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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…

Miró Quartet & Guests Celebrate Brahms Chamber Music

By Paul E. Robinson on 18 November 2016 Chamber Music, Classical Music, Concert Reviews

Brahms: Four Songs Op. 43. Clarinet Sonata No. 2 in E flat major Op. 120 No. 2. Clarinet Trio in A minor Op. 114. String Sextet No. 2 in G major Op. 36.; Brahms: Two Songs for Voice, Viola and Piano Op. 91. Clarinet Quintet Op. 115. String Sextet No. 1 in B flat major Op. 18; David Small, baritone; David Shifrin, clarinet; Martin Beaver, viola; Clive Greensmith, cello; Anton Nel, piano; Kelly Kuo, piano; Miró Quartet; McCullough Theatre, Butler School of Music, University of Texas, Austin, Texas: November 9 & 11, 2016 Naming an all-Brahms program “Love and Duty” suggests that, as violist…

La Scena Musicale 20th Anniversary – Gala LA RELÈVE / RISING STARS

By La Scena Events on 18 November 2016 Arts Industry, Canadian Music, Chamber Music, Classical, Classical Music, La Scena Online, Piano, Quebec Music, Scena Jazz, Violin, Vocal

La Scena Musicale celebrates its 20th anniversary with the first edition of Gala LA RELÈVE/RISING STARS, a benefit concert on Thursday, November 24, 2016 at 7:30 PM at Salle Pierre-Mercure of the Centre Pierre-Péladeau featuring some of Canada’s future star musicians, many of whom have won recent national competitions. Soprano Chelsea Rus, baritone Hugo Laporte, clarinetist David Dias da Silva, violinist Joshua Peters, pianist Emily Oulousian and Piano Caméléons will perform; pianist Michael McMahon will accompany the singers. “I’m very excited with our line-up of six young musicians and duo,” said Wah Keung Chan, founder of La Scena Musicale. “Each…

Lebrecht Weekly – György Kurtág: Complete string quartets (ATMA Classique)

By Norman Lebrecht on 28 October 2016 Chamber Music, Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly

Some of my least endurable musical moments have been spent trapped in a small hall listening to a new piece by Kurtág, the venerable, post-tonal Hungarian aphorist. Making sense of seemingly unrelated sounds, and clusters of sound, is made all the most uncomfortable by the occasional squeaks that emanate from dedicated musicians struggling with the composer’s demands. The relief is that Kurtág always writes short. The pain tends to be over in ten minutes. So it was with trepidation that I put on the Molinari Quartet’s album of Kurtág’s complete string quartets – a total of 50 minutes – and…

Suor Angelica, Photo: Tam Lan Truong

Quebec Previews: October 2016

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 October 2016 Baroque and Early, Chamber Music, Contemporary, La Scena Spotlight, Opera, Strings

Les Caprices de la Nuit with Les Violons du Roy On October 13, join violinist and conductor Anthony Marwood and Les Violons du Roy for an evening of exceptional chamber music for strings. The concert includes the String Sextet from Richard Strauss’s final opera Capriccio, Mozart’s charming String Quintet in G minor, and Schoenberg’s late-Romantic Verklärte Nacht. October 13, 8PM, Salle Raoul-Jobin, Palais Montcalm. www.violonsduroy.com James Ehnes @ 40 Continue the celebration of James Ehnes’s 40th birthday as he stops in Quebec City on his way across Canada. With longtime collaborator Andrew Armstrong, Ehnes will play chamber music by Handel,…

James Ehnes, Photo: Benjamin Ealovega

Interview – James Ehnes @40

By Kiersten van Vliet on 14 September 2016 Chamber Music, Interviews, Violin

As part of his 40th birthday celebrations, Canadian virtuoso violinist James Ehnes is hitting the road. Travelling across Canada with his family and accompanist Andrew Armstrong in tow, Ehnes will cross coast-to-coast-to-coast in Canada, trekking from Vancouver to St. John’s and all the way North to Iqaluit as part of his James Ehnes @40 tour. Next month, Ehnes plays the Dvořák Violin Concerto with the OSM (October 13, 8PM & October 14, 7PM), and a recital of Beethoven, Franck, and Ravel with Armstrong (October 16, 2:30PM). He returns to Montreal this spring in recital at LMMC Concerts, (April 30, 2017, 3:30PM). Below is a…

Borodin Quartet (Ruben Aharonian, Sergey Limovsky, Igor Naidin, and Vladimir Balshin) with Nuné Melik (centre)

Interview – Borodin Quartet at MISQA

By Nuné Melik on 13 September 2016 Chamber Music, Interviews, Strings

To catch all the members of the Borodin Quartet off stage is almost impossible. Formed in 1945, the legendary Russian ensemble, rarely, if ever, gives interviews – especially when they are on tour abroad. I conducted this interview after their spectacular opening Pollack Hall concert on August 14 at the McGill International String Quartet Academy (MISQA), where they gave masterclasses to quartets from all over the world. Speaking in Russian, first violinist Ruben Aharonian, second Sergey Limovsky, violist Igor Naidin, and cellist Vladimir Balshin covered a range of subjects at the four-star Omni Hotel in downtown Montreal. Nuné Melik: The…

James Ehnes with his accompanist Andrew Armstrong, Photo: Ben Ealovega

James Ehnes @40

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 September 2016 Chamber Music, Interviews, Violin

Age may be but a number, but its influence is broad. For celebrated Canadian violinist James Ehnes, turning 40 earlier this year has led to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to tour his homeland in a series celebrating family, community, and (of course) great music. Though he is no doubt still fielding quips about being over the hill, Ehnes’s bustling performance schedule certainly erases any doubts about him slowing down any time soon. Ehnes, a Brandon, Manitoba native, began playing the violin at the age of 4 and studied with renowned violinist and pedagogue Francis Chaplin at 9. From 1993 to 1997…

Review – Alfred Schnittke: Works for Violin and Piano (Quartz)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 September 2016 CD and Book Reviews, Chamber Music, Contemporary, Violin

Alfred Schnittke is a name we often shy away from on this side of the Atlantic. His style of unabashed dissonance is not solely reliant on serialism, but rather an understanding of the latent dramatic potential of atonality, an understanding that is made possible by his awareness and appreciation of the music that preceded him. Instead of breaking with the past, Schnittke aimed to show the connections between past and present in his so-called “polystylism”; this is no more evident than in his chamber output for the violin. The two-CD set opens with the late Third Sonata (1994), darkly opulent…

Review – Franz Schubert: String Quintet – Lieder (Erato)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 September 2016 Art Song, CD and Book Reviews, Chamber Music, Romantic

His final work for strings, Schubert’s Quintet in C Major (1828) is unusual for its doubling of the cello voice rather than the viola, Mozart’s quintet model. With unmatched lyricism and finesse, Quatuor Ebène tackles this behemoth of Romantic chamber repertoire, which was only completed two months before the composer’s untimely death. Gautier Capuçon makes a fine fifth wheel, adding a dark intensity without disrupting the balance of the upper strings. This is perhaps the most evident in the exquisite second movement, Adagio, a nocturne that is so unusually slow for Schubert, and given a keenly sensitive treatment by Quatuor…

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