March 1, for example, accordion ent from even the most cursory survirtuoso, Joseph Petric and oboist, vey of music history is the mercu.ri­ Normand Forget do their Bach or- ally ever-changing nature ofmu~1c, gan sonatas CD fundraiser that I as the pinnacles of one generat10n wrote about last month. The same become the classics or the cliches of evening British flutist, Paul Edmund the next, as "Ars Nova" becomes a Davies gives a recital, sponsored chapter in the history of early muby Lo~g & McQuade, at Victoria sic, or as the aristocratic audiences College Chapel. On Marc~ 2 t?e of one generation lose interest, Penderecki String Quartet gives its wealth or their heads, and are re­ Kreutzer Sonata concert; and on placed by audiences from the bour- March 3 Amici performs with geoisie. . . guests, pianist Andre 1:'1P_la~te, vi- The concert, which at one time olist Stephen Dann and v1ohrust Scott may have been a Dionysian experi­ St. John. On March 4, Show One ence, has in our time become Apol­ Productions' second annual "Young Ionian _ formal, conventional and Stars of the Young Century" brings safe. We have noticed a quiet, alus virtuoso teenage musicians from most underground, movement to Canada and the republics of the "liberate" the concert from the conformer Soviet Union. Canadian su- straints of its current incarnation. The perstar soprano, Measha B:uegger- abundance this month of "musical gosman, will give a solo recital from events" in what, for Jack of a better the stage of Roy Thomson Hall on term, I am calling "non-traditional March 5. The same afternoon Off venues" is an indication of the Centre Music Salon presents its col- strength of this current in our artistic laboration with St. Petersburg's life. Mariinsky (Kirov) Theatre, and that evening bassoonist Nadina Mackie Jackson, with pianist David Swan and oboist Kathy Halvorson perform in the ballroom of the Gladstone Hotel. On March 6 the Associates of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra present chamber ensembles from the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra, and March 7 there are difficult choices: the Gryphon Trio, the Art of Time Ensemble and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra all have performances at 8:00 in the evening. (The Vienna Philharmonic is not the only famous Viennese orchestra coming to Toronto this month: on March 29 the Vienna Mozart Orchestra will be at Roy Thomson Hall; and on April 6 the Vienna Concert Verein will perform at the Weston Recital Hall - more about that next issue.) Bach's Birthday March 21 will be Johann Sebastian Bach's 32lst birthday, acknowledged this year by one concert, at !pm that day at St. James' Cathedral with mezzo Elaine Robertson and organist, Michael Bloss. However, at 8pm the same day, pianists Shoko Inoue, David Jalbert and Heather Schmidt will perform Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues, CBC's Music Around Us - "The New Generation" In addition to the Stars of Tomorrow concert and the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra ensembles there are other opportunities to hear young talent at the CBC's "Music Around Us, The New Generation" concert series on March 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30. Celebrating Women in Music on March 30 On March 30 at 8 :00 there will be two concerts featuring musicians who are women. It is regrettable that we will have to choose between them. "Global Divas" brings together outstanding women performers from around the world, primarily singers but including Toronto jazz musician, Jane Bunnett and Quebec cellist, Jorane, for a performance in an informal cabaret situation. "Finding North: Noteworthy Canadian Women Composers" is a recital at the Heliconian Hall given by a distinguished American mezzo-soprano and educator, Katherine Eberle a musician and scholar who has u~dertaken research on Canadian women composers to raise Americans' awareness of their contribu- WWW. TH EWHOLENOTE.COM MARCH 1 - APRIL 7 2006

