I'm on holiday until June 7, so this is the last of my blog posts for a week.
I have three bits of news:
1. If you have even the remotest love of Baroque-era music, check out one of the remaining two performances of Handel's Israel in Egypt at Koerner Hall by Tafelmusik. Last night's performance was wonderful (a review should be published in tomorrow's Star).
2. Although scheduled to play, Montreal harpsichordist Olivier Fortin was not on stage last night. I asked Tafelmusik general manager Tricia Baldwin why. She told me that Fortin had just emerged from an induced coma following a severe car crash in France. She assured me that doctors expect him to make a full recovery and that there were no broken bones, but that it will likely be several months before Fortin will be able to play in public again. He is a great talent as well as generous collaborator and all-round nice guy.
Here's Fortin playing "La pantomime" by Jean-Philippe Rameau, with Skip Sempé (more on this recording at www.paradizo.org):
3.The Montreal International Violin Competition announced its six finalists last night. Unfortunately, the two Canadian competitors didn't make it. Check out my earlier blog posts to find out more about the competition and how to follow it live, online.
The first three finalists perform Tuesday night, the second three on Wednesday. They are, in performance order: Nikita Borisoglebsky (Russia), Jaeyoung KIm (South Korea), Benjamin Beilman (U.S.A.), Kyoko Yonemoto (Japan), Korbinian Altenberger (Germany) and Noah Bendix-Balgley (U.S.A.).
We haven't heard the Gryphon Trio (violinist Annalee Patipatanakoon, cellist Roman Borys and pianist Jamie Parker) nearly enough this season. So, given the super-sultry weather we're having, what better way to enjoy them than at Lula Lounge, in a program of music of the Americas, including a few forays into the tango.
Joining them tonight is singer Patricia O'Callaghan, who is always a big treat.
None of these musicians recognize traditional musical boundaries -- yet their standards are consistently high. These are people who love what they do with all their heart, and it shows. It's hard not to get enthusiastic along with them.
(For more details, click on the poster image.)
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Here's O'Callaghan, along with accompanist Gregory Oh, performing Leonard Cohen's "I'm You Man" in the lobby of Classical 96.3:
Their hearts may belong to the 17th and 18th centuries, but their heads are in tune with the 21st. Unlike the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, which continues to sequester itself inside the bunker-like concrete of Roy Thomson Hall, Tafelmusik and Opera Atelier learned years ago that nothing beats in-your-face performance for getting the attention of Torontonians.
This weekend, to help celebrate Doors Open, musicians from Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra are fanning out throughout the city to give a general public a free taste of the many-layered pleasures of Baroque-era music. And, on Sunday, Opera Atelier's ballet school is putting on two free hour-long shows at St. Lawrence Hall, which is where their offices are located.
Here are the details:
TAFELMUSIK
Today from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.: -Solo cello by Allen Whear, at Campbell House -Vioinist Geneivève Gilardeau and lutenist Lucas Harris, in the long-shuttered Crystal Ballroom at the King Edward Hotel
Today from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.: -String and keyboard octet (Christopher Verrette (violin), Geneviève Gilardeau (violin), Aisslinn Nosky (violin), Cristina Zacharias (violin), Patrick G. Jordan (viola), Allen Whear (cello), Alison Mackay (bass), Borys Medicky (harpsichord)) at Commerce Court, 25 King St. W. -Oboists John Abberger and Marco Cera, bassoonist Dominic Teresi and guest guitar player David Occhipinti, in the King Edward Hotel's Crystal Ballroom
Sunday from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.: -Lucas Harris will be joined by Thomas Georgi, playing the violin and exotic viola d'amore, at the King Edward's Crystal Ballroom
OPERA ATELIER
On Sunday 1 p.m. and again at 3 p.m., the School of Atelier Ballet presents an hour-long programme entitled "Dance Through Time." Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg's choreography is meant to illustrate the history of ballet from the Renaissance through to the birth of modern classical ballet in the 19th century. High-energy Opera Atelier co-artistic director Marshall Pynkoski, who was also trained as a dancer, will provide commentary.
In the spirit of the occasion, here is a small band from Tafelmusik in a promotional clip of music by Marin Marais from one of their annual visits to a festival that was created around them in Irsee, Germany:
The jury at the Montreal International Violin Competition eliminated 12 competitors last night -- but the two Canadians remain standing. Boson Mo, who was the first to play in the quarter-finals, will, once again be first today, when the competition resumes at 7:30 p.m. EDST. There are four competitors on stage tonight, followed by the remaining eight, starting at 1:15 p.m. on Saturday. British Columbian Nikki Chooi, the other Canadian competitor, is scheduled to play tomorrow at 7:30 p.m.
