First some additional February shows
- On the 23rd at Harbourfront Centre Art of Time Ensemble are presenting Music from the Weimar Republic.
- On the 25th VOICEBOX have a concert performance of Verdi’s Ernani at the St. Lawrence Centre.
Opera
- Opera York are presenting Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts on March 1st and 3rd.
- March 14th to 17th UoT Opera are doing Massenet’s Cendrillon at a to be determined location.
- March 20th and 22nd at Koerner Hall, the Glenn Gould School spring opera is Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites. That one has me excited!
The Valentine’s Day recital in the RBA was given by Simone McIntosh and Rachael Kerr. They served up fare appropriate to the occasion unlike in 2013 when Franz-Josef Selig gave us a Valentine recital mostly about Death! It was an interesting mix of material starting with two of the Britten folk song arrangements; “The trees they grow so high” and “The miler of Dee”. Quite a bold choice in some ways as the first one is almost, but not quite, a capella so there’s nowhere to hide. It was good. Not only was Simone’s voice accurate and expressive but she gave herself some metrical freedom. There is nothing worse than a singer singing this material as if they have a broomstick up their ass.
Benjamin Appl’s latest CD is a selection of Schubert Lieder arranged for orchestra. Most of the arrangeents are by Max Reger or Anton Webern but there are a few surprising ones like an arrangement of “Ständchen” by Jaques Offenbach. The songs themselves are a mix of the very familiar; “Die Forelle”, “An die Musik”, and the less well known such as “Gruppe aus dem Tartarus” but, to be honest, it’s mostly Schubert’s Greatest Hits.
Deutsche Grammophon has just re-released the recital by Bryn Terfel and Llyr Williams that was recorded live at the Verbier Festival in 2011. It’s a generous package. It kicks off with a couple of exquisitely sung Schubert songs which are followed by Schumann’s Liederkreis Op.39. This is gorgeous lieder singing with the voice sounding very fresh, the diction spot on and lovely accompaniment.
Veteran mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter appeared in recital at Koerner Hall yesterday afternoon with pianist Christopher Berner. The first part of the programme was some fairly gentle Mozart with some fairly light weight Weckerlin and one long Schubert piece; “Die Viola”. A short Mozart piano piece rounded out the programme. It was stylish, enjoyable singing but one felt that both choice of material and method of presentation were being chosen to conserve the voice. How would things go after the interval when three songs from Winterreise were promised?
Presto Classical lists over 100 recordings of Schubert’s Winterreise for (almost) every voice type accompanied on pianoforte, fortepiano, string quartet and probably more. It’s also frequently performed live and I’ve certainly seen it done multiple times in settings ranging from the most formal of Liederabend to staged with projections and all manner of things. So why bother with another new recording? Well it’s largely because I’m a fan of English baritone Roderick Williams who has just had a Winterreise recording, with Iain Burnside at the piano, released on the Chandos label.
operaramblings 