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Volume 25 Issue 3 - November 2019

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  • November
On the slim chance you might not have already heard the news, Estonian Canadian composing giant Udo Kasemets was born the same year that Leo Thermin invented the theremin --1919. Which means this is the centenary year for both of them, and both are being celebrated in style, as Andrew Timar and MJ Buell respectively explain. And that's just a taste of a bustling November, with enough coverage of music of both the delectably substantial and delightfully silly on hand to satisfy one and all.

LEV TSIVIAN Anastasia

LEV TSIVIAN Anastasia Rizikov crafted Violin Sonata No.1 in D Minor, Op.75 is next followed by Bach’s monumental Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D Minor for Solo Violin, BWV1004, Debussy’s ever-popular Clair de lune (arr. Roelens) and Ravel’s flamboyant Tzigane. Gallery 345 Gallery 345’s abundant programming continues this month with further installments of the Art of the Piano series and more. Piano 6 Next Generation-member Anastasia Rizikov has dazzled the world ever since her orchestral debut in Kiev at seven. Now 20, having competed with musicians over twice her age in winning numerous international piano competitions, she has entered a new stage in her career. Her November 14 recital is built to please, beginning with three major works by Chopin. After intermission, Burge, Arensky, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff and Balakirev’s devilishly difficult Islameny will further showcase her musical skill set. Ida Pelliccioli is a 31-year-old Italo-Croatian pianist who grew up in France. Her program, November 29, aims to create echoes between the music of Debussy and that of two composers who influenced him: Rameau and Albeniz. Debussy described Rameau as the pinnacle of the French tradition; his Suite in E Major opens the recital followed by Debussy’s Hommage à Rameau. Debussy was fond of reimagining the music of other countries and Spanish idioms inspired some of his most animated music. Three of the pieces Pelliccioli will play are also linked by the same element of inspiration: Albeniz’s La Vega was also called Alhambra Suite; Debussy’s La Puerta del Vino refers to the gate of the same palace in Granada; and finally, Debussy’s Soirée à Grenade” uses the Arabic scale and mimics guitar strumming to evoke images of this same land and heritage. NYOC/EUYO Frenergy Tour The National Youth Orchestra of Canada (NYO Canada) and the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) join forces for The Frenergy Tour, a landmark collaboration and celebration of music and friendship, featuring a combined total of 76 outstanding young musicians under the baton of acclaimed Viennese conductor Sascha Goetzel, with music by Rossini, Ravel, Saint-Saëns, Stravinsky and Wagner, as well as Canadian composer John Estacio’s Frenergy for orchestra. JUNO-nominated, burgeoning-star violinist and NYOC alumnus, Blake Pouliot, is featured as guest soloist in two virtuoso showpieces: Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso and Ravel’s Tzigane. This groundbreaking tour comprises concerts in Toronto (Koerner Hall November 12), Kingston (Isabel Bader November 13), Montreal (November 14) and Ottawa (November 17). Daniel Lozakovich TSO Marks the Hits On November 27, 28 30 and December 1, 18-year-old Swedish-born violin phenom, Daniel Lozakovich, is the soloist in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, a Romantic masterpiece that is the featured work on his just-released, second Deutsche Grammophon CD. Lozakovich began playing the violin before he turned seven and made his debut two years later with Vladimir Spivakov and the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra. His first appearance on DG came as a 15-yearold when Daniel Hope invited Lozakovich to join him in playing a selection of Bartok’s Duos for two violins on his Tribute to Yehudi A TAPESTRY OF YULETIDE MAGIC Ontario Christmas Tour 2019 TORONTO PERFORMANCE A FUNDRAISER FOR THE HOUSE OF COMPASSION FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 29 | 7:00PM YORMINISTER PARK BAPTIST CHURCH 1585 YONGE ST. TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR CHILDREN 12 AND UNDER FREE ADVANCE TICKETS: TEL: (416) 922-1167 26 | November 2019 thewholenote.com

