Duke University. Now organist and director of music at St. Vincentde Paul in Toronto, he gives recitals regularly at the Oratory. He isalso guest organist of the Toronto Tallis Choir, artistic director andcontinuo player of the St. Vincent’s Baroque Soloists, and is active asa composer.Fournier’s recital on the Kney/Gober organ is designed to showoff the capabilities of this instrument, with music by Sweelinck,Buxtehude, Weckmann and Bach. It takes place at the newly rebuiltHoly Family Church on June 10.Spadina Museum holds their outdoor concert series, Music in theOrchard, every spring, with four concerts coming up. On June17,you can hear a concert of “live outdoor audible acoustic music” (byhis own affirmation) by Mike Franklin—he’s a versatile multi-instrumentalistand singer who specializes in European medieval, renaissanceand traditional music, and I can attest that he always presentsa very imaginative program.And if you happen to be in the vicinity of the Church of the HolyTrinity (behind the Eaton Centre) at noon on Equinox or Solstice days,you can catch Mike creating a sonic landscape at the outdoor labyrinththere (this year, the Summer Solstice occurs on June 20). Onelate-September day, I heard him cast a cloak of sombre magic overthe labyrinth and those who chose to walk it, with a hurdy-gurdyand with a most otherworldly shawm.The Cardinal Consort of Viols and a special guest perform in theToronto Early Music Centre’s Musically Speaking series on June17.“Music for Queen Elizabeth I” pays tribute to not only the firstQueen Elizabeth but also the second, in celebration of her majesty’sDiamond Jubilee; and the music of course is English—Byrd, Gibbons,Dowland, Holborne and Bull. As for the special guest—well, he’s anaccomplished countertenor whom we don’t get to hear enough thesedays: Frank Nakashima (who counts eight years as The WholeNote’sEarly Music columnist among his many artistic ventures). The concerttakes place in a setting that is proving to be just right for intimatemusic-making: St. David’s Church, Donlands and Danforth.Surely one of the most exquisite concert settings around isSharon Temple in the municipality of East Gwillimbury. Music hasresounded within the walls of this stunningly beautiful edificeBenjaminBagbydeliversBeowulf atMontrealBaroque.ever since it was built by the Children of Peace in1831. The concert series Music at Sharon, whoseco-artistic directors are Larry Beckwith andRick Phillips, makes its home there every yearin June. Of the four concerts, two involve musicof the 18th and 17th centuries (respectively): onJune 10, “Zelenka Plays Bach” features three of theBach solo cello suites (nos. 1, 3 and 6) played bycellist Winona Zelenka—one of the most compellingcellists around, whose recording of Bach’ssix suites for unaccompanied cello won her a 2011JUNO Award nomination in the small ensemble/solo classical category; and on June17, a concertversion of Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas will bepresented, with soprano Meredith Hall as Dido,baritone Todd Delaney as Aeneas, and the TorontoMasque Theatre.Publicity for Music at Sharon urges you to “Planto arrive early to picnic on the beautiful park-likegrounds and tour the site’s unique heritage buildings,before moving inside the Sharon Temple forthe pre-concert chat at 1:15pm followed by the2pm concert.” Sounds like a plan for a wonderfulafternoon!Readers may recall June 2011’s Early Musiccolumn, which covered Tafelmusik BaroqueSummer Institute’s yearly program in some depthin many of its aspects: instrumental, vocal andconductor/director studies; lectures, masterclasses,workshops and more. (You can find thiscolumn on The WholeNote’s website at thewholenote.com—goto “About Us” and click on “PreviousIssues.”) It’s a very successful format which isrepeated this June at the University of Toronto from the 3rd to the16th of the month. Four concerts are spawned during its run: June 4,“Delightfully Baroque,” with music performed by the TafelmusikBaroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir; June 9, “Musical Interlude,”a casual noon-hour concert of baroque chamber music by TBSI faculty;June 13, “The TBSI Orchestras and Choirs,” directed by JeanneLamon and Ivars Taurins and featuring Institute participants; andJune 16, “The Grand Finale,” a baroque extravaganza in which participantsand faculty perform together. A