The final concert in this years Soundstreams TD Encounters series took place at Hugh’s Room on Monday evening. It was themed around the work of Arvo Pärt with two of his works and two connected pieces featured. It begun wit his Es sang vor langen Jahren; a setting of Clemens Brentano’s poem “Der Spinnerin Nachtlied”. It was sung by soprano Xin Wang accompanied by Erika Raum on violin and Sheila Jaffe on viola. It’s quite a lyrical piece with an almost Schubertian vocal line and characteristically minimalist instrumentals. Nicely done. Continue reading
Another Side of Arvo Pärt
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Saturday afternoon at 27 North Sherbourne Rachel Krehm and Janelle Fung presented an art song recital entitled The Enticing Sky. The material chosen was interesting with a heavy bias to women composers, living composers and Canadian composers; sometimes all three at once.
Tonight Essential Opera have a short livestream of a new creation. It’s a fifteen minute piece on the theme of Snow White called Mirror, Mirror. Words and music are by Anna Pidgorna. It’s being screened on Youtube and Facebook at 7pm EST.
A concert of contemporary works for accordion? Why not! Well it was more of a concert of contemporary works for fixed reed instruments with, ironically, Trinity St. Paul’s most impressive fixed reed instrument forming an unused but imposing backdrop to the proceedings. Things started off conventionally enough with Soundstreams’ Artistic Director Lawrence Cherney on stage with three players of different instruments describing their histories and properties and then mild Hell broke loose as a curiously clad Joseph Macerollo burst into the auditorium, ejected Lawrence and friends and launched into R. Murray Schafer’s performance piece La Testa d’Adriane; the tale of a head mystically preserved between life and death. At this point the purpose of the rather bizarre contraption on stage was unclear but soon enough the cloth was pulled back to reveal Carla Huhtanen, or her head at least. More accordion and speech from Macerollo and a bizarre collection of grunts, squeaks, shrieks and gurning from Carla followed. Madness or genius? It’s Schafer. The question is unanswerable.
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