tion to the vocal repertoire. Their work, she feels, has been overlooked by many singers and voice teachers outside of Canada because of the domination of the repertoire by European art songs. "In my search at the Canadian Music Centre library," she comments, "I have found 116 pieces for the mezzo-soprano or contralto voice alone, 43 of which are song cycles, averaging about five songs each. There are countless songs for other voice types as well." String Quartets I counted nineteen concerts by string quartets this month, twelve in Toronto, six in other cities. Some involve other instruments: quartet with clarinetist Nicolai Tarasov at the Academy Concert Series on March 18; with bass viol and piano at the Art of Time on March 24; with piano and soprano at the Canadian Sinfonietta on March 25; with piano at the Associates of the TSO on March 27; with bass and horn at the Toronto Senior Strings on April 6. Some of the string quartets are new, or not well-known: the Windermere String Quartet, a Torontobased ensemble which makes its debut on March 19; the Cecilia String Quartet on March 23; the Toronto Symphony Quartet on March 26; and the Gould String Quartet, guests of the Associates of the TSO on March 27. Berlin's Vogler String Quartet is touring Southern Ontario, playing in Hamilton on March 17, in Lindsay on March 18 and in Barrie on March 19. The Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society presents the Penderecki Quartet with guest cellist Antonio Lysy, on March 3 and the Takai String Quartet on March 17. Waterloo's Perimeter Institute presents the J uilliard String Quartet on March 30, and Music Toronto brings us three quartets - the Penderecki, already mentioned on March 2, the Tokyo String Quartet on March 16, and the Music Toronto Chamber Society on March 28. At U of Toronto, the St. Lawrence String Quartet performs on April 3, quite likely the last opportunity to hear this group in Toronto with founding second violinist, Barry Shiffinan. Percussionist, Evelyn Glennie with the TSO Scottish percussionist, Evelyn Glennie's biography on her website begins: "Evelyn is the first person in musical history to successfully create and sustain a full-time career as a solo percussionist. As one of the most eclectic and innovative musi- Evelyn Glennie cians on the scene today she is constantly redefining the goals and expectations of percussion ... combining superb technique, a profound appreciation of the visual and ... astonishing musicality [to create] performances of such vitality that they almost constitute a new type of performance. " If this isn't extraordinary enough, consider that at the young age of twelve doctors told her father that his daughter would have to stop taking piano lessons because she had lost her hearing. Fortunately for her and for the world he considered this advice nonsensical and let his daughter continue her lessons. Having now twice seen Touch the Sound, the documentary film about Ms. Glennie, my impression is that what makes her such an extraordinary musician, more even than the qualities mentioned in the quotation, is the quality of her listening. For me she has redefined what a musician is by redefining what we understand as listening and its significance in musical expression. Evelyn Glennie has onJy one performance with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, April 1st, part of their New Creations Festival. Read on ... These have been a few highlights of the month ahead. If you had been writing this column you might have chosen a completely different set of events. For example, I haven't mentioned the Guitar Society of Toronto's concerts on March 17 & 18 or the several very fine piano recitals sprinkled throughout the month. So please, read the listings carefully. They have been designed to be userfriendly, so that each reader can decide easily if a concert is for him/her or not. There's "a ton" of concerts there that are worth going to, just waiting for you to find them! Read on .. .. The world's premier touring bellydance troupe, the 16-member Superstars entrance with an exotic, mysterious and masterful dance extravaganza. The most important dance troupe in the world." -Sunday Times Wednesday, March 8, 8:00 Jone Mollett Theatre, 27 Front Street E. -40, at 416 366-7723 www.stlc.com MARYEM TOLLAR Arab-Canadian songs Toronto's acclaimed singer and Montreal poet Ehab Lotayef, plus a who's who of local world music and jazz players, serve up an evening as urgent as tomorrow's headlines. Saturday, March 11, 8:00 Glenn Gould Studio, 250 Front Street West ( students) at 416-205-5555 0 0 VARTTINA Finland's exotic voices Musical contributors to the Lord of the Rings stage production, Varttina possess a uniquely powerful energy. "A gale -force musical attack... exotic but accessible, complex but exciting."- NY Newsday Monday, March 27, 8:00 Mod Club Theatre, 722 College St., at 416 645-9090 / ticketpro.co MARCH 1 - APRIL 7 2006 www.THEWHOLENOTE.COM

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