Here is the list of semi-finalists, along with their scheduled performance times, from the competition's latest press release:
VENDREDI 28 MAI
19 h 30 : Boson MO, Canada 20 h 30 : Jaeyoung KIM, Corée du Sud 21 h 30 : PAUSE 21 h 45 : Fabiola H. KIM, États-Unis 22 h 45 : Nikita BORISOGLEBSKY, Russie 23 h 45 : FIN
SAMEDI 29 MAI
13 h 15 : Kristi GJEZI, France 14 h 15 : Benjamin BEILMAN, États-Unis 15 h 15 : PAUSE 15 h 30 : In Mo YANG, Corée du Sud 16 h 30 : Korbinian ALTENBERGER, Allemagne 17 h 30 : PAUSE
19 h 30 : Nikki CHOOI, Canada 20 h 30 : Luke HSU, États-Unis 21 h 30 : PAUSE 21 h 45 : Noah BENDIX-BALGLEY, États-Unis 22 h 45 : Kyoko YONEMOTO, Japon
Some performances are like seeing someone slit their wrists and pour out their blood in front of you. These artists hold nothing back as they put everything they have -- and everything they are -- into interpreting the composer's work.
Spilled blood is messy, though. But I'll take a bit of messiness over well-ordered blandness, most days.
That was the pleasure of seeing Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg play with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra last night. She gave so much, that I wondered if she would have any energy left to get back to her hotel room. I also wondered how many times she can do this every month, or year, without turning into an emotional and physical wreck.
One of the piano world's equivalents to the American violinist is Russian Boris Berezovsky, who has visited Toronto this season and last. He gave the solo season-closing recital last night at the Louvre Museum concert hall which, to my great surprise, is already available for free viewing on medici.tv. It's an all-Russian program of Rachmaninov (The Seven Preludes, Op. 23, to start, and the huge Op. 28 Sonata in D minor to close) and some tasty little virtuoso bonbons by Anatoly Lyadov (Seven Preludes and a Barcarolle). His encores are by Chopin: a too-desultory waltz and an étude.
Although you can find more polished, elegant renditions of the Rachmaninov pieces, you are not likely to find many others that are, for lack of a better descriptor, bigger-hearted. I highly recommend this recital.
Berezovsky's predecessor at the same keyboard, last week, was British pianist Stephen Hough. I haven't listened to his recital, yet, but, in my experience, he is the polar opposite in performance, tending carefully to his energies and expressions, holding back everything but the essential. There is an elegance to his playing that has earned him thousands of fans around the world. But, in a live concert setting, I have yet to be moved. I'm looking forward to comparing these two recitals during some upcoming free time.
LATER THE SAME DAY: I couldn't write the above paragraph without listening to Hough's recital. It's a substantial one, and there is a lot to like. I can't warm up to his interpretations, but that's really a matter of personal taste, after all. I also wonder how fair it was for me to write earlier about someone tending their energies in an extended recital. It's hard work for anyone -- for Berezovsky and Hough and anyone else who puts themselves out there in front of the public. It's just that some artists' hearts beat all the more visibly on their sleeves.
There are two Canadians among the 24 contestants in the Montreal International Violin Competition, which began its quarter-finals yesterday. The competition can be viewed live on French-language Radio-Canada's Espace Musique website. The next round of performances begins at 1 p.m., EDST.
Below is the full list, as it appeared in the official press release. As you can see, Montrealer Boson Mo (a Cleveland Institute grad who turned 20 last week) kicked off the competition, while the other Canadian, 21-year-old Curtis Institute grad Nikki Chooi, closes today's round with an anticipated stage start at 9:50 p.m.
You can check-out Chooi's here's-who-I-am greeting on a related Facebook video. Mo's can be found here.
The Radio-Canada site also has blog entries and video profiles of some of the contestants. As far as I can see, yesterday's performances haven't been archived for later listening.
The three semi-final rounds run Friday and Saturday. The competition continues on June 1 and 2, ending with a gala winners' concert on June 4.
