Tag Archives: upchurch

Liebeslieder-Walzer

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I only managed to get to the first half of yesterday’s Ensemble Studio lunchtime concert.  It was Brahm’s Liebeslieder-Walzer Op. 52 performed by Claire de Sévigné, Charlotte Burrage, Andrew Haji and Gordon Bintner with Liz Upchurch and Michael Shannon providing the four handed accompaniment.  I’m not a huge Brahms fan and this was pretty much that late 19th century sentimental stuff I don’t really get; somewhat schmaltzy waltz rhythms setting somewhat schmaltzy texts.  It was well done though.  Haji, in particular, sang with a fine attack and the different voice combinations made interesting contrasts.  I thought the music came off best when the girls sang together and when the guys sang together.  Both pairs have voices quite different in timbre and blended to good effect.  The more complex four voice sections seemed to come a bit unstuck in the RBA.  I’m 99% sure it was the acoustic not the singers but certainly textures got quite muddy at times.  The accompaniment was, unsurprisingly, very good indeed.  Work pressures meant I had to leave before the second half of the programme which featured John Greer’s Liebesleid-Lieder.

Ash Roses release concert

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mireille The Ash Roses CD that I referred to a few days ago was officially launched at the Canadian Music Centre last night.  Lawrence Wiliford, Mireille Asselin, Sanya Eng and Liz Upchurch performed all the music on the album in the presence of the composer and his wife, assorted Toronto music glitterati and even more assorted others, like me.  It’s a very intimate setting and well suited for small scale art song recitals; especially when the complimentary wine and beer (Black Oak Chocolate Cherry Stout – recommended) is rather good.

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Ash Roses

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ashrosesThere’s some pretty exciting news from the Canadian Art Song Project (CASP).  It’s their first commercial CD release featuring Ash Roses; songs for Soprano and Tenor by Derek Holman. The artists are soprano Mireille Asselin, tenor Lawrence Wiliford, pianist Liz Upchurch and harpist Sanya Eng. This is the first recording entirely dedicated to the songs of Canadian composer Derek Holman; one of the very few who have made art songs an important component of their output.

There is a CD release party on March 7th at the Canadian Music Centre (20 St. Joseph St., Toronto) and the program for the evening will include The Four Seasons, Ash Roses, Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal and Three Songs for High Voice and Harp.  Tickets are $30 in advance, $35 on the door, $20 students. More details can be found about the CD and the release party at www.canadianartsongproject.ca

Lunchtime with Tracy Dahl

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Dahl, Tracy (c)Kevin ClarkI’ve attended many very good concerts in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre but I’m not sure I’ve ever attended one as intense as Tracy Dahl and Liz Upchurch’s Songs from the Heart recital today.  Tracy really is a rather extraordinary artist.  She is the antithesis of the lieder singer who stands demurely by the piano and Schuberts mellifluously.  She throws every fibre of her being into the performance.  It’s not campily histrionic but voice, facial expression and gesture are all used to the full whether she’s  hiccupping a drunken Harlequin or sibilantly suggesting a slithery singing snake.

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Bel Canto bliss

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annachristycdarioacostaIt’s one of the nicer things about Toronto that from time to time  a visiting star at the COC will agree to do a free lunchtime recital in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre.  Today was the turn of American coloratura Anna Christy who is currently singing the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor.  It was an exceptionally fun sixty minutes.

I was a little worried when she and accompanist Liz Upchurch just took their places and started.  I need not have been.  We got a set of three bel canto art songs that were full of virtuosity and personality.  The sheer technical skill was obvious but so was the range of tone colour.  Those doomandgloomists who think modern singers can’t act with the voice should listen to Ms. Christy.  It’s all there.  After that opening she did open up and explain the middle part of her set; pieces by Bolcom and Copland that she sees as natural successors to bel canto.  Sung with exquisite attention to the texts one can see her point.  She was also very funny and very human.  I do like modern divas so much more than the one’s who get in a snit because the caviar isn’t the right temperature.

She finished up with arias by Rossini, Handel and Donizetti, all sung stylishly and with tasteful ornamentation.  It was really classy.  And to round things out her parents were there and it was her dad’s seventieth and there are no prizes for guessing how things finished up.

Canadian Art Song Project again

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Today saw the premiere of the Canadian Art Song Project’s second annual commission (My review of last year’s effort).  This time it was Norbert Palej’s Small Songs; a setting of ten texts from Jan Zwicky’s Thirty-seven Small Songs & Thirteen Silences.  It’s an ambitious piece drawing on a wide range of vocal and piano colours and occasionally on non-standard technique.  That said, although sounding like a work from the 21st century it’s really quite accessible to anyone with any familiarity at all with modern art song.  Some passages were really lovely.  I especially like the haunting and clever setting of Small song on being lost which evokes the loneliness of the sea and the self.  The piece that followed; Small song for the moon in the daytime was also rather special ending movingly on “the wind is   nowhere   to be found”.  All in all, great integration of text and music as art song should be.  The composer “warned” us up front that the music was extremely difficult to perform because he was writing it for two very fine musicians.  They didn’t disappoint.  Tenor Lawrence Wiliford used all of his range; dynamically, colourwise and pitchwise to give a very text sensitive reading and he was very well accompanied by long time collaborator Steven Philcox at the piano.

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