lively baroque experiencein a bustling city!Speaking of “lively baroque experiences” in bustling cities, June 21to 24 is a festive time to be in Montreal because the tenth anniversaryof the Montreal Baroque Festival is happening; and thoughtheir theme this year is “The Apocalypse,” this is qualified by thesubtext “Transformations, Revelations” —with the implied meaningthat wonderful things are about to occur. Of this there can be nodoubt: a look at their schedule reveals four days packed with events,from rendez-vous in a café to a “Parade for the Apocalypse,” to manyconcerts with terrific performers. You can witness a horse balletpresented at Louis XIII’s engagement in 1612, with horses from theEquimagie stables and music later transcribed by Lully. There is adramatic monologue on the ancient epic story of Beowulf, the younghero slain by a dragon, formidably delivered by Benjamin Bagby(medieval specialist, singer and co-founder of the medieval vocaland instrumental ensemble Sequentia) who accompanies himselfon the harp and has presented it to great acclaim over the past 20years. There’s music by Hildegard von Bingen, Biber, Bach and others,including Telemann’s great sacred oratorio Der Tag des Gerichts(The Last Judgment). Performers include virtuoso natural trumpetersJean-François Madeuf from France, and Graham Nicholson fromHolland, as well as an array of top-notch musicians and ensembleswhom audiences, especially in Quebec, are lucky enough to hearregularly. I hope you’ll be able to join them.Simone Desilets is a long-time contributor to The WholeNotein several capacities who plays the viola da gamba. Shecan be contacted at earlymusic@thewholenote.com.14 thewholenote.com June 1 – July 7, 2012
Beat by Beat | Classical & BeyondGoing for the GustoSharna SearleHere’s what’s really neat about the classical music scenein June: it seems to me that performers and presenters,alike —having thrown off the heavy mantle of winter andsurvived their various spring concerts and season finales —are nowready to have some real, summer fun! Given what’s on offer — GreenPages and all —perhaps an apt motto for the month might be, “Go Bigor Go Late Night!”A good day for Goodyear: And when I say “big” I mean BIG, as inhaving pianist Stewart Goodyear perform all 32 of Beethoven’s pianosonatas in the order in which they were composed — in one day! Let’ssee, now. That translates into approximately ten and a half hours ofsome of the most complex, difficult and profound music ever written,played by one remarkable, strong-minded (and strong-bodied)pianist in a single day over three “concert sittings” starting at 10amand, with two breaks, ending at 11:30pm. Phew! —not for the faint ofheart (and I’m talking about both performer and audience, here). CopresentersLuminato and the Royal Conservatory haven’t billed this“The Beethoven Marathon” for nothing!Goodyear —a Toronto native now living in New York — stopped byThe WholeNote for a “Conversations@TheWholeNote.com” videointerview session, May 10, with the magazine’s David Perlman.(The 23-minute video can be found at thewholenote.com.)As you may know, this isn’t Goodyear’s first stab at nailing all32 Beethoven sonatas in one go, so to speak. That first “go,” however,consisted of nine concerts over five days, at the 2010 OttawaChamber Music Festival. Here’s what Goodyear told The WholeNoteabout that event: “I wanted to do it in one day and there was somequestion of whether the audience would survive. (He laughs.) So wehad a little gentle ‘foreplay,’ in retrospect. It was a span of five days.And what was so wonderful about that cycle in Ottawa was thatevery audience member kept on coming back. They wanted to be onthat journey; we were all being transported.”No doubt he’ll have them “coming back” over the course of hisone-day/three-concert sonata extravaganza at Koerner Hall onMUSIC IN THEORCHARDSunday Afternoons in Junefrom 1:30 - 2:30 p.m.Bring a picnic, a blanketand the entire family!June 10 • Taffanel Wind EnsembleAn enchanting program of classical musicJune17 • Mike FranklinThis talented singer and multi-instrumentalistspecializes in medieval and renaissance musicJune 24 • VentElationA wind octet performing beautiful worksfrom the late 18th and early 19th centuriespay-what-you-canSpadina Museum285 Spadina Rd. 416-392-6910spadina@toronto.catoronto.ca/museums-eventsJune 1 – July 7, 2012thewholenote.com 15
