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.
My usual reaction to holiday season concerts is (polite version) “Bah humbug”. The less polite version involves reindeer placement. That said Thursday’s concert from the COC Ensemble Studio was really rather enjoyable.
Tuesday’s lunchtime concert in the RBA consisted of works by Cecilia Livingston chosen and performed by members of the COC’s Ensemble Studio. It was a fairly varied programme considering it was all works by one composer.
On Saturday evening the COC presented a teaser concert for their 2023/24 season on the outdoor stage at Harbourfront. The weather stayed fair and there was no more than the usual aural background to distract a little from the music. The full orchestra under Johannes Debus was on display along with half a dozen members of the Ensemble Studio.
operaramblings 