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Volume 23 Issue 5 - February 2018

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  • Toronto
  • February
  • Jazz
  • Arts
  • Performing
  • Theatre
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  • Quartet

Glionna Mansell Presents

Glionna Mansell Presents A Music Series unlike any other www.organixconcerts.ca 18 ORGANIX Gala Concerts Online Tickets: www.organixconcerts.ca Alcée Chriss III (U.S.A.) April 20, 7:30 p.m. Venue T.B.A. Tickets not available yet Eugenio Maria Fagiani (Italy) May 16, 7:30 p.m. St. Basil's Church Loreto Aramendi (Spain) June 23, 7:30 p.m. Christ Church Deer Park Jeremy Woodside (New Zealand) July 9, 7:30 p.m. Our Lady of Sorrows Ryan Jackson (Canada-U.S.A.) October 19, 7:30 p.m. Metropolitan United Church Tickets: Directly from Metropolitan United Church ORGANIX Bi-Weekly Free Concerts ALL SAINTS ANGLICAN CHURCH, 2850 BLOOR STREET WEST, TORONTO, M8X 1B2 starting at 12:30 p.m. ending approximately 1:15 p.m. For more details, please visit www.organixconcerts.ca ALL SAINTS KINGSWAY ANGLICAN CHURCH Paul Huang that is so close to the human voice that drew me to the instrument. As a child, I was terribly shy and was not good with words, so playing the violin was a way to express myself without using words!” I asked who his musical idols were in his formative years and he told me it was a hard question to answer. “But I will say that there are several violinists (mainly the ones from the past) that I would constantly listen to (and still do), people like Kreisler, Oistrakh, Milstein, Hassid and the young Menuhin. Outside of the violin world, Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland are some of the singers that I constantly listen to and find myself feeling so inspired every time I listen to their voices.” As to what violinists inspire him, he said those violinists who have a strong viewpoint and a voice that is convincing and unique. “I find that most of the violinists from the past generation all have a sound that is so distinctive from each other. They are all inspiring to listen to.” Nicolas Altstaedt: When I asked Alstaedt what drew him to the cello he told me that his father played the piano a bit as well as the cello. His older brother started playing piano so when he was six he picked up the cello. “Once I started playing, I didn’t think of doing anything else in my life.” He never “idolized“ interpreters he told me, “though I have certainly been influenced by artists I admired such as Gidon Kremer or Nikolaus Harnoncourt. I have always found deep fascination in the process of composing and creating an artwork. There is a danger in our society in idolizing performers rather than recognizing and understanding the achievements of true creators.” As to whom he considers to be his musical mentors, he pointed to violinist and chamber musician Eberhard Feltz as the most influential figure in his life for almost ten years. “I met him through the Quatuor Ébène, who have been working with him for a long time. They regularly came to Berlin, staying at my place while i was attending classes for sometimes up to eight hours a day. I started to study with him in 2009 and still see him on a regular basis. He keeps surprising me every time and each encounter leaves food for thought for several weeks.” Next, I asked each musician to comment on the repertoire they will be performing. AC: We have a great program for my KWS debut. A flashy overture by Magnus Lindberg, Aventures, which quotes many popular classical music works including Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony and even Berlioz’s grand fantasy-themed Symphonie Fantastique which we perform in the second half of the concert. In between we’re joined by pianist André Laplante for Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto. I have a long relationship with the Berlioz as I conducted rehearsals as an assistant in Birmingham, went on to assist it a couple of times in my time at the CBSO and then conducted it in Scotland in 2016 in a program that also included Debussy’s La Mer! MARCO BORGGREVE 24 | February 2018 thewholenote.com

PH: In general for my recital programs, I want to give audiences a variety of musical styles and a sound world palette which the violin is able to convey. For this program with my duo partner Helen Huang, we will be bringing the Dvořák Sonatina, a piece which Dvořák wrote while in America but very much had nostalgia towards his roots, with several joyful Czech dances throughout the movements. The Prokofiev F-Minor Sonata is perhaps one of the darkest sonatas ever written (like a Russian epic novel). It was written during WWII, a sonata that almost in a way documents history through the notes. In the second half we have prepared two miniature pieces (Sarasate and Kreisler) to lighten up the mood from the dark first half and make a transition to the finale of the program, which will be the colourful and brilliant Saint-Saëns’ Violin Sonata, a piece that is very dear to my heart. NA: The repertoire for Altstaedt’s recital consists mostly of the works on his recent Warner Classics CD with his Koerner recital partner, Fazil Say. “I met Fazil seven years ago and commissioned a sonata while I was on the BBC New Generation Artist scheme. We started to play recitals and the following program evolved. I have a strong passion for the music at the beginning of the 20th century; Janácek and Debussy are two very different exemplary masterpieces of that period. Shostakovich has been the most influential composer in my childhood and his sonata is very similar to Fazil’s in term of architecture.” I concluded my virtual symposium by asking each musician the question: What do you find most rewarding and most challenging in your professional life? AC: I think one of the most important Nicolas Altstaedt elements of my professional life is the musical and emotional reward I enjoy when playing and conducting live music. The most challenging, however, is the travel and unsettled lifestyle, which can be very tiring. I also find constantly changing repertoire to be a challenge! For example, the week before I conduct the Kitchener- Waterloo Symphony, I will be in Italy conducting Shostakovich 11. I’ll then travel straight to KWS for Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, followed by the Netherlands to conduct Tchaikovsky 4 and then back to Italy for Shostakovich 10! PH: Very often when I get together with musicians we ask each other is all the stress, travelling, hours of practising, the nerves of getting on stage night after night, is this really worth it? But the answer at the end is always yes. Because when I see people coming up to me after concerts telling me how much they enjoyed the evening or sometimes how it made their lives more meaningful or even made some positive impact in their lives, for me, that’s what makes everything worth it. I believe music is the most wonderful and powerful way of bridging different roots, different cultures, different languages, different religions and different backgrounds. In the world of music, we are all on this wonderful musical platform where we are all the same and can share something in common and can understand and respect each other on balkan-klezmer-gypsy-party-punk-super-band “BJM’s dancers throw themselves headlong into the challenge. It all makes for addictive entertainment. ” – The Globe and Mail, Toronto “cultural ambassadors, folk dancers and jazzers…Driving themselves forward at heart-palpitating tempos” – NOW Toronto FEB 22 7:30 PM FEB 28 8 PM www.livingartscentre.ca u 905.306.6000 thewholenote.com February 2018 | 25

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