Welcome to Who's Who at
Welcome to Who's Who at thewholenote.com Find details on all these Blue Pages member profiles here in the WholeNote Who's Who thewholenote.com/blue And check back. They will be posted as we receive them, and they are coming in in a steady stream. Looking for a choir to join or support now that the summer season is past? Start your search here. thewholenote.com/canary INTERESTED IN JOINING THE BLUE PAGES or any of our other Who's Who directories? All inquiries karen@thewholenote.com THE BLUE PAGES PROJECT TEAM PROJECT MANAGER: KAREN AGES PROJECT EDITOR: DANIAL JAZAERI WEBSITE AND DESIGN: KEVIN KING BULK SUBSCRIPTIONS: SHEILA MCCOY St. Olave’s Anglican Church “St. Olave’s celebrates the Anglican choral tradition Sunday mornings at 10:30am, and presents occasional Evensongs and other musical events.” stolaves.ca Tafelmusik “Tafelmusik is an orchestra, choir, and experience that celebrates beauty through music of the past. Founded on the pillars of passion, learning, and artistic excellence, Tafelmusik brings new energy to baroque music and beyond.” tafelmusik.org That Choir “Currently in its 15th season, That Choir is one of Toronto’s most exciting a cappella ensembles, combining high-calibre performance with storytelling through choral music.” thatchoir.com Toronto Chamber Choir “We live and breathe Early Music and love to share it with others.” torontochamberchoir.ca Toronto Children’s Chorus “Entering its 45th season, the Toronto Children’s Chorus is recognized worldwide as a leading choral organization for children and youth. We are committed to offering exceptional, inclusive choral music education.” torontochildrenschorus.com Toronto Classical Singers “With its exuberant approach, TCS celebrates the choral tradition with the complex sonority of a large choir with professional orchestra.” torontoclassicalsingers.ca Toronto Consort “Founded in 1972, The Toronto Consort is internationally celebrated for its excellence in the performance of Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Baroque music.” torontoconsort.org Toronto Mendelssohn Choir “The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir boldly returns with exciting new works, inspiring new faces, and a fresh new look!” tmchoir.org Toronto Operetta Theatre “TOT will return to the St. Lawrence Centre stage with a new season of musical entertainment from the wide world of Operetta and Music Theatre.” torontooperetta.com Toronto Symphony Orchestra “One of Canada’s most respected arts organizations, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) plays a vital role in the city’s dynamic cultural life. The TSO is celebrating its 100th anniversary season in 2022/23.” tso.ca Trio Arkel “Trio Arkel, now in its 10th season, is composed of Marie Berard, violinist, Rémi Pelletier, violist, and Winona Zelenka, cellist, who collaborate with guest artists to present fascinating programs of chamber music for their Toronto audience.” trioarkel.com University of Toronto Faculty of Music “The University of Toronto Faculty of Music is thrilled to present a wide range of performances, lectures, colloquia and more, as part of our annual season of events.” music.utoronto.ca Upper Canada Choristers “The Upper Canada Choristers is an SATB community choir in Toronto with a history of collaboration with choirs and professional guest artists. UCC is committed to excellence and diversity.” uppercanadachoristers.org Vesnivka Choir “Vesnivka Choir looks forward to returning to in-person performances with a 3-concert season featuring Ukrainian classical, contemporary, sacred and traditional folk music.” vesnivka.com VIVA Singers Toronto “VIVA Singers embrace the motto “Every Voice Matters.” vivayouthsingers.com VOCA Chorus of Toronto “A dynamic, auditioned ensemble under the leadership of artistic director Jenny Crober, VOCA performs a broad range of repertoire in collaboration with a variety of superb guest artists. Our seasons feature concerts, cabaret fundraisers, community performances and workshops.” vocachorus.ca VOICEBOX: Opera in Concert “Voicebox-OIC’s tradition continues in the coming season with astonishing works by the very young Mozart, Luigi Cherubini, and Joseph Bologne.” operainconcert.com Westben Centre for Connection & Creativity Through Music “Westben - Music in Nature” westben.ca Wychwood Clarinet Choir “Five varieties of clarinets playing in harmony. What could be more beautiful?” wychwoodclarinetchoir.ca Xenia Concerts Inc. “Xenia Concerts works with the neurodiversity and disability communities to produce and present exceptional performing arts experiences for children, families, and any others who face systemic barriers to inclusion.” xeniaconcerts.com Yorkminster Park Baptist Church “Yorkminster Park is synonymous with magnificent music. Whether it’s the choir accompanied by the majestic Casavant organ or the congregation lifting their voices in hymns of praise, vocal and instrumental expressions of faith are integral to the Yorkminster Park experience.” yorkminsterpark.com ARTS SERVICES Agence Station Bleue “...one of the most important artists agencies in Canada, in classical, jazz and global music.” stationbleue.com/en Linda Litwack Publicity “Arts publicist Linda Litwack is a long-practiced matchmaker between artists and the media.” linkedin.com/in/linda-litwack-15371320 Rebecca Davis Public Relations “...provides publicity, media and communications services to musicians, arts organisations and record labels, specialising in classical music and opera.” rebeccadavispr.com 44 | November 1 - December 13, 2022 thewholenote.com
