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Browsing: Classical Music

Brent Crawford

By Arnaud G. Veydarier on 3 October 2018 Classical Music, Music Competition

With numerous first prizes in national and international classical guitar competitions to his credit, Brent Crawford has been gaining recognition as a leader among guitarists of his generation. However, nothing predisposed young Crawford to the career of a performer. He started the guitar at age 8, influenced above all by his love of rock and rap of the 1990s. It was necessary to wait until his twenties for the piano music of Bach and Tchaikovsky to awaken a passion for the classical genre. The most recent win on his record is of the Montreal International Classical Guitar Festival and Competition,…

John Brancy – 2018 CMIM Aria Winner

By Adrian Rodriguez on 3 October 2018 Art Song, Music Competition, Vocal

Canadians might know American Baritone John Brancy as winner of the 2018 Concours musical international de Montréal (CMIM) and third prize in 2012. However, as pretentious as it might sound, winning the prestigious competition twice was probably another day in the office for him. During the last four years alone, the lyrical baritone has won many internationally renowned competitions: he obtained first prize in the 2018 Lotte Lenya Competition in New York; second prize at the 2017 Wigmore Hall Competition in London; and the media prize in the 2017 Belvedere International Singing Competition in Moscow; and first prize in the 2015 Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition. in 2015. After watching him perform…

Photo : Amélie Fortin

Dominique Beauséjour-Ostiguy, Prix d’Europe

By Benjamin Goron on 3 October 2018 Chamber Music, Classical Music, Music Competition

Dominique Beauséjour-Ostiguy is a cellist, composer and multi-instrumentalist who combines passion and creativity in a many-layered career on the Quebec artistic scene. In June his performance of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, with accompanist Michel-Alexandre Broekaert, won him the Prix d’Europe. Following a Bachelor’s at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal under Carole Sirois, the native of Laval has just completed a Master’s at Université de Montréal under Yégor Dyachkov. “I’d like to go and do further training in Europe next year, keeping one foot in Quebec, where I am part of various ensembles,” he says. As a performer, he’d like to…

Karl Goldmark’s Die Königin Von Saba: An Opera Worth Reviving, with or without a Jewish Soul

By Arthur Kaptainis on 3 October 2018 Opera, Romantic

Johannes Brahms was in a foul mood one evening while dining at the house of the pianist Ignaz Brüll, a popular host in Vienna in the 1880s. “Don’t you think it strange,” he blurted out, “that a Jew should set a text of Martin Luther’s to music?” Everyone present was meant to hear him, including the Jew in question, Brahms’s long-suffering friend and colleague, Karl (or Carl) Goldmark. While this was far from the first social occasion that Brahms spoiled with an insensitive remark, the composer’s biographer Jan Swafford deems it to be “the only time on record when Brahms…

Young Verdi & Ladino Music: A Possible Connection

By Sharon Azrieli on 3 October 2018 Folk, Opera

Born in Roncole, Italy, on Oct. 9 or 10, 1813, Verdi was named in French, Joseph François Fortunin. At that time, that part of Italy was still under French dominion. He was the son of Carlo and Luigia Verdi. Verdi’s parents owned a tavern close to Busetto in the Parma region of northern Italy. His parents were middle-class, educated Catholics. His father even bought a spinet piano for his young son, which indicates both that they were people of means and that they supported Verdi’s talent from a young age. Verdi received his main musical education as a child from the…

Chansons d’amour d’Acadie et de France – Atma Classique, 2018

By Benjamin Goron on 2 October 2018 Baroque and Early, CD and Book Reviews, Chamber Music, Choral

Chansons d’amour d’Acadie et de France – Chœur Louisbourg, dir. Monique Richard ; Skye Consort This album offers a happy musical reflection of publications of recent decades. The Acadian folk songs are from compilations published in 1988 and 1996. Musical style range from the languor of Écrivez-moi to the light touch of Moine Simon. The Louisbourg Choir, directed by Monique Richard, lends rich tone and consistency to these songs, whose harmonies have been carefully chosen to give them a traditional sound, complemented by the instruments of the Skye Consort: recorder, chalumeau, rauschpfeife, cittern, violin, nyckelharpa and cello. Jacotin Le Bel’s songs complement a…

Apogee – Farshid Samandari – Redshift Records, 2018

By Benjamin Goron on 2 October 2018 CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary

Apogee is a five-piece album by Iranian-Canadian composer Farshid Samandari. From Bashō haikus to Rumi’s mystical poetry, from Japanese Noh theater to particle physics, the composer draws on a wide variety of disciplines to take us on a colourful journey. Witness the magnificent cover, a painting by the Iranian calligrapher Mehrdad Shoghi. Based in Vancouver, Samandari is composer-in-residence of the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra. A mix of cultures marks his work, which he defines as “unity in diversity.” Apogee for solo flute creates a contrast by borrowing from classic Persian scales and modes and a resolutely contemporary discourse in which Mark…

Socalled and the Kaiser Quartett Photo: courtesy of the artist

Socalled Meets String Quartet: Whatever the Medium, Yiddish Culture is Here to Stay

By Shira Gilbert on 1 October 2018 Chamber Music, Popular Music

A fixture on the Montreal music scene with an impressive following abroad, Josh Dolgin, a.k.a. Socalled, has been dubbed “the mad wizard of Yiddish hip-hop.” Over the last two decades, his whimsical blend of seriously irreverent artistry has popped up in concert halls, clubs and cinemas, as he dabbles in cartooning and magic and takes part in far-flung collaborations like Tales from Odessa, his Yiddish gangster puppet musical for the Segal Centre, and the Juno-nominated album AKOKA, with classical cellist Matt Haimovitz and klezmer clarinettist David Krakauer. This fall sees the release of both his original queerotic film The Housesitter along…

The original cast of Brundibár at Theriesenstadt Concentration Camp circa 1944 Photo: Jewish Museum of Prague

Entartete Musik: An Evil Idea, Rooted in Race

By Dr. Joseph Gilbert on 1 October 2018 Classical Music

Having settled in Germany for centuries, Jews, after the Enlightenment, took their place as full citizens, free to practice any profession. Jews played important roles in all aspects of society, perhaps most significantly in arts and culture. They were well represented in classical orchestras, in writing and publishing, and in other artistic fields. Kultur was immensely valued and served to define Germany to the rest of the world. In February of 1933 everything changed. The Nazis took over the German government and assumed control of all cultural activity and institutions. Each area – music, design, theatre, literature, film, etc. –…

Leonard Bernstein and Alain Trudel: Eclectic to the Max

By Benjamin Goron on 1 October 2018 Classical Music

The centennial of Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) has not gone unnoticed. Indeed, his music has made its way the programs of most orchestras this year, our own included. The Montreal Symphony Orchestra has released a landmark recording of A Quiet Place, presented in a new chamber version. Music director Kent Nagano must be credited with this initiative, which is hardly surprising for this one-time Bernstein protégé of the 1980s. The Orchestre Métropolitain under Yannick Nézet-Séguin will do its part by performing the Symphony No. 1 (“Jeremiah”) in June 2019 – already having played the Symphony No. 2 (“Age of Anxiety”) for…

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