24 carat Golden Age

It’s not often that one attends a recital that is so stunning that one struggles to find words to describe it but The Golden Age recital given by soprano Erin Morley, tenor Lawrence Brownlee and pianist Malcolm Martineau at a packed Koerner Hall on Thursday evening, as part of Toronto Summer Music, was in that class. Most of the rep was drawn from the Golden Age album released last year with a few change ups. It’s basically all highly virtuosic material in the bel canto style (plus a couple of piano pieces).

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Brahms songs

COVER ITUNES.inddThe second disk in pianist Malcolm Martineau’s project to record all the Brahms songs will soon be available.  It features twenty nine songs for low voice with, as far as i could tell, no theme.  All the works have titles like Fünf Gesänge Op.72 which actually starts the disk.

The singing is shared between mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly and baritone Hanno Müller-Brachmann.  Both are wonderful singers with terrific artistry and sensitive treatment of text.  With Martineau at the piano it’s hard to imagine these relatively  little performed songs getting better performances.

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And so, into November

ThomasOliemans28-e1534886868523-1024x489Here are a few interesting events happening in the first half of November.  There are competitions.  There are also concerts…

Thursday 8th at 1.30pm in Walter Hall the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto are presenting baritone Thomas Oliemans, and pianist Malcolm Martineau in a programme consisting of Brahms’s Die schöne Magelone and Schumann’s Liederkreis, op. 39.  Tickets etc here.  There’s also a pre concert talk at 12.15pm when Jane Cooper will talk about Bertha Crawford. Continue reading