DISCOVERIES | RECORDINGS REVIEWED DAVID OLDS As a fairly accomplished amateur cellist and former classical radio programmer, I consider myself well-versed in the traditional cello repertoire. Imagine then my surprise to receive not one, but two, discs this month featuring works from 19 th- and early 20th-century France of which I was previously unaware. Even three of the five composers were unfamiliar to me, although they were each celebrated in their lifetime. Édouard Lalo | Paul Lacombe | Fernand de La Tombelle – Sonates pour piano et violoncelle (ATMA Classique ACD2 2873 atmaclassique.com/en) features two highly regarded Quebecois performers, cellist Paul Marleyn and pianist Stéphane Lemelin. Of course I was familiar with the Cello Concerto in D Minor of Lalo (1825-1892) which has graced the standard repertoire since 1877, but his Sonata for Piano and Cello in A Minor from two decades earlier has languished in relative obscurity. Listening to the dynamic work, it is hard to understand why. It is a substantial offering with contrasting movements, lyrical and dramatic by turns, with memorable melodies and virtuosic flare. The same is true of the other works included here and it is surprising they, and their composers, are not better known. Although Lacombe was born only a dozen years after Lalo his Sonata for Piano and Cello Op.100 was written about 50 years after Lalo’s, in the early years of the 20th century. For all that, it shares a sensibility and language with Lalo, not reflecting the turbulent aesthetic changes happening around him, although there is Debussy-like melody in the opening movement un peu animé. This is followed by a lyrical Largo and concludes with an ebullient Allegro con fuoco. Baron de La Tombelle (1854-1928), numbered among his mentors Franz Liszt and Camille Saint-Saëns and he himself went on to count revered organist Marcel Dupré and composer/pedagogue Nadia Boulanger among his own pupils. Not only an accomplished musician and teacher, La Tombelle was also a distinguished poet, painter, sculptor and astronomer. His Cello Sonata in D Minor Sonata (1905) opens with an exuberant Allegro, followed by a gentle lullaby-like Lentement movement before its rousing Allegro vivace finale. Here, as throughout the disc, Marleyn and Lemelin’s playing is nuanced, articulate and totally convincing as it meets all the demands of this lovely music. From the strident opening notes of the Sonata for Cello and Piano No.2 in A Minor (1919) by Guy Ropartz (1864-1955) the new Le Palais des Dégustateurs release Guy Ropartz | Albéric Magnard (PDD029 lepalaisdesdegustateurs.com) commands the listener’s attention. As with the previous disc, little known gems are presented in stunning performances by Alain Meunier and Anne le Bozec. To say the Ropartz opens stridently is not to suggest that the work is abrasive however, and the subsequent movements – Lent et calme and Très lent – Assez animé – are warm and lush. Ropartz and Magnard were neighbours and friends, both proud of their Breton heritage. Magnard (1865-1914) died defending his home from invading Germans in the early days of the First World War. In the attack his house was burned and several manuscripts destroyed but fortunately Ropartz was able to reconstitute from memory the orchestration of Magnard’s opera Guercoeur. The Sonata for Cello and Piano Op.20 in A Major from 1910 is in four movements, opening traditionally with a fast movement Sans lenteur – Alla zingarese followed by a brief Scherzo lasting less than three minutes. The Funèbre third movement is followed by a boisterous finale bringing a wonderful disc to a rollicking close. I was surprised to hear from the Dégustateurs label founder and renowned vintner Èric Rouyer, that he finds it hard to produce recordings of French music, presumably due to market pressures, although further on in these pages you will see another of his recordings featuring the piano music of contemporary Frenchman Guy Sacre, with soloist Billy Eidi. I commend Rouyer for his efforts to unearth neglected repertory pieces and, with such outstanding performers as here, he is to be congratulated and encouraged to continue his exploration of “the road less travelled.” Full disclosure, my days at Thornlea Secondary School half a century ago briefly overlapped with those of composer David Eagle and more recently I was the general manager of New Music Concerts when he was invited to curate a concert in 2013 and commissioned to compose one of the works on the next recording. As mountain winds (Centrediscs CMCCD 30722 centrediscs.ca) features four compositions spanning 2011- 2019 for ensembles of varying sizes. All include live computer processing and diffusion of the sounds of acoustic instruments, and, in the case of Unremembered Tongues the work mentioned above, soprano soloist (Xin Wang in the original Toronto performance). This 2021 recording features the powerful voice of Robyn Driedger- Klassen with the Turning Point Ensemble under the direction of founder Owen Underhill. It is in this complex work that we are most aware of the computer’s presence as the soloist’s voice is replicated, distorted, layered and distributed throughout space via an eightspeaker sound system (effective even in this stereo mix). Eagle tells us the initial inspiration came from thinking about the “many forgotten and endangered languages that are disappearing in our relentlessly modernizing society and monoculture. Sonic evocation of these lost modes of expression is a main focus of the work.” The languages he draws on are Iwaidja and Kayardild from northern Australia, Latin, Blackfoot, Basque, Cree and Hawaiian. The resulting “Tower of Babel” is very effective indeed. This is followed by Altered States and, such is the density of the computer manipulations, it takes careful listening to thewholenote.com November 1 - December 13, 2022 | 45
