Tag Archives: walter hall

Nobody expects… Ryan McDonald

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My second Walter Hall DMA recital on Tuesday featured one of Toronto’s most interesting, and least predictable, musical talents; countertenor Ryan McDonald.  Having seen Ryan perform as Dido and as a rather menacing nightmare figure in Rebecca Grey’s Bus Opera (as well as in several more conventional capacities!) I was expecting the unexpected.  The presence on stage of a drum kit rather reinforced that.

So, no big surprise that the opening number was “Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix” from Saint Saêns’ Samson et Delila (with Ivan Estey Jovanovic at the piano).  It was some gorgeous singing as long as one wasn’t distracted by the shiny back outfit topped by a transparent rain cape (really sorry there are not more photos!).  Then after a quick change to something that looked a like a very shiny vampire impersonating a boy in the lower school at Eton, we got a lovely account of John Dowland’s If my complaints could passions move which was bookended by electronics and some vocalising into the piano.  This was followed by a straightforwardly lovely version of Schumann’s “Der Nussbaum”.  And so to “Dido’s lament”.  I did mention that I’d seen Ryan sing the role some years ago in Opera Q’s gender bending Dido and Belinda. Continue reading →

Nicole Percifield in recital

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The first of two DMA recitals I attended on Tuesday in Walter Hall was given by contralto Nicole Percifield.  It’s always interesting to hear this comparatively rare voice type; especially in an interesting and well thought out programme.

The first half of the programme was songs scored for contralto, piano and viola.  It’s intriguing because the range of the viola is very similar to that of a contralto.  In this case Grace Kyungrok Moon played viola with Joel Goodfellow at the piano for Brahms’ “Gestillte Sehnsucht” (from Zwei Gesänge, Op. 91).  The text is by Rückert and it’s definitely at the romantic/sentimental end of the spectrum.  It was pleasant to listen to with Nicole’s rich lower register brought out nicely. Continue reading →

Marcel d’Entremont in recital

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To Walter Hall on Saturday evening to hear a recital by tenor Marcel d’Entremont.  I was intrigued by the programme; English song; art and otherwise, with the resources of a piano quintet for accompaniment.  It’s quite rare for an art song recital to have more than just piano accompaniment so this looked promising.  I wasn’t disappointed.

Proceedings began with three of Beethoven’s Irish Songs scored for voice and string trio (Here Aaron Schwebel – violin, Rory McLeod – viola and  Guillaume Artus – cello).  I wasn’t familiar with these songs and they are really rather jolly and were nicely done.  Two Irish ballads of the sort that people mistake (sometimes) for “traditional” (but no Tom Lehrer) followed.  Marcel has the style down pat (or Pat) for these.  Think all those best selling recordings of Irish tenors from the 78 era. Continue reading →

Baudelaire with a twist

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British soprano Mary Bevan and pianist Roger Vignoles gave a recital of French chansons in Walter Hall on Monday night.  The concept was that the songs were paired; one being a setting of Baudelaire by a male composer and the other song by a female composer of the the same period.  With two exceptions all the composers were French and with one exception from roughly the fin de siècle.  So Duparc, Déodat de Séverac, Fauré Debussy and de Bréville were paired variously with the predictable; les sœurs Boulanger and Pauline Viardot, and less predictable; Mel Bonis, Marguerite Canal, Amy Beach (American) and Jeanne Landry (Canadian and much later).

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Last night of TSM

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Saturday night Toronto Summer Music closed out with a final concert in Walter Hall showcasing the many and various aspects of the festival.  It’s a pretty good solution to the problem of how to wrap up such a diverse set of programmes.

So, we got a few numbers from the Community Choir.  There was some nicely sung Vivaldi and Brahms and an arrangement by Kathleen Allan of “Come and I Will Sing You” that was firmly  in the more fun to sing than to listen to genre.

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Elisabeth St-Gelais at Walter Hall

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Tuesday night’s Toronto Summer Music concert in Walter Hall featured Quebec soprano Elisabeth St-Gelais with Louise Pelletier on piano.  The first part of the concert consisted of songs by Brahms and Strauss.  I’m not a huge fan of Brahm’s Zigeunerlieder, Op.103 which are very much an example of Germans misunderstanding just about everything about Hungarian folk music let alone gypsies.  The texts are cliché ridden and the music isn’t much better.  Ms. St-Gelais sang then with a full pleasant tone and some attention to the text but she really needs to work on her German diction.

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Schmaltz and Pepper

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Schmaltz and Pepper is a comparatively newly formed band (November 2023) but it contains quite a few familiar faces; Rebekah Wolkstein (vocals, violin) and Drew Jurecka (vocals and assorted instruments) from Payadora, Eric Abramowitz (clarinet) from the TSO plus multitalented Jeremy Ledbetter (piano) and Michael Herring (double bass).  Between them they have backgrounds in classical, klezmer, tango, calypso, Yiddish swing, jazz and much more.  The focus of the new band appears to be klezmer and Yiddish swing but since most of their material is original there are lots of influences.

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Breathings

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Monday night’s Toronto Summer Music concert in Walter Hall was a cross-cultural exploration of Nature, Heartbeat and Breathing.  It featured an instrumental ensemble of Persian and Western instruments and two Indigenous vocalist/drummers; one Mi’kmaq, one Inuit.

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