1ère séance 13 h 00 : Boson MO (Canada) 13 h 50 : Daniel AUSTRICH (Allemagne) 15 h 00 : Mateusz SMÓL (Pologne) 15 h 50 : Jaeyoung KIM (Corée du Sud)
2e séance : 19 h 00 : Fabiola H. KIM (États-Unis) 19 h 50 : Dongfang OUYANG (Chine) 21 h 00 : Jue Hyang PARK (Corée du Sud) 21 h 50 : Ji-In YANG (Corée du Sud)
MERCREDI 26 MAI
3e séance : 13 h 00 : Mai TATEGAMI (Japon) 13 h 50 : Nikita BORISOGLEBSKY (Russie) 15 h 00 : Kristi GJEZI (France) 15 h 50 : Benjamin BEILMAN (États-Unis)
4e séance : 19 h 00 : In Mo YANG (Corée du sud) 19 h 50 : Maria AZOVA (Allemagne) 21 h 00 : Korbinian ALTENBERGER (Allemagne) 21 h 50 : Nikki CHOOI (Canada)
JEUDI 27 MAI
5e séance : 13 h 00 : Jing ZHANG (Chine) 13 h 50 : Chieri TOMII (Japon) 15 h 00 : Luke HSU (États-Unis) 15 h 50 : Nigel ARMSTRONG (États-Unis)
6e séance : 19 h 00 : Šimon MICHAL (République tchèque) 19 h 50 : Noah BENDIX-BALGLEY (États-Unis) 20 h 40 : Kyoko YONEMOTO (Japon) 21 h 00 : DÉLIBÉRATION
A slipped disc will keep American conductor Robert Spano off the podium in front of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra tonight and tomorrow. He is being replaced by Mexican Carlos Miguel Prieto, who was to make his TSO début on Saturday in a "light classics" programme.
Prieto is his country's star conductor -- a far more important and influential man than his experience north of the Rio Grande might suggest. He comes from a distinguished musical family, was educated in the U.S. northeast, and began his musical career in the family business -- as violinist in the Prieto String Quartet.
Spano is a great conductor, but I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing what Prieto is all about tonight. The programme is one where the leader can really show off his style. It includes Piazzolla's The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, as well as the Petrouchka ballet suite by Stravinsky (the TSO's programme says it's the 1947 revision).
The Toronto Symphony tends to be pretty conservative in inviting new conductors, usually giving them a light classical programme to lead first, then, if the musicians approve, requesting them back for something more substantial later. I find that the bits-and-bites light classics programmes are a difficult way to judge a conductor's abilities, because the real interest for me is how he or she will develop and shape a larger-scale work from beginning to end. Petrouchka provides such a vehicle.
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I watched the first third of an interview with Prieto on the University of Mexico's broadcast channel. When he was finally allowed to speak, he made a couple of interesting observations:
Prieto marvelled at how people are intimidated by music they don't know, thinking they won't be able to relate to it, but are not afraid of hanging art on their walls that they don't really understand. He said that people are far more conservative in their musical tastes than they are in their taste in art. (I suspect that Prieto was not thinking of Tricia Romance or Robert Bateman, the visual equivalents of Classical 96.3, when he made that statement.)
The maestro also told an anecdote of a woman who sent him an email after a performance of Alfred Schnittke's 1985 Viola Concerto, saying that her young daughter had felt terrorized by the music. "Parents wouldn't think of taking their children to see a horror movie, so why do they think that this type of music would be any different," he observed.
If you want to hear this purported horror for yourself, Russian stars Yuri Bashmet and Valery Gerghiev are happy to oblige. The embedding codes for the YouTube videos are disabled, so you can watch the plaintive opening section here.
I was following the mixed reviews that the Los Angeles Philharmonic and music director Gustavo Dudamel were getting during a tour that concluded at New York City's Lincoln Center on Saturday. They reminded met how we behave the same way in public love affairs as in personal ones. We are blind to anything but the dimples and flashing eyes at first, then, in a wink, we're grumbling about body odour.
Dudamel was treated as a god when he arrived in Los Angeles to take up his new job at the start of this season. Now -- horrors! -- he has been revealed as a flawed mortal.
I found Los Angeles Times music critic Mark Swed's Sunday assessment of Saturday's Avery Fisher Hall concert, and the tour, to be particularly refreshing, especially when he wrote:
We are at the beginning of a journey (or “joy ride,” as a New York Times headline had it). If the process, the moment, matters, hop aboard. Something will happen. But that includes likely accidents from time to time, and I can’t say they won’t be serious.
