Stella Chen
Last night at Trinity St.Paul’s we got the first of two concerts in the fourth iteration of the OPUS Chamber Music series. Music director and pianist Kevin Ahfat had arranged an impressive group of young string players to join him in a varied and enjoyable programme.
From the United States we had violinist Stella Chen; a Queen Elisabeth Prize winner and Gramophone Young Artist of the Year, and up and coming violist Matthew Lipman. There was Berlin based cellist Brannon Cho. The local talent consisted of and violinist Isabella Perron, as well, of course as Kevin himself.
First up were Ahfat and Lipman with Rebecca Clarke’s Sonata for Viola and Piano of 1919. It’s quite a substantial piece with more than a hint of Debussy, especially in the piano part. The first movement is marked “Impetuoso” but it’s nothing like as frenetic as the second movement; “Vivace”, which is really densely scored. There’s a lovely, lyrical and expressive concluding “Adagio” which culminates in a very involved final section in high romantic style. Some gorgeous playing and great communication between the musicians here. Continue reading
On May 26th and 27th in the MacMillan Theatre there’s a chance to see Haydn’s rarely performed Orfeo: L’anima del filosofo. It was composed for London in 1791 but was shut down during rehearsals because the Lord Chamberlain’s office thought it subversively supportive of enlightenment values at a time when Pitt’s government was cracking down brutally on pro French Revolutionary sentiment in the UK.
There was never a chance that Emily D’Angelo’s solo recital at Koerner Hall was going to be a steady procession of German lieder and French chansons with the odd Broadway number thrown in and it wasn’t. It was what D’Angelo fans would expect and (some of us at least) crave; lots of women composers and lots of contemporary music. There were five sets.
A Woman’s Voice is a record with 84 minutes of music for female voices and piano by Alice Ping Yee Ho. It’s a mixture of songs and excerpts from operas and a plkay. All but one track feature Toronto based artists who include no less than three Norcop prize winners. Overall, I found the songs more fun to listen to than the opera excerpts though they were interesting in their own way too and I’m seriously intrigued by a couple of them that I haven’t seen but now want to.
Mr. Emmet Takes a Walk is the latest in the series of rereleases of works by Peter Maxwell Davies performed by the Manchester ensemble Psappha. The work premiered in 2000 and was recorded in 2005 and it’s the composer’s penultimate work for the stage. (FWIW I’ve heard five of PMD’s stage works but never seen one performed).
The current Canadian Children’s Opera Company show; Brundibár, represents something of a new direction from the company. Previous shows, at least those I’ve seen, have been quite light and based, typically, on fantasy, fable or popular history. The current offering is altogether more serious. At its core is Brundibár, a children’s opera written by Hans Krása for a Prague orphanage in 1939 and subsequently performed over fifty times in the “showcase” concentration camp at Terezin. 
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