Like just about every arts journalist in North America, I subscribe to the daily news feed from ArtsJournal as part of my morning news-and-feature regimen. I have this invaluable news and opinion source to thank for story ideas, background on my own work and daily inspiration for this blog.
Like just about everybody in the world, I rely on Google all day long -- but what one large hand giveth, the other can just as easily take away.
You can read all about ArtsJournal founder Douglas McLennan's adventures in getting his site back today here. it's a crazy tale.
I decided to check in with The Omniscient Mussel's #Operaplot 2010 contest (summarize opera in Twitterese -- 140 words or less -- get judged by operatic posterMensch Jonas Kaufman, win a prize).
This year's contest closes at midnight, and it's already groaning with a bumper crop of succulent puns, quips and winks. If you have too much time between coffee breaks, there's a long list of "orphan" opera plots, where you can try to guess the title of the opera (or wonder which substance the contestant was abusing that day).
My biggest smile came from seeing how a plot can get Twitterized so many different ways.
Here's the entry for Leos Janacek's Katya Kabanova, followed by a beautifully Twitter-like promotional video English National Opera released for its March production:
Katya Kabanova Madison Opera – My mother-in-law is cruel / my husband’s a tool. But Boris is dreamy / maybe he’ll save me. Or not. Boom, crash, splash.
If there were an advertising flyer for this week's classical music in Toronto, it would have screaming type on the front page that proclaiming:
Piano Blowout!
Janina Fialkowska! Anton Kuerti! Yuja Wang! Haiou Zhang! And More!
It all began this afternoon at Walter Hall with a solo recital by Connecticut-based Canadian pianist Janina Fialkowska. The closing concert of the Women's Musical Club of Toronto season was devoted to the 200th anniversary of the births of Robert Schumann (who lived to 1856) and Frédéric Chopin (who died in 1849).
The work of both composer-pianists is at the very core of the classical music repertoire for piano. There isn't a piano student in the world who hasn't attempted pieces by either composer. And even people who aren't fans of classical music have heard something by them.
The prettiness, majesty and passion of this music are there for the audience's pleasure. But the artist's job isn't so easy.
First of all, this music's very popularity is a challenge. The pianist needs to put their own stamp on it, while also respecting a century-and-a-half of performing and recording tradition.
The second challenge is a technical one. In very different ways, the piano music of Schumann and Chopin is technically difficult: Schumann's because of the sheer number of notes that the player has to wrap her fingers around; Chopin's because of the unblinking transparency of his writing -- every false move is glaringly obvious.
The final challenge is mastering the notes, shaping the music without over-dramatizing it, then sitting down to make it sound as fresh and spontaneous as if it were being improvised.
Enter the modest, unassuming Janina Fialkowska, who, without the slightest visible fuss, overcame all these challenges (plus a not particularly charming piano) to deliver more than 90 minutes of spectacularly beautiful music.
It was a substantial programme: a first half devoted to Schumann -- the fantastically difficult Op. 26 Faschingsschwank aus Wien (Vienna Carnival) and the Op. 20 Humoreske. After the intermission, we heard a nicely layered Concert Chopin 101 selection -- a Polonaise, two Waltzes, a Nocturne, two Préludes and the showy B-flat Minor Scherzo.
The sold-out house heard what, to me, was an ideal blend of velvet and steel, every detail attended to, then freed up to sound freshly minted.
This was the piano recital equivalent of the perfect Little Black Dress -- the more elegant for being unobtrusive, yet, on closer inspection, finished with careful attention to every detail.
Fialkowska's nearing the end of a major North American solo recital tour, most of it devoted to her favourite composer, Chopin. Despite the enduring popularity of his music, there aren't many other pianists out there who are as eloquent or memorable advocates.
Do musicians succeed because they have a natural aptitude, because they worked harder and longer, or because they had a gifted teacher who chose the best teaching method?
This was the question I had after reading and listening to a story posted (in text as well as 5 minutes of audio) on the National Public Radio site. It's about American violinist Mark O'Connor, who has published his own set of graduated violin courses.
In broad terms, what O'Connor believes distinguishes his method from others is a broad stylistic scope that treats popular, folk and classical music styles as equals. Also, he values introducing young children to improvisation and theory. He told NPR:
O'Connor says he wants to create what he calls "super string players for the 21st century" — musicians who can improvise and experiment, who want to use the violin to play all kinds of music. He says he can bring fiddling in from the margins, all the way into the center of the world of classical music.
