Browsing: Classical

In celebration of La Scena Musicale’s new online platform mySCENA.org and ­maSCENA.org, we launched an online raffle for Glenn Gould’s Complete Columbia Discography on 78 CDs. Congratulations to longtime volunteer R. K. Basdeo for ­winning the box set, valued at over $200! Keep your eyes peeled for other opportunities to win prizes, and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, or sign up for our electronic newsletter by visiting mySCENA.org!

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In a reflective programme note, the ex-Hungarian pianist Sir András Schiff remembers being rebuked as a young Vienna debutant for playing “a prematurely given encore.” The caution, he says, was “golden advice.” The encore, if given, must be timed and attuned to how audience has responded to the concert. It should be neither hasty nor frivolous, not too soon and not too much. This album gathers together the encores that Schiff gave over the course of a Zurich cycle of the 32 Beethoven sonatas in 2004–5. The seriousness level is set high and there are no obvious crowd-pleasers. This is…

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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…

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With an all-Canadian cast, Opéra de Montréal’s Don Giovanni opened Saturday night to an enthusiastic crowd at the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier. Full disclosure: I don’t really like Don Giovanni. Don’t get me wrong, I love Mozart generally, and his operas in particular. But Don Giovanni’s antics always leave a sour taste in my mouth – and that’s a difficult thing to get past. That said, we do not experience works as scores and libretti, but as performances. This is especially true for opera. Each staging of an opera has a life of its own, an inner cohesiveness that can challenge hermeneutic…

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Why do women respond to rascals, seducers, and merely self-assured men? Don Giovanni cannot match the sexual prodigality of Gene Simmons of hard rock band KISS. The Don’s conquests in the salons, kitchens, and petticoats of 18th century Europe comprise a mere 640 women and girls in Italy, 231 in Germany, 100 in France, 91 in Turkey, and 1,003 in Spain. Gene Simmons’s worldwide conquests exceed either 4,600 or 4,800 eager groupies, depending on whether you ask him or his wife. Rake. Libertine. Trickster. Don Giovanni embodies the notorious womanizer, seducer, and serial rapist at concert pitch. His quicksilver sociopathy…

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A concert recorded in Geneva in September will be broadcast on the radio today Thursday November 10 at 8 p.m on ICI Musique and on television on Saturday November 12 at 1 p.m. at ICI ARTV. The concert supports press cartoonists who are threatened in the home countries. Two cartoonists, Chappatte and Plantu, were on stage with the Suisse Romande Orchestra who interpreted Beethoven’s Third Symphony. The Sony Centre announced a multi-year film concert series featuring the first two films of Harry Potter. In a partnership with CineConcerts and Attila Glatz Concert Productions, the Sony Centre presents Harry Potter…

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Yannick Nézet-Séguin will be the ambassador of the 4th International Orchestra Conference, which will be held in Montreal from May 11 to 14, 2017, during Montreal’s 375th anniversary. Around 300 delegates from different musical groups of the classical world will meet to discuss about the issues affecting orchestras. Yannick Nézet-Séguin Credit Jonathan Tichler/Metropolitan Opera Roger Kaiser, the man who scatters his friend’s ashes in the orchestra pit at the MET last Saturday, issued an apology letter issued to Peter Gelb and the MET yesterday. Jean-Michel Damian, radio presenter on France Musique, passed away on Tuesday night at the age…

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Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis; Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Kodály: Marosszék Dances; Ginastera: Four Dances from Estancia Op. 8a; Elena Urioste, violin; Austin Symphony Orchestra/Peter Bay, conductor; Long Center, Austin, TX. Austin’s SXSW (South by Southwest), an annual March extravaganza of music and technology, attracts interest from all over the world. Equally popular is the ACL Music Festival – a spinoff from the television series, Austin City Limits – which draws huge crowds to Zilker Park, the attractive area by Lady Bird Lake near downtown. This year’s ACL got underway at the same time the Austin Symphony (ASO) was presenting its weekend concerts at…

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Charles Richard-Hamelin: Beethoven, Enescu, Chopin Charles Richard-Hamelin, piano Analekta 2016. AN2 9129. 68 min 50 s. Since winning the Silver Medal and the Krystian Zimerman Sonata award at the 2015 Chopin Piano Competition, Montreal and Quebec at large have been gaga – for good reason – over Charles Richard-Hamelin. Recorded live in concert this past May at Salle Raoul-Jobin of the Palais Montcalm in Quebec City, this album may begin conservatively with Beethoven’s Two Rondos for Piano, Op. 51, but takes a turn with George Enescu’s Second Suite, Op. 10. With the Enescu, Richard-Hamelin digresses from clinical Classicism into the…

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VO PRESENTS THREE NEW OPERA PRODUCTIONS AND BOLD PROGRAMMING AT THE INAUGURAL VANCOUVER OPERA FESTIVAL Otello, Dead Man Walking and The Marriage of Figaro feature superb singers, stunning designs Programming also includes a new commissioned video installation by award-winning artist Paul Wong, performances by vocal stylist Ute Lemper and Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq Many events and experiences for audiences of all ages Vancouver, BC ~ Three dazzling new opera productions are at the core of the inaugural Vancouver Opera Festival, April 28 to May 13, 2017. Full-scale productions of Giuseppe Verdi’s late-career masterpiece Otello, featuring powerful tenor Clifton Forbis in…

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