The line up for 21C for 2026 has been announced. This is always one of the city’s best programmes of contemporary and related music. Details… Continue reading
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What Brings You In on stage
Some time ago I reviewed Leslie Ting’s CD set What Brings You In; noting that it was music “that was composed for performance as part of an art installation or a site specific performance or as therapy rather than a conventional concert hall experience”. On Sunday I got to hear it as part of Leslie’s show at Theatre Passe Muraille.
Quintette Imaginaire
Quintette Imaginaire is a disk of Schubert song arrangements from soprano Sandrine Piau and the Quatuor Psophos. There’s about 43 minutes of songs including such well known ones as “Kennst du das land”, “Viola” “Ganymed” and “Erlkörnig”. There are also a couple of movements from Schubert quartets to make up a total of 67 minutes of music.
It’s a change to hear these songs sung by a soprano and the textures of the quartet arrangements are interesting. I particularly enjoyed the bouncy arrangement of “Ganymed” and a thoughtful reading of “Viola”. I’m not sure a soprano can really sound dark enough for “Erlkönig” though. All in all there’s some excellent playing and Piau sounds idiomatic in German. Continue reading
April upcoming
Here’s what I’m looking forward to in April:
- April 1st. Ambur Braid is giving a master class at noon in Walter Hall. This is not an April Fool… probably.
- April 3rd. Midori Marsh is appearing at Walter Hall at 1.30pm in a Women’s Musical Club of Toronto concert.
- April 5th. Flamenco flautist Lara Wong is appearing as part of F for Flamenco at Parkdale hall at 8pm.
- April 8th. Duo Oriana; soprano Sinéad White and lutenist Jonathan Stuchbery, are appearing in the RBA at noon with an HIP song recital.
Trident Moon
Trident Moon, by Anusree Roy and directed by Nina Lee Aquino opened at Crow’s Theatre on Friday night. It’s set in 1947 during the Partition of India and concerns a bunch of women in the back of a truck seeking safety in what has become India. Arun is a Hindu servant to a Moslem family. Her boss, presumably to show he is not soft on Hindus, has beheaded her husband and sons. In revenge she has shot him and kidnapped three of his women folk in the hope that they can be multiply raped by Hindu men when they reach “safety”. The truck also contains her sister who has been accidentally, but seriously, wounded in the shooting, her retarded daughter and a box with the three heads. The truck is driven by her brother.
(L to R back) Afroza Banu, Michelle Mohammed, Anusree Roy, Prerna Nehta, Zorana Sadiq, and Imali Prerera. (Front) Sahiba Arora and Sehar Bhojani
Chicago Symphony
As part of music director Riccardo Muti’s final tour with the orchestra, the Chicago Symphony is coming to Toronto in February for the first time since 1914. It’s at Koerner too, so it’s a chance to see one of the world’s great orchestras in a really good acoustic. The dates are February 1st and 2nd 2023 and the programmes are:
- February 1st: Beethoven Symphony No. 7 and Prokofiev Symphony No. 5
- February 2nd: Beethoven Coriolan Overture and Symphony No. 8, Liadov The Enhanted Lake and Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition.
Photo credit: Todd Rosenberg Photography
Tapestry 22/23
Tapestry Opera have just announced the upcoming 2022/23 season from their new secret HQ location. It’s exciting and looks much like a Tapestry pre-plague season. There are two brand new operas plus old favourites like Tapestry Briefs, Songbook and so on.
The Shape of Home
The Shape of Home is a show about the life and works of Al Purdy currently being presented by the Festival Players in the Studio Theatre at the Streetcar Crowsnest. Actually I think it’s about a lot more than Al Purdy. It does tell his story and use his poems as song material but in the creative process something a bit magical happened. It was created during lockdown using Zoom with the creator/participants messaging back and forth with ideas, snippets of songs and (mostly dark) thoughts. The creative process must have been gruelling and at times disheartening but the final result is a show of high energy, and humour. But above all it’s life and art affirming. Performed in the tiny Studio Theatre it’s also very intimate. For the first time since the theatres reopened I felt I had got my old life back.
Poetry in Motion
Echo Chamber Toronto: Poetry in Motion presented at the Isabel Bader Theatre last night as a part of Toronto Summer music was an interesting idea that worked pretty well. Five pieces of chamber music were presented along with introductory poems and, for the longer pieces, three dancers.
Photo credit: Caroline Barbier de Reulle
A Cup of Sins
A Cup of Sins is a new CD release of works by Iranian-Canadian composer Parisa Sabet. If there’s a unifying theme it’s religious/cultural persecution in Iran and there’s a strong Bahai influence. The six pieces are scored for various combinations of voice, piano and small ensemble and add up to about an hour of very rewarding music.
The first piece, Shurangiz, is a riff on music for the tar (a kind of Iranian lute) and it’s scored for flute, clarinet, piano, violin and cello. It’s an interesting combination of traditional Iranian influences with a nod to Western minimalism. It’s quite meditative in mood. Continue reading
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