Here's a promotional video O'Connor has posted on Vimeo:
I think O'Connor has all the right ideas. There's no reason to discriminate between genres of music -- that's a decision the musician can make on their own, in their time. I also think it's brilliant to teach kids to improvise. But, ultimately, any pedagogical approach is only as good as the teacher's and student's talent, aptitude and attitude.
The Canadian Opera Company has announced next season's rotation of young singers for its Ensemble Studio program. The departures and arrivals come with their own, free, hi-and-thanks recitals in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre.
Graduating at the end of this season are sopranos Laura Albino and Teiya Kasahara, mezzo Erin Fisher and tenors Michael Barrett and Adam Luther.
The graduating quintet has its farewell recital on May 25 at noon, in a program of solo and ensemble operatic pieces.
Staying on for another season are sopranos Ileana Montalbetti and Simone Osborne, mezzo Wallis Giunta (who has been incredibly busy around town since January, with the blessing of the COC), baritone Adrian Kramer and basses Neil Craighead and Michael Uloth. This crop of apprentices also includes music coach intern Anne Larlee.
The whole 2009-10 gang gets to star in their own mainstage foray into Mozart's Idomeneo, on May 19.
The official public début of the 2010-11 gang is at a free recital at noon on Sept. 21. The new faces and voices are:
-Soprano Amber Braid, a B.C.-born Glenn Gould Professional School graduate who has just finished her Master's at the San Francisco Conservatory;
-Southampton, Ont. native, soprano Jacqueline Woodley, brandishing a fresh Master's degree from McGill University;
-Mezzo Rihab Chaieb, who was born in Tunisia, and who has also just completed a Master's at McGill;
-University of Toronto graduate, tenor Chris Enns, a Manitoba native.
We're about one month away from the 300th anniversary of the consecration of the new-and-bigger chapel at the palace of Versailles, outside Paris. The event is an excuse to show off a major cleaning and restoration of the remarkable interior and a variety of related artefacts. The exhibition opened last week, and runs to July 18.
Best of all, the organizers have created a virtual tour that, like Google Earth, allows anyone from anywhere in the world to wander around to admire this spectacular place.
Check it out here. The designers of the tour give us the option of going in English or French, and there's some gorgeous period music to accompany your virtual gawk.
As the the site of Louis XIV's daily prayers, as well as big celebrations, there was much music created within the walls of both the new and old buildings.
To give you a taste, here are two samples:
First, from the old chapel, "Panis angelorum" by Henry du Mont (composer at the Chapelle royale for 12 years, until he died in 1684), a three-part motet sung by a group led by Montrealer Martin Robidoux;
Second, the motet "Domine, salvum fac regem" (loosely translated as God Save the King) by the much better-known François Couperin, who was hired to play the organ in the chapel for three months of the year in the new chapel (this is from a French album led by Bernard Coudurier, from 1989. The images are of the chapel.)
Witness the power, dexterity and finesse of Chinese pianist Yuja Wang playing the "Danse Russe" from Stravinsky's adaptation of his Petrouchka ballet score for solo piano:
The clip is from a recital Wang gave last summer at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.
In January of this year, she sat down in a German studio to record the Stravinsky and other virtuosic showpieces for a new Deutsche Grammophon album.
The official release date for this album is May 14, but Wang is giving a solo recital at Koerner Hall on Saturday, so I expect the disc should be on sale early in Toronto (click on the disc image for more info).
YUJA WANG
Transformation (Deutsche Grammophon)
**** (out of 4
It's hard to find enough fresh superlatives to describe this second big-label album by 23-year-old Chinese-born, New York City-based pianist Yuja Wang. She has chosen fiercely difficult piano compositions, conquered their many and varied technical challenges, and then shaped them into extraordinary music.
This isn't simply the product of someone who has spent 10 hours a day practising, nor is this a series of bland or idiosyncratic interpretations. This has the sound and feel of a mature, assured artist who respects the composer, knows what she wants to say and how she is going to say it.
The more I listen to this disc, the more impressed I am. If careers were built on artistic quality alone, Wang would earn herself a seat in the pianistic Pantheon.
Assuming that people still listen to a CD from beginning to end in one sitting, the programming is brilliant: three titanic musical courses -- three movements from Stravinsky's Petrouchka, Brahms' Variations on a Theme of Paganini and Ravel's La Valse -- are given room to breathe by two sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, acting as sorbet-like palette cleansers.
The Stravinsky and Ravel can easily sound too harsh and percussive as a pianist fights with the great handfuls of notes. Wang manages to capture the power of the music, but it's never just noise. What is the most impressive is the seamlessness of her dexterity.
