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8 years ago

Volume 11 Issue 7 - April 2006

  • Text
  • April
  • Toronto
  • Theatre
  • Jazz
  • Musical
  • Arts
  • Orchestra
  • Symphony
  • Concerto
  • Choir

Toronto next Fall. One

Toronto next Fall. One of the conditions of the residency is a commission to compose a new work for the students. The result is Sun Dogs for massed choirs which will be performed at the Faculty of Music early in November. Speaking of the University of Toronto, I managed to find a couple of hours in the midst of my administrative and editorial commitments recently to take in a lecture by one of my very favourite writers at the Isabel Bader Theatre. Richard Powers is the author of a number of brilliantly challenging novels that integrate history, philosophy, science, technology and, especially, the arts into elaborately intertwined stories. At the risk of stepping on Pamela Margles' toes over in the Book Shelf section, I'd like to draw your attention to two of Powers' works that would be of particular to interest to musicians and music lovers who like a good read. The Gold Bug Variations (1991, Harper Collins Canada, 639 pages) interweaves tales of encryption, drawing on Edgar Allen Poe's "The Gold Bug", Bach's Goldberg Variations (and specifically Glenn Gould's famed 1955 recording) and the search for the secret of the double helix structure of the DNA molecule, as told through two love stories that take place 25 years apart. The Time of Our Singing, Powers' most recent novel (2003, Picador, 631 pages), is again a love story but also the story of the 20th century. When a Jewish German emigre scientist with a passion for opera meets a young, black aspiring opera singer in the interracial crowd of 75,000 that flocks to Washington for Marian Anderson's historic concert from the steps of Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday in 1939, a story that will take the subsequent turmoil of America's latter day coming of age as its backdrop is born. Somehow, through the trials and tribulations of the dysfunctional but highly creative family that results from the couple's decision to create a "colour blind" union, Powers manages to take us on an in-depth tour of European art music of the past millenium (with particular focus on the development of the school of historically informed performance practice) and the developments of North American Afro-centric music from the early forms of jazz to the current hip-hop scene. This is a brilliant book about the appropriation of voice. We welcome your feedback and invite submissions. Catalogues, review copies of CDs and comments should be sent to: The WholeNote, 503 - 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4. We also welcome your input via our website, www.thewholenote.com. David Olds Editor, D/SCoveries discoveries@thewholenote.com On the Record Eve Egoyan answers questions about a busy month Your early April CD launch concert and Dancemakers gig at the end of the month make an interesting pair of parentheses! Say more about either if you like. And what's in between? I will be launching two discs at the April 6 concert. Weave will be nationally distributed after the show and Asking will be on sale only during the show then internationally released on the New York-based label Mode Records in 2007. There is not much time for "inbetween" the launch and the Dancemaker shows except for rehearsals with Dancemakers and looking after Viva Anoush who turns two on May 3. There will be active preparations for Easter egg hunting (as well as making traditional Armenian Easter bread, choereg, with Viva to send to my parents in Victoria) and a fun-filled birthday party. last cd launch of yours I went to (the Komorous) at the Gould, it seemed that what you were doing, with the lighting and the feel of the event, was to try to create as intimate and personal a space for the listener as possible - a kind of softly lit glade of sound. The Dancemakers show seems like the antithesis of that -glare of the spotlight and all that. I chose that lighting for that particular piece (as well as for the performance of Linda C. Smith's Ballad for cello and piano premiered at the Gould on Feb. 22) to help my audience focus their ears. I want them to listen, to still their sense of sight. I am considering what lighting will be most appropriate for my disc launch. In The Satie Project (two seasons ago?) you also put yourself in the performance spotlight. Any way the Dancemakers Absences compares to that? I haven't yet had a chance to rehearse Absences. The music is sombre unlike The Satie Project which had extreme whimsical moments. I love to work with dancers on stage. We use our bodies to communicate the intangible. We work through time. An intimacy passes between us - I feel their bodies, breath, and movement in an extremely sensual way (often I cannot see them but feel their presence). We interact through air - vibrations of skin, breath, and sound. There are lots of unhappy matings of dance and music that take place in a concert season - often with a polarized audience in attendance, the dance crowd like figure skating fans waiting to applaud the triple salkows, the concert crowd wincing when the thud of feet or grand gestures interfere with their listening pleasure. lots of things can go wrong especially if the event is an arranged "multidisciplinary" marriage. I guess the fact that Chenier's work is an original score makes a difference? Eve Egoyan and Viva Anoush Yes, it is an original score for dance. On Monday I will meet with the composer for the first time and learn the technological aspects of the music. Here is what he tells me: " the piano's sound is amplified and processed via a Max program. On stage you play an acoustic piano and control the Max program with the Laptop which will be right beside you. You will alter the sound via midi pedals and sometimes with your right or left hand . Throughout the show the sound will navigate real to unreal sound always from the same acoustic piano source". It's not clear from the previous answer whether you will have discretion in use of the Max or whether it will be pre-determined. Can you clarify? I mailed the composer about your question, since I haven't worked with the technology yet. Here is his reply to me: "We use sound processing to give different colours to the natural sound of the piano and realize a kind of "orchestration" of the piano. Its function is to create new atmospheres, feelings, and emotions. We don't use any tape or prerecorded music to stay in direct intimacy with the dancers, but with a larger sound universe and a different way of playing. And yes, of course, what you will play will be a creative reaction to what you receive from the dancers, and vice-versa. The utilization of MAX/MSP changes nothing in our interest to have a dynamic and creative relation between Dance/Music." David Perlman 14 WWW. TH EWHOLENOTE.COM APRI L 1 - M AY 7 2006

