Tag Archives: tso

More seasons and so on

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tso2324Here are a couple more season announcements.

The 2023/24 TSO season is the usual mix of symphonic, vocal and lighter fare.  Several concerts caught my eye.  The first is the return of Sir Andrew Davis on November 8th and 9th 2023 with a programme that includes Fauré’s Requiem.  Later that month, on the 22nd, there’s the first of two concerts featuring Emily D’Angelo.  She’ll be singing the Berg Seven Early Songs with Michael Tilson-Thomas on the podium.  That programme also includes Mahler Symphony No. 5.  She’s back on May 1st and 2nd 2024 with the music from her excellent enargeia CD.  Gustavo Gimeno conducts a programme that also includes Brahms Symphony No.1 and a new work by Alison Yun-Fei Jiang.  On Sunday June 16th in North York there’s a programme that includes a new piece by Ian Cusson created as part of the Art of Healing project with CAMH.  Gimeno conducts a programme that also includes Bartok and Mozart.  Full details of the season are here. Continue reading →

January 2023

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januarty wordcloudJanuary is looking quite promising on both the music and theatre front but there’s not a lot of opera…  Here’s what’s in my agenda.

January 11th to 14th the TSO have four performances of a concert that includes Mozart’s Requiem with a good looking line up of soloists.

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It’s beginning to look a lot like Hannukwanzmas

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dec22wordcloudSo what’s on as we move into the holiday season?

Closing out November there’s Opera Revue at Castro’s this afternoon at 3pm and a couple of concerts on Wednesday.  At lunchtime Wirth Prize winner Elisabeth Saint-Gelais and collaborative pianist Louise Pelletier present an intriguing looking programme in the RBA then at 7.30pm at Mazzoleni Hall the RCM’s Rebanks fellows are performing.  Both are free but the Mazzoleni concert is ticketed and may be sold out.

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Ode to Joy

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Last night’s TSO program, conducted by Gustavo Gimeno, kicked off with three short pieces by Canadian composers.  All were impressive.  The first two; Adam Scime’s A Dream of Refuge and Bekah Simms’ Bite are reflections (to some at extent at least) on the pandemic.  The Scime piece is lighter and brighter.  There is uncertainty there but ultimately it seems to speak of hope.  The Simms piece wis much darker with heavy percussion and blaring brass.  A sense of uncertainty permeates the string writing.  It’s quite disturbing.  Roydon Tse’s Unrelenting Sorrow was written for those who have lost loved ones.  It’s quite melodic and has strong contrasts between dramatic and more lyrical passages.  Sorrowful perhaps but not unrelentingly so.

0035_Ode to Joy

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Gimeno and Hannigan

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To Roy Thomson Hall last night for the first time in over two years to see Gustavo Gimeno conduct (my first time) with Barbara Hannigan featuring in a major premiere in the first half.  The concert kicked off with a 3 minute piece by Julia Mermelstein; in moments, into bloom.  It was over too quickly to register much of an impression with me.  I certainly enjoyed the Stravinsky Scherzo fantastique that followed.  This seems to be Gimeno’s type of music and he had excellent control of rhythm, dynamics and colour which augured well for The Firebird coming up after the interval.

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As we head into summer…

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SE_Raccoons_180201_164As we head into summer, as usual, things start to quieten down.  I only have five shows in my schedule for the month of June:

  • June 2nd, 4th and 5th Toronto City Opera are presenting Cavalleria Rusticana at the Fleck Dance Theatre.  It’s the usual TCO format; piano accompaniment, amateur chorus, young professional soloists.  Jennifer Tung conducts.
  • June 2nd, 3rd, 4th at &.30pm at the Canadian Opera Company Theatre it’s the latest iteration of Teiya Kasahara’s The Queen in Me.  It looks like this time it may be with small ensemble rather than just piano.  There’s a promo video on the COC’s Youtube channel.
  • June 3rd to 10th (preview June 2nd) at Crow’s Theatre it’s Maxime Beauregard-Martin’s Singulières; a play about “single ladies” in Quebec.  It’s in French with English surtitles (and/or 3D glasses).
  • June 5t at 4pm at Grace Church on the Hill, Soundstreams are presenting a homage to the late R. Murray Schaefer.  This one is free but registration is required.
  • June 15th, 16th, 18th and 19th at 8pm at Roy Thomson Hall the TSO are presenting Beethoven’s ninth symphony with an impressive line up of soloists including Rihab Chaieb.  It’s coupled with three short premiers including a piece by Adam Scime.