Brahms' two books of Paganini Variations are, I think, an even greater challenge, because the pianist has to capture the composer's inner marshmallow along with the cascades of little black dots. Once again, Wang exceeded my highest expectations in a fleet, lyrical reading that's as full of heart as of fire. The pianist has re-ordered the variations slightly in an effort to vary texture and mood a bit more.
The two Scarlatti pieces (chosen from the more than 500 short Sonatas he left behind) are not from the glittery ones, but from the slower, more contemplative lot. Wang plays them simply, yet with soul.
Brava.
+++
Someone recorded Wang at a recital when she was 12 (two years before her family moved from Beijing to Calgary, so she could learn to speak English), playing Mozart's popular C-Major Piano Sonata (K.545). This girl's performance goes well beyond what an examiner would label "well prepared":
Marcia Adair, a.k.a. The Omniscient Mussel in the blogosphere, has launched the latest edition of her #Operaplot 2010 contest. She has rounded up some operatastic prizes -- as well as hunky German tenor Jonas Kaufman as judge.
First it was High School Musical. Now it's Glee giving a new generation a fresh appreciation for the pleasures of singing and dancing on stage.
Here's the opening of an article on the positive influence of Glee on some typical suburban high school students, from Saturday's Boston Globe (for the full article, click here):
Chino Lopez, a junior at Waltham High School, didn’t mean to join the school’s show choir, Music Unlimited. Two of his friends, who were members, dragged him along.
Still, he thought it would be smart to keep it to himself. “People would make fun of me, and I didn’t know what to say back,’’ said Lopez, 18. “They’d say, like, ‘It’s for gay people.’ ‘I wouldn’t do that.’ ’’
Around the middle of the year, though, things started to change. “Now they come up to me, and say, like, ‘I take it back,’ ’’ Lopez said.
Could this have anything to do with “Glee,’’ the Fox television series about an Ohio high school glee club full of losers? A club that bears a striking resemblance to Music Unlimited? Lopez prefers to think the change of heart occurs when his classmates see how good his show choir is. Still, he says “Glee’’ has made a huge difference in his life. The series “brought more of my personality out,’’ said Lopez, who had never danced before. “I used to be really shy. I used to have stage fright. I used to be scared, a lot. Now I’m not scared of going up on stage anymore.’’
“Glee,’’ which just returned after a four-month hiatus, has struck a chord among high school choral students. It has emboldened students who are tired of being seen as dorky, and bolstered music programs across the country, with students lobbying for show choirs at their own schools.
The National Association for Music Education recently polled choral teachers to see whether the Fox show has had an impact on their music programs: 43 percent said it had, reporting that students had been turning out in record numbers for auditions and pleading for choral arrangements of songs from the show.
Here's further inspiration, from the other coast: the Sound Express show choir from Carlsbad High School in California, preparing for a competition in Burbank earlier this year (there's a nice a cappella moment about 4 minutes in:
There's a staggering amount of live music and opera on in Toronto today. But, in case you'd rather spend the day within sight of your familiar walls, here are two great options featuring some truly fine singing:
*I've heard soprano Karina Gauvin in concert at least a dozen times by now, and, besides her voice and craft, I am always struck by how warm and giving she is, even on a large stage such as Roy Thomson Hall's. She gave a wonderful recital there on Valentine's Day with accompanist Michael McMahon, now available on the CBC Radio's free concert-on-demand service here.
Here is Gauvin singing the sweet aria from Vivaldi opera Juditha Triumphans in a live performance with the Venice Baroque Orchestra last year. The conductor is Andrea Marcon:
*Earlier this season, the Metropolitan Opera presented a remount of its lavish, traditional production of Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier with a dream duo of vocal leads: Renée Fleming as the Marschallin and Susan Graham as Octavian. Edo De Waart did a fantastic job with the lush, ever-shifting score. This is the operatic equivalent of a three-hour champagne bath.
PBS broadcaster WNET is airing the original high-definition live transmission at 12:30 p.m. today. Unfortunately, Toronto-area counterpart WNED doesn't pick up most of the Great Performances at the Met series, but you may be able to find another PBS station if you are a fully paid member of the 500-channel club.
John Terauds started at the Toronto Star as a freelance writer in 1988, and has been on staff since 1997. He began writing on classical music in 2001, and has been the full-time classical music critic since 2005.
He is also the organist and choir director at St. Peter's Anglican Church, a parish founded in 1863 in downtown Toronto.
If he's not listening to, writing about or playing music, it means he's either asleep, unconscious, walking his dog -- or all of the above.
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