Volume 30 Issue 2 | October & November 2024

CLASSICAL & BEYOND

CLASSICAL & BEYOND TSO’s Daniel Bartholomew Poyser Categorically speaking DAVID PERLMAN So, the question of the day, for me, anyway, is what’s a writer supposed to do? I mean, really. Out of the twenty tags of “Music types” in the WholeNote listings database I have used the four most relevant to the beat I am supposed to be covering here. I have dutifully downloaded the resulting document. And I am now staring at 212 concert listings relevant to the area we call “Classical & Beyond” for the 68 days (October 1 to December 7) that this issue of the magazine covers. And the answer is … well maybe don’t try to deal with all four categories at once. Orchestras: I repeat the search just for orchestras and I still end up with 112 concerts for the same 68 days. Hmmm. OK, I say, but a bunch of these are events where the orchestra is just the hired help for something that some other beat writer here is going to be covering. Such as opera or ballet company orchestras, for example. Good point. Tafelmusik as orchestra for Opera Atelier’s production of Acis and Galatea bites the dust. So does the Canadian Opera Orchestra for the remaining performances of Faust and Nabucco. I do however keep the handful of special occasions where the indentured orchestra in question gets to strut its stuff on the stage instead of in its usual spot in the pit, or it could be argued is more like an equally partner in the event – special occasions like the Azrieli Music Prizes 2024 Gala Concert on October 28, or Centre Stage on October 30 – the final round of the Canadian Opera Company’s ensemble studio competition finals. And November 15, when the U of T Symphony Orchestra puts in an appearance, so the graduate conductors for whom the concert has been arranged have something to shake a stick at. And then I say to myself, hold on a minute you are asking for trouble keeping any concerts on your list, where the orchestra in question is guaranteed to show up in some other writer’s story. Like Esprit Orchestra for new music (November 27) or Tafelmusik for the category we call Early/Baroque. Good call! Because if there’s anything my editor hates most, it’s when two writers in different beats end up covering the same story, especially when they both plagiarized the same press release for their stories. So, very reluctantly, I cross Tafelmusik off my list altogether. Why reluctantly? because for audiences accustomed to listening to Beethoven, for example, delivered on modern instruments by very big orchestras in very large halls, it can be a revelation to hear the same music on period instruments in smaller settings. Where before you only heard armies of chords thundering along, you start to hear conversational murmurings. Very interesting. But right now, that’s beside the point. My unmanageable list is the point. So, Tafelmusik. Gone. And all of a sudden we are down to 77 from 112. RILEY SMITH Ages & Stages October 27, 2024 at 3:00 p.m. FEATURING: Sheila Jaffé, violin; Mira Kardan, cello; Andrea Ludwig, mezzo soprano (OCMS Artist-in-Residence); Inna Perkis, piano; Ernesto Ramirez, tenor; Micah Yui, piano; Boris Zarankin, piano; Artistic Directors: Boris Zarankin & Inna Perkis For more details and to purchase tickets www.offcentremusic.com 24 | October & November 2024 thewholenote.com

Programs vs. performances: my next big “aha!” moment in mastering the art of list control? Realizing that 77 performances doesn’t mean 77 different programs. Presenters, especially the big ones in the large halls, tend to do more than one performance of the same program. Bingo! Another 22 performances bite the dust. All but two of the 22 are Toronto Symphony Orchestra repeats of 14 distinct programs they will be presenting within our 68 day timeframe. And the other two? Niagara Symphony Orchestra does two performances of The Queen Symphony (the band, nor Her Majesty) on November 23 and 24; and the Sudbury Symphony Orchestra (welcome aboard, guys!) does its Classical Mega-Hits program twice on the same day (October 5) at 2 and 7:30pm. Note to self, though: be careful how you define a repeat performance. An example: November 3 the TSO does three performances of Peter and the Wolf with conductor Daniel Bartholomew Poyser as genial host. But the 11am performance is also a Relaxed Performance geared to a neurodiverse audience, so it needs to stay in its own right, as an example of a new and in my view welcome examination of what constitutes “proper” audience behaviour. But again that’s beside the point. After the cull: The very good news is that, after this latest cull, my Orchestras list is down to 55 events to look at, by 25 different orchestras, and is starting to feel like an almost manageable assignment. I could, for example start by putting the orchestras themselves into categories: student orchestras at places like Western, the RCM, U of T and Wilfrid Laurier; bona fide community orchestras like the Rose Orchestra in Brampton (Oct 19), Cathedral Bluffs Orchestra in Scarborough (Oct 5 & Nov 11), Milton Philharmonic Orchestra (Nov 2), Oakville Chamber Orchestra (Oct 6 & Nov 10), the Greater Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra (Oct 5) …. But once again I am getting ahead of myself. For one thing, classifying orchestras by type (e.g. community, regional, semi-professional, professional) is rushing in where angels fear to tread, as the folks at Orchestras Canada will confirm. Their beautifully simple directory of orchestras classifies member orchestras by budget size these days in order not to offend anyone by implying that they are the same as anyone else in terms of “professionalism” or lack thereof. So that too is a story for another day. Right now I still have to do the same pruning job for the other three “Classical” categories I’m supposed to cover: chamber (104 listings); organ (28), piano (80). Yikes. this monstrously unmanageable beat. For “chamber” I note with pleasure that Jan Narveson’s Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society, long a fixture in the region, seems to have found its postpandemic feet again, with the acquisition of a couple of reliable new venues. They will be offering up 13 distinct programs over our 68 day period – only one fewer than the Toronto Symphony Orchestra over the same period! They offer an attentive performing environment, and a remarkable network of chamber musicians – including, on October 20, a concert at First United Church in Waterloo by the KWS Musicians String Trio/Quartet. The KWS in the trio/quartet name is of course the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony Orchestra. Perhaps from such small beginnings one of Canada’s finest fully professional orchestras will reseed itself, bottom up rather than top down. That’s how London Symphonia (Oct 5, Nov 2 & Nov 30) did it.and And, speaking of chamber music, if the topic of relaxed and adaptive performance caught your eye when I was talking about Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser the TSO, then check out Xenia Concerts (Nov 2 & Nov 24). …. And that, dear reader, is where my energy fails. Coda: As for the point of all this? The categorizing, sorting and filtering I have been doing here is freely available to you as well. Go to the WholeNote website. Click on the listings tab. Select Just Ask. Curious about the ball I unceremoniously dropped a couple of paragraphs ago? Select Organ or Piano as an advanced search and away you go! Every system for categorizing music listings is going to be arbitrary, flawed and annoyingly repetitive. But no more annoying than having someone try to read your mind in terms of what pushes your musical buttons. Give it a try! David Perlman can be reached at publisher@thewholenote.com. Chamber, organ, and piano: I won’t ask you to follow my reasoning line by line as I break down the other three categories in What Makes it Great? with Rob Kapilow and the Cheng² Duo Nov 10 Meridian Arts Centre George Weston Recital Hall North York Buy tickets now at tolive.com thewholenote.com October & November 2024| 25