This time last year Toronto’s Diapente(1) and Montreal’s Comtessa(2) performed together at St. Thomas’ Anglican. On Saturday afternoon they were together again in the same venue for a programme of music by Guillaume de Machaut. Considering it was works by one composer the programme was really very varied.
On Friday evening Toronto’s Diapente Renaissance Quintet [1] combined with Montreal based medieval music ensemble Comtessa [2] to create an intriguing programme at St. Thomas’ Anglican. The concert was titled Across the Channel : English and French Music of the Hundred Years War; which was more or less accurate! The works; vocal and instrumental, actually spanned from the 13th century to the latter half of the 15th; so a rather longer span than the war, but the “English and French” bit was true enough. Unlike the war, Scots and Gascons were notably absent!
Duo Oriana consists of soprano Sinéad White and lutenist Jonathan Stuchbery. They gave a lunchtime concert in the RBA on Tuesday. Unsurprisingly most of their repertoire consists of lute songs from the 16th and 17th (and even 18th) century but they have recently branched out with the Toronto Book of Ayres which sets verse by contemporary Toronto poets. We got to hear that for the first time on Tuesday.
