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Lebrecht Weekly – Complete piano music of Vítězslava Kaprálová is compelling listening

By Norman Lebrecht on 10 February 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly, Piano

Don’t look away just because the composer’s name is unfamiliar and has too many syllables. Kaprálová (1915-1940) is a vital link in Czech music, her death at 25 the closure of a century of genius. Daughter of a Leoš Janáček student and herself the secret lover of Bohuslav Martinů, Kaprálová flowered in France and Britain in the last years before the Second World War. In addition to composing she was an active conductor, the first woman to raise a baton on BBC television – unscreened, in an experimental studio – and she was widely praised at a London international festival…

Montreal Renew Financial Funding to the OSM

By Olivier Gentil on 9 February 2017 Canadian Music, Chamber Music, Classical, Classical Music, Contemporary, Daily News Roundup, Orchestral, Quebec Music, Scena Jazz, Strings, Uncategorized, Violin, Vocal

CANADA The mayor of Montreal Denis Coderre engage to give 100 000$ per year to the OSM. « Through its international stature, the OSM is a cherished ambassador whose fame reflects back on the national and international reputation of Montreal, said Coderre ». [More infos] [More Infos 2] « The Gatineau Music Conservatory [will receive …] Sérgio et Odair Assad as a part of his 12e Edition of the Festival Guitare Alla Grande.» [More infos] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n60V6ukmJog INTERNATIONNAL The Chinese pianist Lang Lang leaves Sony and return with Deutsche Grammophon. [More infos] [More infos] [More infos] « Seattle Symphony plays music from 7 nations that Trump…

Svend Asmussen, Famous Jazz Player, Died yesterday

By Olivier Gentil on 8 February 2017 Canadian Music, Choral, Classical, Contemporary, Daily News Roundup, Quebec Music, Violin

CANADA The Amadeus Choral from Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean will celebrate its 75th anniversary on February 12 with a special mass. [Plus d’infos] Classical’s nomination for the JUNO Awards. A special article of The Scena Musica on it ! [JUNO Awards – And the 46th JUNO Award Nominees are…] Program announced for the 21C Music Festival in May 24-28 2017. [Newswire in My Scena] INTERNATIONAL The famous violinist Svend Asmussen died yesterday, a few days before his 101th birthday. He was well-know for his performances with many stars of jazz like with Stéphane Grappelli, Josephine Baker and Duke Ellington. LaPresse : [Plus d’Infos] LeDevoir: [Plus d’Infos] LeFigaro: [Plus…

Nicole Lizée, Photo: Marc Bourgeois

Nicole Lizée: Techno-Hauntologist

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 February 2017 Chamber Music, Contemporary, Interviews

“What happens when you find a ghost and you bring it into a work of music?” asks Nicole Lizée. Insofar as that question is answerable, her compositions that form a dialogue with the surrealist film worlds of David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, and Alfred Hitchcock or compositions that meld outmoded and glitching gadgets with western chamber instruments unveil the eerie temporal rift between present and past as humans interact with media and technology. Sound Sources Born in small-town Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan in 1973, Lizée’s experiments in sound led her to pursue piano at Brandon University, Manitoba followed by a MA in composition…

Julien Bilodeau: Talking About Another Brick in the Wall

By Caroline Rodgers on 1 February 2017 Contemporary, Interviews, Opera, Quebec Music

Opéra de Montréal’s production of Another Brick in the Wall, inspired by Pink Floyd’s cult album, must be one of the most eagerly anticipated arts event of the year. Composer Julien Bilodeau was given the enormous task of turning the work by Roger Waters into an opera. He spoke to us about the process. After graduating from the Montreal’s Conservatoire de musique, Bilodeau completed further studies in Paris and Frankfurt, and in 2006 received the Robert Flemming prize from the Canada Council for the Arts for most promising composer. Since then he has composed works commissioned by the Montreal Symphony…