Menuhin CD. Rounding out the all-Tchaikovsky program, TSO resident conductor Simon Rivard leads the orchestra in the composer’s beguiling Symphony No.1 “Winter Dreams” and the iconic 1812 Overture. That program is the culmination of a month of orchestral favourites that begins November 13 with Sir Andrew Davis conducting Shostakovich’s Symphony No.10, arguably the composer’s greatest symphony. Concertmaster Jonathan Crow leads the TSO in Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and Copland’s Appalachian Spring, November 16, 17, 20 and 21. And Leonard Slatkin makes a rare TSO appearance, November 22 and 23, conducting Gershwin’s joyous An American in Paris and Barber’s intensely emotional Piano Concerto (with soloist Jon Kimura Parker). CLASSICAL AND BEYOND QUICK PICKS !! NOV 7, 7:30PM: Stewart Goodyear joins the legendary Fine Arts String Quartet in a performance of Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F Minor Op.34 at Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts, Kingston. !! NOV 10, 2PM: Chamber Music Hamilton presents the Fine Arts String Quartet playing Beethoven’s String Quartet Op.18 No.1 and, with cellist and Chamber Music Hamilton co-artistic director Michael Schulte, Bruckner’s unique String Quintet. !! NOV 13, 8PM: Violinist Kerry DuWors and pianist Futaba Nickawa were students at the Eastman School of Music when they founded duo526 in 2011. Their acclaimed new Navona CD, Double Fantasy, features works by Villa-Lobos, Bax and Bolcom, which comprise the bulk of their recital for the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society (K-WCMS). On NOV 16 at 7:30, the duo repeats their program at Gallery 345 in Toronto. Gramophone Magazine praised their recording, calling them a “beautifully balanced duo, with exceptional intonation and a tangible empathy.” !! NOV 16, 8PM: The ever-elegant pianist David Jalbert, fresh from his impactful participation in Music Toronto’s spectacular Piano Six New Generation concert on October 22, gives a solo recital for K-WCMS headed by Debussy’s poetic Images Book I and II. !! NOV 17, 2:30PM: The formidable Jonathan Biss performs five Beethoven piano sonatas, from the early Op.7 to the celestial Op.109, at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts, Kingston. !! NOV 17, 3PM: Recalling two prior visits to Koerner Hall – his memorable Soundstreams performance of Max Richter’s Vivaldi Recomposed and subsequent Tribute to Yehudi Menuhin – violinist Daniel Hope returns with his new band, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, to perform works connected to Menuhin as well as Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. !! NOV 23, 7:30PM: Pianist Yefim Bronfman brings his virtuoso talent to a program of Beethoven and Brahms at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts, Kingston. NOV 24, 3PM: It’s all Beethoven – Sonatas Nos.7, 8 and 9 as well as No.23 “Appassionata” – when Bronfman comes to Koerner Hall. !! NOV 29 AND 30, 8PM: Sparkling violinist, Blake Pouliot, joins conductor Andrei Feher and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony in a performance of Brahms’ unforgettable Violin Concerto. !! NOV 30, 7:30PM: Bravo Niagara! presents cellist Ofra Harnoy who continues her remarkable recovery from reconstructive shoulder surgery in 2015. Her Niagaraon-the-Lake recital features music by Bach, Corelli, Popper and a Beatles Medley, supported by her husband, Mike Herriott, on flugelhorn and trumpet. Herriott produced Harnoy’s latest recording, Back to Bach, much of which is the basis for this recital. !! DEC 1, 3PM: The first American in three decades and the youngest musician ever to win First Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition Cello Division, 20-yearold Zlatomir Fung (who is of Bulgarian-Chinese parentage) is poised to become one of the preeminent cellists of our time. Joining him in this Syrinx Concerts presentation, in the intimate surroundings of Heliconian Hall, are pianist Jean-Luc Therrien, a Jeunesses Musicales Canada alumnus, and violinist Mai Tategami, Orford Music Prize-winner. Piano trios by Haydn, Clara Schumann, Chan Ka Nin and Mendelssohn are enticing. Paul Ennis is the managing editor of The WholeNote. thewholenote.com November 2019 | 27

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