“The most beautiful piece written for the clarinet is Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A major and we did a study on it at the Louisiana University of Jazz with my friend Wynton Marsalis… We arrived to the conclusion that Mozart was not from Austria, he is from the New Orleans! And that the right way to play Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A major is as a blues, in fact, a New Orleans blues!” —Paquito D’Rivera, Pollack Hall, 17 June 2016 Winner of 14 Grammy Awards with a discography of more than 30 solo albums since he first started his career…
Browsing: Chamber Music
The three works on this album encompass an entire composing life. The first piano trio was written by a 17 year-old for his girlfriend in 1923. The mastery is already undeniable and the thumbprints instantly recognisable: pathos, scepticism and the juxtaposition of polar opposites. This is not the way most of us would go about wooing the love of our life. Shostakovich was always an original, even at his most eclectic. Everything he writes can be interpreted equally as its opposite, a device that became the key to the composer’s survival in Soviet Russia. The second piano trio, written in…
Spirits were running high during the final bows at the FMCM’s opening night last Thursday, June 9 at Pollack Hall, but opinions were mixed. The evening’s stars, soprano Measha Brueggergosman and trumpeter Jens Lindemann, carried the show—though not the show that the audience was expecting. While the program announced an arrangement of Bach’s Air on the G string for the second half of the evening, instead audiences were treated to a preview of the following June 10 jazz concert. After the intermission, the Honourable Tommy Banks (piano), Eric Lagacé (bass), and David Laing (drums) performed an off-the-cuff program of Duke…
Montreal Chamber Music Festival, June 3-19 The pre-festival activities of the Montreal Chamber Music Festival began on February 23, but the festival proper will continue until June 19. Tenor Ben Heppner will be narrating Enoch Arden by Richard Strauss with pianist Stéphane Lemelin (June 18). In the days following see the Goldberg Variations with pianist Simone Dinnerstein (June 15) and the rare opportunity to hear Casals’ cello played by Israeli cellist Amit Peled (June 16). Pollack Hall and Bourgie Hall. www.festivalmontreal.org François Bourassa’s Pianorama In the years following his breakthrough as winner of the Montreal Jazz Festival Competition in…
Two 2015 Tchaikovsky Competition laureates for the price of one: This was the upscale bargain offered by the Show One concert organization, whose many Toronto followers obligingly filled Koerner Hall. Few could have left disappointed. Lucas Debargue and Lukas Geniušas were the visiting pianists, the former born in Paris, the latter in Moscow. Debargue is already a minor celebrity owing to an improbable life story that includes a late start at 11 and a three-year hiatus from his chosen instrument in his late teens. The slim 25-year-old says he has learned some complex 20th-century scores by ear, a claim that…
Montreal Guitar Montréal April 29 – May 1, www.guitaremontreal.com On Friday night at 8 pm, catch the internationally acclaimed Amadeus Duo in concert at Concordia’s DB Clarke Theatre, along with The Montreal Guitar Society and last year’s competition winner, Steve Cowan. Saturday at 8 pm, The Marguerite de Lajemmerais Orchestra performs along with last year’s youth competition winners. Sunday afternoon wraps up the festival with the 2016 Guitar Competition finals. Guitar aficionados can browse the luthiers and vendors at Concordia on Saturday and Sunday, and won’t want to miss a lecture by Dr. Éric Legault on “Guitarist postures and pain”…
Known for pushing the boundaries in their music, Montréal-based classical string band collectif9 is forging into uncharted territory with the release of their debut album (see review here), featuring the world premiere recording of Volksmobiles by Canadian composer Geof Holbrook. Formed in 2011 by Thibault Bertin-Maghit, collectif9 is a group of nine classically trained string players who aren’t shy about shaking things up. The members, who met at McGill University and the Université de Montréal, are violinists Yubin Kim, Frédéric Moisan, Grégor Monlun, and Roland Arnassalon; violists Scott Chancey and Xavier Lepage-Brault; cellists Andrea Stewart and Jérémie Cloutier; and bassist…
Chapelle Historique du Bon-PasteurJeudi 12, 19 h 30, on entendra le pianiste Ilya Poletaev. Né à Moscou, ce virtuose est considéré comme l’un des pianistes importants de sa génération. Œuvres de Bach, Brahms, Chopin et Mozart. www.ville.montreal.qc.ca/chapellebonpasteurNov. 12, 7:30 pm. Pianist Ilya Poletaev. Born in Moscow, this virtuoso is considered to be one of the important pianists of her generation. Pieces by Bach, Brahms, Chopin, and Mozart. www.ville.montreal.qc.ca/chapellebonpasteurQuatuor Arcanto QuartetArcanto QuartetFondé en 2002, le Quatuor Arcanto fait ses débuts à Stuttgart et se produit ensuite sur de nombreuses scènes internationales. Violoncelliste reconnu sur les scènes montréalaises, Jean-Guilhen Queyras s’y produira pour…
Music / MusiqueMathieu Père et Fils avec la Trio HochelagaEn lien avec l’exposition sur nos années vingt présentée par le Musée des beaux-arts, Arte Musica propose des œuvres dénichées dans les archives de l’époque. Le Trio Hochelaga interprète trois œuvres québécoises qui nous plongent dans la musique des années 1920 à 1940 : un trio de Rodolphe Mathieu, un trio d’André Mathieu et un quatuor avec piano d’Auguste Descarries. Invité : Victor Fournelle-Blain, alto. Salle Bourgie, vendredi 30, 18 h 30. www.sallebourgie.ca
Photo: Amélie GagnéThis Week in Montreal: August 17 to 23McGill International String Quartet Academy (MISQA)MISQA was established in 2010. The Academy invites emeritus professors annually who share their experience with four exceptional quartets and four emerging ones. The opening concert on August 9 will be with the Miró Quartet, and the Parker Quartet will perform at the closing concert on August 22. The Grands Concerts are at Pollack Hall on August 13,14, 20 and 21 at 7 pm and at Tanna Schulich Hall on August 15 and 22, 2 pm August 9 – 22. www.misqa.com