Category Archives: Performance review – RCM

The Journal of Helène Berr

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Helène Berr was a student at the Sorbonne in the 1940s.  She was musical, well read and kept a journal.  One looks at her photograph and one sees exactly what one expects; regular features, not too much makeup, nicely cut hair.  All in all a typical young middle class Parisienne of the period.  But she was Jewish and, ultimately deported to Auschwitz and then Bergen-Belsen, where she was killed just days before British troops liberated the camp on 15th April 1945.

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Late night in Temerty

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Always one of my favourite concerts, the annual late night one in Temerty Theatre which forms part of the 21C festival.  As usual on Saturday night Brian Current was conducting the GGS New Music Ensemble.  This time it was two new Canadian works plus a 1994 piece by Luca Francesconi. Continue reading →

Imani Winds and Michelle Carr

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The opening concert of this year’s 21C festival was given by the Imani Winds (Brandon George Rule – flutes, Toyin Spellman-Diaz – oboe, Mark over – clarinet, Kevin Newton – horn and Monica Ellis – bassoon) and pianist Michelle Carr in Mazzoleni Hall on Saturday evening.  It was a programme of 20th and 21st century works with a kind of French/jazz theme.

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Barbara Hannigan with Bertrand Chamayou at Koerner Hall

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Thursday evening saw one of Barbara Hannigan’s comparatively rare Toronto appearances.  This time it was part of a ten city tour with pianist Bertrand Chamayou.  It was a three part programme with no intermission.  First up was Olivier Messiaen Chants de terre et ciel.  Like the better known Poèmes pour Mi these are reflections on family and religion.

1. Barbara Hannigan - Bertrand Chamayou (c) Co Merz SMALLER

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Double bill from the Glenn Gould School

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Friday night the Glenn Gould School presented a pair of French chamber operas in Mazzoleni Hall.  The pieces were Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges and Debussy’s Prodigal Son with a new English language libretto by Ashley Pearson.  Pearson’s libretto concerns a gay man estranged from his family so director Mabel Wannacott’s linking idea is that the principal character in both is the same person as a child and twenty years later.

Ravel 1

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Les Violons du Roy

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Quebec based Les Violons du Roy performed on Sunday at Koerner Hall with soprano Karina Gauvin and contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux.  The music was all drawn from Handel’s English language oratorios and featured orchestral pieces and a number of arias and duets.  These works are some of my favourites so I was a bit surprised that I didn’t enjoy the concert as much as I expected.

Violons-du-Roy

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Ema Nikolovska comes home

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Mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska made her Koerner Hall recital debut on Sunday afternoon just twenty-six years after first enrolling at the Royal Conservatory of Music.  It was clearly an emotional occasion for her and justified the barely choked back tears in her introduction.  The emotion though did not negatively affect her singing which was notable for, among other things, great control; emotionally and technically.

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GGS Carmélites delivers

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Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites is a very unusual opera.  It breaks all the rules and yet, done well, is an immensely compelling piece of music theatre.  There are no show stopper arias.  The ensemble numbers are mainly drawn from Catholic liturgy.  And yet it maintains a coherent and compelling narrative arc that builds steadily to an emotionally devastating conclusion.  The Glenn Gould School’s current production at Koerner Hall directed by Stephen Carr gets all the elements right and makes for a memorable evening at the opera.

RCMDiadesCarmelites--photobyDahliaKatz-17

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Music to Accompany a Departure

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Heinrich Schütz’s 1636 work Musikalische Exequien is sometimes described as the “first German requiem”..  It was performed last night at Koerner Hall by the excellent LA Master Chorale and their conductor Grant Gershon in a staged version directed by Peter Sellars; following up on their 2020 performance of the Lagrime di San Pietro.

Los Angeles Master Chorale: Music To Accompany A Departure Rehearsal

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Late night in Temerty

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The late night, “Afterhours”, concert by the GGS New Music Ensemble in the Temerty Theatre is something of a fixture of the 21C festival and it’s almost always fun.  Last night was no exception.  There were four contrasting pieces conducted and introduced by Brian Current, with his usual gentle erudition on the theme “all music was new music once”.  Which is worth thinking about!

The first two pieces on the programme were acoustic, in the sense that no electronics were involved.  Tanya León’s Indigena is a kind of high culture homage to salsa.  It’s highly textured and brightly toned with variations on Latin dance rhythms and an extended part for solo trumpet.  Skilfully composed, very well played and well within the mainstream of contemporary music.

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