That’s about it until Toronto Summer Music opens on July 7th.

Balance of April and into May

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rurThere’s a fair number of shows appearing at fairly short notice as people scramble to adapt to relaxing regulations so this post will contain events for April not previously noted plus a look forward to May.

  • April 26th at 7.30 pm Likht Ensemble have a free Holocaust Remembrance Day concert at Mazzoleni Hall.
  • April 28th at 8pm at St. Andrews on King St. Soundstreams are reprising the Vivier Lovesongs concert that was done as a stream last fall.
  • April 29th at 7.30pm at 918 Bathurst The Happenstancers have a concert featuring music by Julia Wolfe, Nahre Sol, Kaija Saariaho, Gyorgy Kurtag, Oliver Knussen, and WA Mozart.

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Bits and Pieces

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or1221The annus horribilis of 2021 seems to be going out with a whimper rather than a bang; at least musically in Toronto.  Much of the streamed content on offer consists of repeats which is, I suppose, a holiday tradition.  In this category we could include Against the Grain’s Messiah:Complex showing on Youtube and at TIFF and Essential Opera’s December.  There’s still some new stuff appearing.  Opera Revue have a rather good short piece about the exorbitant cost of aviaries in Toronto on Youtube.  (They also have a live show coming up this weekend at the Emmett Ray.  The COC have a show I(n Winter coming up this weekend on the COC web site featuring music by, among others, Vivaldi and Ian Cusson.  There are also a couple of very short concerts from the RBA on the COC’s Youtube channel.  Also, this year the annual Krehm memorial concert in aid of St. Mike’s ICU is on Youtube at 5.30pm on Boxing Day.  Rachel Krehm is singing Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen in the Schoenberg arrangement and that will be followed by a chamber reduction of Beethovens Symphony No.7.  Evan Mitchell conducts the Canzona Chamber Players.  For live, Tafelmusik have a sort of Christmas “greatest hits” concert and the TSO have a much shortened Messiah.  Apart from that the holiday season is looking like booze and booster shots.

October upcoming

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Still not a whole lot going on and much of what is, is at short notice so it misses posts like this.  But, here’s what’s in my diary for October so far.

  • September 30th to October 17th.  Mistatim; a streamed version of the Rsd Sky/TSO collaboration for young people presented by Crow’s Theatre.  Streaming codes are $20 from the Crow’s box office.
  • October 14th 8pm.  Soundstreams presents RBC Bridges Showcase; six short choral works by young composers.  It’s on-line and free and available for a month.  Register here.
  • October 15th, 7.30pm.  The annual IRCPA Encounter concert with ten young singers and Rachel Andrist at the piano.  It’s being broadcast from Zoomer Hall, presumably w/o a live audience.  It’s free at Classical 96.3 FM, and at http://classicalfm.ca.
  •  October 24th at 3pm.  The Dover Quartet at Koerner Hall in a programme that includes Barber’s Dover Beach.  There are in-person tickets and live stream codes available.  The pricing structure is complex so check out rcmusic.ca for details.
  • October 29th (subscriber/donors) and 30th (plebs) at 7.30pm.  The COC is streaming Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi from the Four Seasons Centre.  The stream will be “on-demand” for at least a month and is free.

That’s it I’m afraid.

One swallow and all that

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Faint signs of something approaching normality are in the air.  Following on from the TSO’s season announcement which promises shows with a live audience (unknown terms and conditions apply), Toronto Summer Music has announced that concerts in the third week of the festival will also have live listeners (as well as live streaming).  There’s a lineup of nineteen concerts at Grace Church on the Hill and tickets are on sale now at $50/each.

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