Swed was referring to New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini's May 21 review of an earlier Avery Fisher Hall programme. Tommasini ended with:
Mr. Dudamel is a phenomenally gifted musician with the potential to change the public perception of what an American orchestra should be.... But Mr. Dudamel has to tend to the technical maintenance of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and may need to spend more time, as the Tchaikovsky performance suggested, immersing himself in the repertory.
Anyone who has read about how Venezuelan kids who become part of El sistema grow up in the repertory knows that this isn't the point. The point is that Gustavo Dudamel is trying to put his personal stamp on the music.
When an orchestra chooses a charismatic conductor, that's what they're going to get. When an orchestra chooses a charismatic conductor who is also a media personality, they may also get someone who doesn't have all the time and focus ideally needed to work the minutiae of orchestral balance and technique (it's all there in the highly trained and professional 21st century big-city orchestra, it just needs to be emphasized).
A conductor who is a great collegial spirit on the podium and a willing fundraiser for the board of directors may not be the most inspirational musically. But there are times in every orchestra's history where prudence and stability backstage are far more important than fireworks in the concert hall. At other times, a symphony orchestra's audience needs an artistic kick in the butt, and the situation is reversed.
In the same vein, a technical taskmaster may not be able to convey a sense of spontaneiety in concert. A music director who lives in the moment may not be willing to heed tradition.
The way we pick that baton-wielder is not much different from the way we pick a mate. Every once in a while, someone will ask people on what attributes make a great long-term partner. Most of us instinctively choose stable, reliable and loving as prime qualities. But smouldering-hot, both in and out of bed, is a fantasy that we wouldn't mind exploring.
Smouldering-hot is fun. It's also exhausting and, in most instances, unsustainable -- unless you're willing to put in the effort.
In university, I tended to favour Socrates, who guided his listeners (and Plato's readers) toward ideals. As I get older, I'm trusting Aristotle more and more, believing that happiness, like justice, is an ever-shifting balance point -- the dynamic behind every successful human relationship.
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Here is Gustavo Dudamel with his Venezuelan gang, the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, in the opening to Maurice Ravel's second Daphnis et Chloé suite:
Toronto Symphony Orchestra music director Peter Oundjian anticipated Queen Victoria’s birthday with a Saturday-night concert that included violin legend Itzhak Perlman and the 80 younger talents (aged 12 to 22 this season) of the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra.
The program at Roy Thomson Hall showcased three big hits by one of Victoria’s favourite composers, Felix Mendelssohn, who was 10 years her senior: The Hebrides, otherwise known as “Fingal’s Cave,” played by a double orchestra of professionals and youth; the Violin Concerto; and the "Italian" Symphony No. 4.
Many composers provide a platform for virtuosity and showmanship. Others evoke mood or emotion in dramatic strokes. But, aside from Mozart a half-century earlier, few wrap it all up as elegantly as the German Mendelssohn.
Oundjian made sure that the evening was all about poise and elegance, rather than boisterous merriment. Instead of knocking our socks off, or raising the roof, the assembled musicians offered up finely rendered, carefully balanced, smooth interpretations of all three chestnuts.
Perlman’s presence mattered the most. The affable Israeli violinist, who turns 65 this year, had his début concert with the Toronto Symphony in 1966 and has been back nearly every season since then, earning him a huge, devoted following in this city.
Perlman’s shiny-and-slick interpretation of the Violin Concerto was perhaps too polished, lacking any sense of narrative immediacy or anticipation. But the full house loved it, leaping en masse into a prolonged standing ovation.
Perlman has spent a lot of time in recent decades mentoring and teaching young musicians, which made him an appropriate guest, even though the youth orchestra was no longer on stage for his concerto. One young string player left at intermission, showing off Perlman’s autograph in bold, blue marker on the back of her cello case.
The regular TSO concluded the evening with a glowing rendition of the “Italian” Symphony, with Oundjian sticking to an elegant ideal.
The result would have made the birthday girl proud.
I'm taking off until May 26. For the few days of silence, I leave you with French pianist Yvonne Loriod, second wife of the late composer Olivier Messiaen, who died on Monday, aged 86.
Photo: TOPFOTO
Loriod was one of the rare, tireless champions of new music -- on piano as well as the Ondes Martenot, a ghostly early-electronic instrument.
Here she is playing Messiaen's "Le traquet rieur," from his large collection, Catalogue d'oiseaux (Bird Catalogue).
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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