n;Sinfonia 1oronto NURHAN ARMAN MUSIC DIRECTOR Toronto's Premier Cha.rnb.er Orchestra 2006-2007 Masterpiece Series Dedicated to our fragile environment Saturdays, 8 pm, Grace Church-on-the-Hill, 300 Lonsdale Road Oct 7, 2006 BEETHOVEN'S WORLD Richard Raymond, Pianist Chan Ka Nin's shimmering portrait of our coasts and forests opens a vista filled by earthy Russian wit , and Beethoven's magisterial vision of life in a vast universe. CHAN KA-NIN The Land Beautiful BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 2 SHOSTAKOVICH Quartet No. 1 orchestral version BEETHOVEN Grosse Fugue AUTUMN COLOURS Nov 18, 2006 Jesus Amigo, Conductor/ Etsuko Kimura, Violinist/ Angela Park, Pianist Two superb soloists intertwine lyrical lines by a French master, a Canadian paints an imaginary world, and Mozart's last chamber score reveals him at his most mature and profound. CHAUSSON Concerto for Violin and Piano HARRY FREEDMAN Fantasy and Allegro MOZART Quintet in E flat major, orchestral version Dec 9, 2006 CHRISTMAS FANCIES ' \ Floortje Gerritsen, Violinist/ Ballet Espressivo, Donna Greenberg, Choreographer Corelli's best-loved work opens a concert with gifts for all -- Mozart's silvery violin, a playful scherzo, the Gallant Knight's adventures brought to life in a vivid ballet, and favourite carols. CORELLI Christmas Concerto MOZART Violin Concerto No. 2 ANDRE PREVOST Scherzo TELEMANN Don Quixote Suite GADE Children's Christmas Eve FEBRUARY HEATWAVE Feb 3, 2007 Giancarlo De Lorenzo, Conductor/ Antonio di Cristofano, Pianist Romance to melt midwinter's chill ... a poem inspired by Yeats, the bard of Ireland's green hills; Chopin's poignant brilliance; and a dazzling serenade from fin-de-siecle Vienna. HEALEY WILLAN Poem CHOPIN Piano Concerto No. 2 FUCHS Serenade March 10, 2007 WINTER DREAMS Julian Milkis, Clarinetist Wood turns to gold as an international virtuoso breathes Brahms' soaring melodies, above a sparkling frozen landscape and the fleeting fantasies of Shostakovich's seven dramatic miniatures. BRAHMS Clarinet Quintet JEAN COULTHARD A Winter's Tale SHOSTAKOVICH Quartet No. 11 orchestral version SPRING SONGS April 14, 2007 Rui Massena, Conductor/ Mario Carbotta, Flutist A transcendent prayer, Conway Baker's lyrical conversation in music, Italian arias sung by the gleaming bel canto flute, and Beethoven's vigorous serenade to life. LISZT Angelusi (Prayer to Guardian Angels) MICHAEL CONWAY BAKER Flute Concerto MERCADANTE Flute Concerto in E Minor BEETHOVEN Serenade Mays, 2007 SUNSHINE Aline Kutan, Soprano Musical rays glow through Cherney's mystical work, glance between the clouds in Britten's settings of poems by Rimbaud, then burst forth in the full-bodied glory of Dvorak's joyous folk celebration. BRIAN CHERNEY Illuminations BRITIEN Les illuminations "l · DVORAK Sextet, orchestral version · ·,;}f,. Series: 9 adult, 9 senior, student & 16-29 www.sinfoniatoronto.com 416-499-0403

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