Tag Archives: toronto summer music festival

Artsong reGENERATION – part 2

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Danielle Vaillancourt

So it was back to Walter Hall at 7.30pm for Saturday’s second instalment.  This time the programme kicked off with the Schumann Piano Quartet in E flat Major Op. 47 before the singers.  The first singer up was mezzo Danielle Vaillancourt with pianist Jing Lee Park.  They gave us just two songs.  The first was Fauré’s Il pleure dans mon coeur followed by Duparc’s Au pays où se fait la guerre.  Vaillancourt has excellent French diction, a really interesting timbre and plenty of power.  This was pretty fine singing.  Jing Lee Park made the most of her chance to shine in the rather lovely piano part in the Duparc. Continue reading →

Artsong reGENERATION – part 1

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Florence Bourget

TSMF has made some small changes to the line up this year.  Instead of the art song component recitals for the academy programme being given together as two concerts they have been spread across four concerts with the balance being made up of chamber music.  The first two of the four were yesterday in Walter Hall.

There was no printed programme for the concerts.  The singers announced themselves and their accompanists and their material.  The last was repeated in the projected surtitles (yeah!) which also provided text and translation for the non-English items (including Scots) but not for songs to English texts.  So, mad scribbling was required to get a complete listing and I may have made the odd error.

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TSMF opener

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The Toronto Summer Music Festival opened last night at Koerner Hall with a concert by the Escher Quartet who came in at quite short notice for the venerable Borodins who had to pull out due to illness.  The theme of this year’s festival is “Reflections of Wartime” as perhaps befits the 100th anniversary of the Great War.  That said, I’m not sure how last night’s programme fitted the theme.  None of Schumann’s Quartet no.1, Shostakovich’s Quartet no. 9 nor Tchaikovsky’s Quartet no. 1 have any obvious war references.

escherquartet

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Artsong ReGENERATION 2

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Yesterday we got the second recital by the song fellows of the Toronto Summer Music Festival.  In the week since the first concert they have been working with mentor Soile Isokoski and it showed in the programming.  There was quite a bit of Strauss and more Finnish and Swedish music than I have ever heard in such a recital.  Among other things this highlighted just how difficult Strauss songs are to sing well.  They are exceedingly tricky yet have to sound absolutely effortless.  Three of the four sopranos on show tried.  None of them succeeded completely(*).  So it goes.  And so to the details.

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Soile Isokoski in recital

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Last night, at Walter Hall, Finnish soprano Soile Isokoski and pianist Martin Katz gave a recital as part of the Toronto Summer Music Festival.  The programme of Schumann, Wolf, Strauss and Sibelius was an object lesson in restraint and elegance.  There were no histrionics or gimmicks, just very fine, subtly expressive singing and brilliantly supportive pianism.

isokoskikatz

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Artsong ReGENERATION 1

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Toronto Summer Music Festival has two “apprenticeship” programmes; one for chamber musicians and one for singers and collaborative pianists.  The latter is directed by Martin Katz and Steven Philcox.  On Saturday afternoon in Walter Hall we got our first chance to see this year’s young artists.  Eight singers and four pianists were on show.  The singers were a mix of those who are well known to anyone who follows student opera in Toronto and newcomers.  The pianists were all new to me.

Art Song reGENERATION July 15

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News

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soileSo after a bit of a hiatus the Toronto music scene is coming back to life.  The Toronto Summer Music Festival has kicked off and the main interest for followers of the vocal arts lies in the Art Song fellows project with concerts at 1pm on each of the next two Saturdays in Walter Hall (free but tickets required).  Then the vocal highlight of the festival; Soile Isokoski in recital with Martin Katz at 7.30pm on the 18th at Walter Hall.  The programme includes the Schumann Mary Stuart songs, the Strauss Ophelia songs plus some Wolf and, of course, Sibelius.  Ms. Isokoski is also giving a public masterclass in Walter Hall on the 23rd at 2pm.

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St. Lawrence String Quartet

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The St. Lawrence String Quartet opened this year’s Toronto Summer Music Festival with a really interesting programme.  They kicked off with the Haydn String Quartet No. 25 in C Major.  This very much belied the idea that Haydn is a skilful but not especially inventive composer.  It’s full of invention; especially rhythmic and really suited the intensely physical style of the St. Lawrences; especially the hyperkinetic first violin, Geoff Nuttall, who also contributed a rather extraordinary pair of socks to the evening’s festivities.  Watching, too, is a different experience from listening and here pointed up the extent to which chamber music like this is a conversation between the players rather than a regimented or choreographed thing.

SLSQ_Dalby_LMascaro

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Toronto Summer Music Festival 2017

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The line up for this year’s Toronto Summer Music Festival, the first with Jonathan Crow as Artistic Director has been announced.  It’s the usual mix of orchestral, chamber, piano and small scale vocal music for the most part.  This being the sesquicentennial year it’s heavy on CanCon and, as in previous years, there are academy programs for both singers and instrumentalists.

Sesqui

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