Tag Archives: cho

Where Her Music Blooms

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Wednesday’s concert in the RBA was a challenging programme of song by contemporary women composers presented by soprano Ariane Cossette and pianist Brian Cho.  Kaija Saariaho’s Quatre instants sets four related poems by Amin Maalouf.  In some ways it’s in the same sort of psychological space as their L’amour de loin; love at a distance, love requited and unrequited, love sensual and quasi-spiritual, but musically it’s very different.  It’s much more abrasive and (mostly) less lyrical.  Sometimes its really busy and quite angry.  It’s also very, very complex and often quite loud, demanding great skill and stamina from both performers.  The piano part features loads of trills and arpeggiation and the vocal line has awkward intervals and even screaming.  It was handled really well.

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Broken from the Happenstancers

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The Happenstancers latest gig; Broken, played on Friday evening at Redeemer Lutheran. Getting back to their core mission, this concert explored the relationships between baroque music and contemporary repertoire and the plusses and minusses of combining music, instruments and techniques from both.  So, interspersed between sonatas by Johann Rosenmüller; originally scored for strings and continuo but played here by various combinations of oboe/cor anglais, regular and bass clarinet, strings and accordion, we got contemporary pieces.

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The Two Deaths of Ophelia

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The latest Happenstancers gig, which took place at 918 Bathurst on Thursday evening, was an exploration of the death of Ophelia and related ideas with works for assorted chamber ensembles plus/minus voices.  Ten composers; all of whom could at a stretch be considered “contemporary”, were featured in a programme that, with interval, lasted two and three quarter hours.  That’s a feat of stamina for performers and audience alike as none of the music performed was “easy” and no notes or introductions were provided.

Each half of the programme started off with a piece by Linda Catlin Smith, who was in the audience.  Stare at the River for piano, string bass, trumpet, clarinet, violin and percussion was quite sparse and open textured while The River was more obviously lyrical with guitar, cello and Danika Lorèn replacing piano, trumpet and bass.

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More farewells

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The first of this year’s Les Adieux concerts for departing members of the Ensemble Studio took place Tuesday lunchtime in the RBA.  It was supposed to feature Brian Cho, Mattia Senesi, Korin Thomas-Smith and Karoline Podolak but Karoline was indisposed so Emily Rocha (not leaving) jumped in at the last minute.

The rearranged programme worked pretty well with maybe a bit more opportunity for the pianists.  Sio, Mattia  played the Intermezzo from Brahms’ Op 118. No. 2, which was very nicely done and Brian closed things out with just the piano part from Schumann’s Widmung which works surprisingly well, at least if one is familiar with the song. Continue reading →

Not really a review at all

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So Thursday lunchtime I went to see Karoline Podolak and Wesley Harrison supported by Mattia Senesi and Brian Cho in the RBA.  It was a “schmaltzy” programme (Wesley’s description not mine!).  The whole thing consisted of arias and duets from La Traviata, The Barber of Seville and Don Pasquale with a bit of Lehar and a final Prayer chucked in.

It was the sort of rep that if it came up on University Challenge any opera goer would be hitting the buzzer in under two seconds!  And it’s all lovely of course.  It was beautifully sung by two beautiful people with two excellent pianists.  They sing beautifully separately and wonderfully together and Karoline’s coloratura is spectacular.  It’s rep that fits them like a glove at this stage of their careers and I’m not going to bore you with a blow by blow account.  It was unalloyed, undemanding enjoyment made all the better by being in the RBA on a sunny day!

Photo credfit: Karen E. Reeves.

Homage to Shostakovich

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Dmitri Shostakovich died on 9th August 1975; the day after my 18th birthday and I remember the feeling of sadness and hurt I felt when I heard the news.  The 50th anniversary is being celebrated by a fair number of concerts featuring the great man’s works including one given my members of the COC Ensemble Studio in the RBA on Thursday.

The material featured was comparatively unknown even by the standards of Shostakovich songs which are, in general, much less well known than his symphonic and chamber works.  Matters started playfully enough with a four hands arrangement of Waltz No.2 played with appropriate whimsy by Brian Cho and Mattia Senesi  It was followed by the first of two sets by Duncan Stenhouse; two of the songs from Four Romances on Poems by Pushkin, Op.46.  Using text by Pushkin allowed the composer to express sentiments about authority that would otherwise have been very risky and these pieces are sombre.  They were very solidly sung with some impressive floaty high notes, variation of colour and fine work by Senesi.  Shostakovich rarely lets one forget he started out as a pianist! Continue reading →

The Christina and Louis Quilico Awards – 2025 edition

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Tuesday evening in the RBA members of the COC Ensemble Studio competed for the biannual Christina and Louis Quilico Awards.  These days every time I attend a singing competition, which I have been doing much less of, I ask myself why.  There are really three reasons:

  • The music to faffing about ratio is pretty low,
  • If one knows the contestants one has a pretty good idea what they are going to sing and one has probably heard it before,
  • The judges give no reasons for their decisions which are as often as not inscrutable.

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Classical feuds

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DI-00433Tuesday’s RBA concert with members of the Ensemble Studio was themed around composer rivalries though not the really toxic ones.  No Mozart/Salieri or Wagner/Meyerbeer here!  The most convincing as a rivalry was the first; Berlioz vs Rossini.  So Queen Hezumuryango sang “Le spectre de la rose” with some sensitive handling of the text and a pretty fiery “Cruda sorte” from L’Italiana in Algeri with plenty of emotion.  I definitely like her voice more when she’s going for drama as she’s got plenty of power and expressiveness.

Next up was Duncan Stenhouse with four pieces that illustrated the complex relationship between Brahms, Wagner and Dvořák.  “Der Tod, das ist die kühle Nacht” from the Vier Lieder Op. 96 and “Při řekách babylonských” from the Biblické písně  were sung with excellent control and expressiveness but if there’s a connection it’s not obvious to me.  The two operatic pieces though; “Běda!, Běda!” from Rusalka and “Abendlich strahlt der Sonne Auge” from Das Rheingold have, I think, more obvious affinities; both dramatically and musically.  Both were very well sung.  It’s so good to have a genuine bass in the Ensemble again! Continue reading →

I Saw a New Heaven

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wemmf-isawanewheavenThe second programme in this year’s West End Micro Music Festival had its first performance at Redeemer Lutheran on Friday night.  It was a mix of contemporary instrumental and vocal works with some unusual Hildegard von Bingen and some interesting lighting (Billy Wong) and staging.

First up was a set for Lenny Ranallo on electric guitar and soprano Danika Lorèn wrapped in a sheet.  It was certainly different, and surprisingly effective, to hear von Bingen on electric guitar.  This was followed by Danika singing Sofia Gubaidulina’s Aus den Visionen der Hildegard von Bingen with electronic backing.  This sets short fragments of german text and was presented with great precision.

Next was Cassandra Miller’s Perfect Offering.  This is scored for chamber ensemble (violins – Julia Mirzoev, David Baik; viola – Hezekiah Leung, cello – Peter Eom, flutes – Sara Constant, clarinets – Brad Cherwin, piano – Joonchung Cho with Simon Rivard conducting). It’s based on a peal of bells from a convent in France and is rather beautiful in a minimalist sort of way as you might expect fro something based on bells. Continue reading →