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Marmen Quartet, Photo: Marco Borggreve

Lebrecht Weekly | Marmen Quartet Excels in Ligeti & Bartok String Quartets

By Norman Lebrecht on 13 December 2024 CD and Book Reviews, Chamber Music, Lebrecht Weekly

It’s 30 years since I heard Gyorgy Ligeti explain why he was allowing his first string quartet to be performed after four decades lying in a drawer. The quartet, composed in 1954, was too close to its sources. “It’s Bartok’s seventh,’ said Ligeti, ‘But I’ve now realised that’s not such a bad thing.” Titled Metamorphoses nocturnes, the quartet has buzzing insects, whispering grasses and many things that go bump in the night. In amidst the feral noises there are wistful lines of melody and a macabre sense of humour, blacker by far than Bartok’s Bluebeard. Every now and then, a…

Upcoming Concerts: Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, Toronto, West of Canada

By Heather Weinreb on 11 November 2024 Chamber Music, Classical, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, Toronto, Vancouver

On Tour Barbara Hannigan & Bertrand Chamayou Photo: Luciano Romano Barbara Hannigan & Bertrand Chamayou In celebration of their recent “Messaien” album release, Juno and Grammy Award-winning soprano Barbara Hannigan and pianist Bertrand Chamayou will tour Canada and the U.S. in November and December. The concert opens with Messaien’s Chants de terre et de ciel, rich with complex rhythms and vibrant, vocal colours. In addition, Hannigan and Chamayou will perform Scriabin’s Poème-nocturne, and Vers la flamme alongside John Zorn’s Jumalattaret —a sign cycle using text from Finnish epic poetry. The tour stops in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, and Ottawa along…

Dorothéa Ventura. Photo: Tam Photography

Dorothéa Ventura : At the Crossroads

By Justin Bernard on 8 November 2024 Baroque and Early, Chamber Music, Interviews, Piano, Vocal

Dorothéa Ventura knows how to do almost everything: dance, act, sing, conduct. The versatility of this artist is such that today she is employed as a harpsichordist, soprano, dancer and actress—and sometimes does double or triple duty! Her preferred repertoire, however, remains Baroque music. Meet the woman who has taken over the reins of Les Idées heureuses, succeeding the ensemble’s founder, Geneviève Soly, as artistic director. Snowy wedding, happy marriage Dorothéa Ventura remembers the first concert of Year 1—38 years ago, in the middle of a snowstorm. “At the time, I was Geneviève Soly’s harpsichord student. She introduced me to…

Francis Colpron. Photo: Hugo B. Lefort

Les Boréades: The Age of Reason

By Justin Bernard on 8 November 2024 Baroque and Early, Chamber Music

Composers of Western music have long been torn between two contradictory forces: order and reason on the one hand and passion on the other. At their concert on Nov. 28, Les Boréades de Montréal will choose to side with reason, says Artistic Director Francis Colpron. “On this occasion, I’d like to demonstrate a rather rational, almost scientific, approach to the art of music to convince people that music is a universal language—a product of human genius and, therefore, a science. It’s about understanding that sometimes this language can be obtuse, expansive, hermetic, scholarly. In any case, what’s important to remember…

Crédit photo: David Mendoza Hélaine

Les Violons du Roy: 40 Years of Musical History

By Justin Bernard on 8 November 2024 Baroque and Early, Chamber Music, Romantic

The 2024-25 season marks the 40th anniversary of Les Violons du Roy. Founded by Bernard Labadie in 1984, the Quebec City chamber orchestra first made a name for itself with concerts and recordings of Baroque repertoire, before tackling a whole range of works from different eras—from classical to contemporary to Romantic—over the past few decades. The programming of this new season is a tribute to the diversity of the ensemble’s repertoire. Les Violons du Roy opened its current season with Mozart quartets and quintets. Next came Bach cantatas with countertenor Hugh Cutting, followed by a touring Handel program with the…

Photo: George Garnier

Lebrecht Weekly | Doric String Quartet Strikes a Perfect Balance Between Beethoven’s Early Quartets and Later Milestones

By Norman Lebrecht on 11 October 2024 CD and Book Reviews, Chamber Music, Lebrecht Weekly, Strings

The fashion these days is to remix the 16 Beethoven quartets, selecting one from each period – early, middle and late – in concert and record cycles. It doesn’t always work, but the latest release from the Doric String Quartet, a mid-career UK ensemble, strikes a perfect balance between two of the opus 18 quartets and major milestones from later on. Opus 18/2 in G major is one of Beethoven’s invitations to the dance, a proposition more in the mind than on the floor. Opus 18/5 in A is all in the mind, one of his most self-contemplative works, so…

Isidore String Quartet performs in the Final Round of the 14th Banff International String Quartet Competition (2022).

Banff International String Quartet Competition showcases jury, reimagined competition elements, and Canadian commission

By Newswire on 8 July 2024 Chamber Music

The Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC) returns for its 15th iteration with an internationally celebrated jury and Rapprochement, a newly commissioned piece by Canadian composer Kati Agócs.

The Royal Conservatory of Music’s 2024-25 concert season announced: Into the Woods, International Orchestras, and more

By Newswire on 5 June 2024 Chamber Music, Newswire, Toronto, Vocal

Alexander Brose, Michael and Sonja Koerner President & CEO Designate of The Royal Conservatory of Music, Executive Director of Performing Arts Mervon Mehta, and Dean of The Glenn Gould School James Anagnoson, today revealed programming details of the 16th season at Koerner Hall.

Nicole Presentey and John Kofi Dapaah

Ottawa Chamberfest: From Grieg to Gaga

By Bridget Esler on 31 May 2024 Chamber Music, Ottawa

The Ottawa Chamberfest will celebrate its 30th birthday this summer with more than 60 concerts and events over two weeks, featuring some of Canada’s brightest stars, including Angela Hewitt and Marc-André Hamelin. Yet, big names aren’t the focus at Chamberfest 30. This year’s theme is “championing.” Artistic Director Carissa Klopoushak has encouraged performers to champion something they care about in their programs—be it a social cause, a little-known composer, or an emerging artist. This directive is the reason Hewitt will share the stage with rising-star-of-the-piano-world Carter Johnson, and Arion Baroque Orchestra will explore gender in a gender-bent concert of Handel…

CD Review | Bergeron & Milatz, Bravura, Atma Classique, 2024

By Viktor Lazarov on 31 May 2024 Baroque and Early, CD and Book Reviews, Chamber Music, Classical Music

Bravura: oeuvres pour cor naturel et pianoforte Louis-Pierre Bergeron, horn; Meagan Milatz, piano Atma Classique, 2024 Horn player Louis-Pierre Bergeron and pianist Meagan Milatz mark historic landmarks in their debut album, Bravura, works for natural horn and piano, produced by Atma Classique. In addition to premiere recordings of selected works by Vincenzo Rhigini and Franz Xaver Süssmayr as well as Cipriani Potter’s Sonata di bravura on historic instruments, the album is the first solo recording of a period brass instrument in Canada. Performing on reproductions of classical horns and a Viennese fortepiano, the duo’s tasteful and elegant musicianship is apparent…

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