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Volume 27 Issue 8 | July 1 - September 20, 2022

  • Text
  • Thewholenotecom
  • Composer
  • Arts
  • Album
  • Stratford
  • August
  • Festival
  • Jazz
  • September
  • Musical
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Final print issue of Volume 27 (259th, count 'em!). You'll see us in print again mid-September. Inside: A seat at one table at April's "Mayors Lunch" TAF Awards; RCM's 6th edition "Celebration Series" of piano music -- more than ODWGs; Classical and beyond at two festivals; two lakeshore venues reborn; our summer "Green Pages" festival directory; record reviews, listening room and more. On stands Tuesday July 5 2022.

CLASSICAL AND BEYOND

CLASSICAL AND BEYOND Canadian Brass A PIANO-LOVER’S FEAST AT PARRY SOUND AND LANAUDIÈRE PAUL ENNIS NINAYOSHIDA NELSEN As live music venues open up, summer music festivals get ready to party like it was 2019. Here, I am going to focus on just two of them, in no small part based on my own lifelong predilection for the piano. Festival of the Sound The roots of this venerable attraction extend back to the summer of 1979 when renowned pianist Anton Kuerti purchased a summer home near Parry Sound and organized three concerts by outstanding Canadian musicians. The enthusiastic response to these programs inspired him to propose an annual concert series, and the 1980 Festival of the Sound became Ontario’s first annual international summer classical music festival. In 1985, James Campbell began his tenure as the Festival’s second artistic director, a position he still holds today. This year’s festival is not all about the piano, though. It opens Sunday night, July 17, with a joyous celebration of choral music by the Elmer Iseler Singers; July 18’s sold-out evening concert marks the 50th anniversary of the Canadian Brass. Then, after clarinetist Campbell and the Rolston String Quartet perform Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet, among other works on the afternoon of July 19, the festival takes an unusual pianistic turn, hanging its musical summer hat on a piano festival featuring some of Canada’s finest keyboard artists, with 20 concerts underpinning a cleverly designed series of connected recitals. Jazz, personified by Dave Young, Heather Bambrick, Campbell himself, and others, then takes over the last weekend of July. Pianofest Week 1 The feast of piano music that caught my attention begins on the evening of July 19 with the doyenne of her generation, Janina Fialkowska, famous as Arthur Rubinstein’s last pupil (1974- 1982) and a Chopin expert in her Janina Fialkowska own right, with a representative Chopin program: a nocturne, a scherzo, a polonaise, waltzes, a ballade, preludes and berceuse. With masterclasses almost as much of a passion for me as the piano, the next morning is proof that one can have one’s cake and eat it too: Fialkowska participates in a masterclass as mentor to 25-year-old Xiaoyu Bruce Liu, the 2021 Chopin JULIEN FAUGERE 18 | July 1 - September 20, 2022 thewholenote.com

Competition First Place Winner. Fialkowska will have much to impart to Liu as they work on the composer’s Piano Concerto No.2. Undoubtedly, she will draw on wisdom from her famous teacher. Expect entertaining anecdotes. Named one of the 15 best Canadian pianists of all time by CBC Radio, David Jalbert, now in his mid-40s, gives an afternoon recital on July 20. The virtuosic program includes Kelly-Marie Murphy’s Smoke Darkened Sky (2021); Beethoven’s profound Sonata in E Major, Op.109; Debussy’s Cloches à travers les feuilles and Poissons d’or; and Prokofiev’s mighty Sonata No.7, Op.83. Jalbert will then catch a breath before joining twentysomething cellist, Cameron Crozman, in a mid-afternoon concert spotlighting the muchheralded Crozman. Jalbert and Crozman will perform Paul Klengel’s arrangement of Brahms’ Sonata for Violin and Piano Op.78. The recital concludes with Alexina Louie’s “Quasi Cadenza” for solo cello. Astute programming choices abound. The Quatuor Despax – comprised of four siblings, two sisters and two brothers, from Gatineau – opens the late afternoon July 20 concert with Beethoven’s String Quartet Op.18, No.3 – an adroit programming touch that serves as a warm-up for their role as “the orchestra” in Liu’s performance of Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto at 7:30pm, July 20. The concert is rounded out by the Rolston String Quartet, first-prize winners at the 2016 Banff International String Quartet Competition, teaming up with bassist Joel Quarrington for Dvořák’s String Quintet. The first week of Pianofest continues in the afternoon of July 21: Fialkowska, supported by the Rolstons and Quarrington, performs Beethoven’s preternatural Piano Concerto No.4. Crozman then joins with the Rolstons for Schubert’s singular Quintet in C. That evening, the redoubtable Stewart Goodyear adds heft to the pianistic girth, performing Liszt’s evocative Sonata in B Minor, his own Acabris! Acabras! Acabram! (inspired by NFB animated films like The Log Quatuor Despax Driver’s Waltz), Jennifer Higdon’s Secret and Glass Gardens – dedicated to Lang Lang, it portrays a journey through a garden of wonder and discovery – and Debussy’s Masques and L’isle joyeuse. Jalbert then returns on July 22 to bring the first week to a close, performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.5 “Emperor” with the Boris Brott Academy Orchestra, who complete the evening with Elgar’s ever-popular Enigma Variations. thewholenote.com July 1 - September 20, 2022 | 19

Volumes 26-29 (2020- )

Volumes 21-25 (2015-2020)

Volumes 16-20 (2010-2015)

Volumes 11-15 (2004-2010)

Volumes 6 - 10 (2000 - 2006)

Volumes 1-5 (1994-2000)