In this issue: The WholeNote's 7th Annual TIFF TIPS guide to festival films with musical clout; soprano Erin Wall in conversation with Art of Song columnist Lydia Perovic, about more than the art of song; a summer's worth of recordings reviewed; Toronto Chamber Choir at 50 (is a few close friends all it takes?); and much more, as the 2018/19 season gets under way.
MUSIC AND FILM Carmine
MUSIC AND FILM Carmine Street Guitars 7th ANNUAL TIFF TIPS PAUL ENNIS The WholeNote’s seventh annual guide to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) takes a look at 17 films (in which music plays a notable role) out of the 255 features from 74 countries that comprise the festival’s 43rd edition. This year’s guide is anchored by my conversation with Ron Mann about his enchanting new documentary, Carmine Street Guitars. And there is considerable space devoted to two awardwinning films I saw at the Cannes Film Festival, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War and Gaspar Noé’s Climax. Music is indispensable to all three and they are highly recommended. The rest (some of which I have yet to screen) represent a cross-section of films where music, in one way or another, plays a significant part. Carmine Street Guitars, Ron Mann’s tenth feature-length documentary, is the latest in a distinguished career that began impressively with the free jazz doc Imagine the Sound in 1981 – when Mann was barely into his 20s. Carmine Street Guitars will have its world premiere September 3 at the prestigious Venice Film Festival, where it is the only Canadian film. Next stop is TIFF, September 9 and 13, followed by the New York Film Festival a few weeks later. Mann and I talked by phone in mid- August – his first interview since completing the movie. The Torontobased filmmaker, who was winding up a vacation in Woodstock, NY, seemed genuinely surprised by the love his film has engendered in festival programmers. (Reykjavik and Warsaw film festivals will also be screening it this fall, with the likelihood of many more to come). The conceit of the film is appealingly simple. Five days in the life of Rick Kelly, a luthier in a Greenwich Village guitar shop, his assistant Cindy Hulej, and his mother Dorothy (92 at the time) – with a supporting cast of visitors, a dozen or so musicians of varying fame and fortune, from Dallas and Travis Good of The Sadies to Lenny Kaye. It’s a minimalist concept that paints a rich portrait of the shop’s proprietor and produces an intimate, eclectic house concert of guitar music as a bonus. “It’s a modest movie,” Mann says. “Not layered like most of my films. The only thing I can think of is – there’s so much noise in movies and this is quiet. There’s a guitar movie called It Might Get Loud; this is It Might Get Soft.” In the 1960s, Carmine Street was the place you would go for guitars, Mann told me. John Sebastian lived across the street; Jimi Hendrix lived around the corner. It was the crossroads of music – Lenny Kaye actually worked at nearby Bleecker Bob’s record store. “I guess over time my perspective is that I see people and places and values disappear before my eyes,” he says. “The movie’s a look at Greenwich 8 | September2018 thewholenote.com
GREAT CHAMBER MUSIC DOWNTOWN STRINGS Oct. 18 Nov. 15 Dec. 6 Jan. 31 Feb. 14 Mar. 14 Apr. 18 St. Lawrence Quartet with baritone Tyler Duncan Ensemble Made in Canada Gryphon Trio Van Kuijk Quartet Juilliard Quartet with Marc-André Hamelin Lafayette and Saguenay Quartets Ariel Quartet St. Lawrence Quartet PIANO Oct. 2 Nov. 27 Feb. 5 Mar. 5 Apr. 2 Marc-André Hamelin Louise Bessette Juho Pohjonen Danny Driver Hilario Durán, The Hilario Durán Trio, Annalee Patipatanakoon, violin, and Roman Borys, cello Marc-André Hamelin Subscriptions still available. Single tickets on sale September 4 th. All concerts at 8pm TICKETS: 416.366.7723 | www.stlc.com 27 Front Street East, Toronto