Eric Owens as Jaufré Rudel in Kaija Saariaho's L'Amour de Loin. Photo by Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

Best of mySCENA: Amin Maalouf on his collaboration with Kaija Saariaho

By Charles Geyer on 1 February 2017 Contemporary, Interviews, Literature, Opera

The opera L’Amour de loin – or Love from Afar – premiered to conspicuous plaudits in Salzburg in 2000, and has enjoyed numerous productions around the globe. It also signaled the beginning of a remarkably fertile, ongoing collaboration between composer Kaija Saariaho and then first-time librettist Amin Maalouf. Maalouf has since partnered with Saariaho on three more musico-dramatic works, all of them sharing certain distinctive features: strong female characters, epitomizing a generative, rancorless strain of feminism; an elusive, gossamer air of mysticism; a usually gentle, ultimately affirmative perception of the workings of providence; and a subtle yet dogged curiosity about the paradox of simultaneous…

Marianne Fiset, Photo: Yves Renaud

OdeM’s Dialogues des carmélites both Timely, Timeless

By Kiersten van Vliet on 30 January 2017 Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Opera

Stage Director Serge Denoncourt returns to the Opéra de Montréal for the first time in almost two decades, lending a measured dramaturgic eye to Poulenc’s indispensable chef-d’oeuvre. Their second production in as many to include an all-Canadian cast and artistic direction, with Dialogues Opéra de Montréal once again confirms the richness of the Canadian operatic scene. In advance of Opéra de Montréal’s new production of Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues des carmélites, The Globe and Mail published a profile of the production entitled “Timely lessons about faith and intolerance” that compares the plot of Dialogues, which is based on the 1794 Martyrs of Compiègne…

Lebrecht Weekly – Leonard Bernstein: Symphonies 1 and 2 (Naxos)

By Norman Lebrecht on 27 January 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly, Orchestral

Bernstein’s three symphonies have not enjoyed much exposure on record. Aside from the Sony and DG releases conducted by the composer, my database calls up only three other versions – Leonard Slatkin at the BBC, James Judd in New Zealand and an LA Phil DG download conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. While the composer’s edition must be considered in some sense definitive, his take on the two works has failed to ignite the public imagination. What catches my ear about Marin Alsop’s new recording with the Baltimore Symphony is how strikingly it diverges from her master’s voice. In the Jeremiah symphony,…

Armin Kolarczyk (Wagnerdämon), Photo: Falk von Traubenberg

In Wahnfried, It Ain’t Over ‘til Wagner’s Son-in-Law Sings!

By Charles Geyer on 25 January 2017 Contemporary, Interviews, Opera, Romantic

PROFILE AND INTERVIEW: An advance discussion with Avner Dorman about his new opera: Wahnfried “When I started working on this project,” recalls Avner Dorman, “there were people who said it could be controversial.” Those people were probably right, but it doesn’t faze Dorman in the least. “From my point of view,” the celebrated American-Israeli composer replies, “I think that’s a good thing for an opera.” Dorman, best known to date for his “intricate craftsmanship and rigorous technique” in a dazzling array of orchestral, chamber, dance and vocal works, is about to have his first opera, Wahnfried, premiered at the Badisches…

Lebrecht Weekly – Mieczyslaw Weinberg: Chamber Symphonies (ECM)

By Norman Lebrecht on 20 January 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Chamber Music, Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly

When I first started writing about Weinberg quarter of a century ago, there was no consistent western spelling of his surname (mostly printed Vainberg) and his first name was given as Moisei (pronounced Moshe), consistent with Soviet policy of identifying racial minorities. As for the music, it was unknown beyond the Soviet bloc, where it was more familiar to musicians in private performances than it was to public audiences. Today, thanks largely to proselytism by Gidon Kremer and his friends, Weinberg is no longer obscure but a musical giant, waiting to be discovered. The musician closest to Shostakovich – each…

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