Tag Archives: upchurch

Où dort la fantaisie

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Yesterday’s lunchtime concert in the RBA featured two members of the Ensemble Studio.  Andrew Haji, standing in for an indisposed Charles Sy, and Jennifer Szeto performed Liszt’s Tre Sonetti di Petrarca.  These songs were unfamiliar to me and came as a pleasant surprise.  They are very Italianate and very operatic and have a pretty involved piano part (unsurprisingly).  Haji displayed his uncanny ability to find exactly the right idiom for the music and sang with beauty and expression as well as nailing the three high D flats.  Szeto was a most accomplished accompanist. Great dress too!  New Yorkers can catch these two in the Marilyn Horne Song Celebration at Carnegie Hall on Saturday where they will perform the same music.

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The Diary of The One Who Didn’t Disappear

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The on/off saga of the Ensemble Studio’s promised Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared came to an apparent conclusion yesterday.  It had been postponed at least once and even this morning the COC website is advertising a complete performance with two soloists and a small chorus.

cocIt didn’t happen.  What we got was a recital by Owen McAusland singing some excerpts from the Janáček plus Vaughan William’s The House of Life and Britten’s Les Illuminations.  It was his last performance as a member of the Ensemble Studio during which time, among many other things, he sang several main stage performances as Tito covering for a sick Michael Schade.

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Thirteen songs in search of an audience

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This morning I went to the COC website to see what Josh Hopkins would be singing at lunchtime.  Bottom line, he wasn’t.  His recital had been replaced by a hastily put together program of pieces to be sung by Owen McCausland, Karine Boucher and Aviva Fortunata.  Given that Liz Upchurch said it was pieces they were looking for an audience for I’d guess it’s audition/competition rep that they are working on and therefore, to some extent, work in progress.

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Poetic Love

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Today’s lunch time concert in the RBA was a lieder recital by two Ensemble Studio members; bass-baritone Gordon Bintner and tenor Andrew Haji.  Both singers sang settings of texts by Heinrich Heine.  Bintner, accompanied by Jennifer Szeto kicked off with selections from Schubert’s Schwanengesang to be followed by Haji and Liz Upchurch with Schumann’s Dichterliebe.

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Barbara Hannigan in the RBA

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OK so who noticed that Barbara contains RBA twice?  A perfect fit one might say and so it proved.  In a short late afternoon concert Ms. Hannigan, joined by the TSO Chamber Soloists (Jonathan Crow, Peter Seminovs, Teng Li and Joseph Johnson) and Liz Upchurch, showed her chops as one of the day’s best interpreters of modern vocal music.   First up was the String Quartet No.2 by Schoenberg.  This is a most unusual quartet in that the players are joined by a soprano soloist for the third and fourth movements.  It’s also unusual in that, although it predates Schoenberg’s full blown serialism, the first three movements are tonal (just) but the last is a full on experiment in atonality.  None of this makes it easy to play or sing!

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So wondrous sweet and fair!

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On a bright, sunny winter’s day there are few more inviting places to be than the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre positively glowing in the sunlight.  When one’s reason for being there is a recital by Jane Archibald with the redoubtable Liz Upchurch at the piano one feels doubly blessed.  It was one of the best performances of the many I have attended in that space. KLP150210-_DSC2882 Continue reading →

Poèmes pour Mi

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duworsYesterday’s lunchtime concert in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre consisted of early works by Olivier Messiaen written for his wife, the violinist and composer Claire Delbos.  The first piece was the Theme et variations for violin and piano of 1932.  Like much of Messiaen’s music this piece represents two contrasting moods, likely rooted in Messiaen’s Catholicism.  It’s either deeply meditative or ecstatic, almost manically so, with not much in between.  It’s also very hard to play!  Here it was presented with great skill and conviction by violinist Kerry DuWors and pianist Liz Upchurch.   Continue reading →

Moving into February

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footstepsIt’s getting pretty busy in Toronto.  Here are a few upcoming things of interest that I haven’t already mentioned.

This year, the Faculty of Music’s annual student composer project is a co-production with Campbell House Museum, the 19th century home of Sir William Campbell, Chief Justice of Upper Canada. Footsteps in Campbell House is a series of pieces by student composers to words by Michael Albano.  The audience moves around the house exploring the lives of those who livedd there.  There are five performances on January 30th and 31st and February 1st.  Each performance is limited to 35 people.  Tickets are $20 and available here.  I’m really intrigued by this but there’s no way I can go.   Continue reading →

Ben out, Tracy in

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0640 - Cosi - Ferrando_Despina_Guglielmo - credit Michael CooperIf you have been wondering who would replace recently retired Ben Heppner in Westben’s annual Sunday Afternoon at the Opera, to be held this year on July 20th at 2:00 pm, the wait is over. It will be veteran coloratura soprano Tracy Dahl, last seen in Toronto as Despina. She’ll be accompanied by Ensemble Studio head honcho Liz Upchurch. Tickets available at www.westben.ca

Of love and longing

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allysonMcHardy200x250Allyson McHardy’s lunchtime recital in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre today was unusual and effective; combining contrasting works by Brahms, Robert Fleming and Britten.  Accompanied by Liz Upchurch on piano throughout, she was joined for the first set; Brahms’ Two Songs for Alto, Viola and Piano, Op. 91 by the COC’s principal violist, Keith Hamm.  They were rather beautifully sung and played and were true to music and text; both of which are a bit too German Romantic for my taste. Continue reading →