Browsing: Classical Music

Montreal-based QW4RTZ is a new a cappella quartet that is making its name by sharing their passion for singing. Founded in 2010, the ­quartet now consists of Louis Alexandre Beauchemin, Philippe Courchesne Leboeuf, François ‘Fa.2’ Dubé and François Pothier Bouchard. They have a distinctive style, one that combines their classical background with a love of pop music, creating clever and ­original unaccompanied voice arrangements of the great ­standards of jazz, classical, and pop music. Their first album A cappella 101 came out in 2016 and was warmly received by critics. Although they come across as having a ­relaxed and youthful vibe,…

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The 2012 film A Late Quartet is largely built around the preparation and performance of Beethoven’s Quartet in C-sharp minor, op. 131. The film has been praised on every level — the acting in particular. The actors, however, are not musicians! The actual sound of the movie’s fictional Fugue String Quartet was provided, most effectively, by the Brentano String Quartet. In the movie’s final scene the ensemble’s cellist (actor Christopher Walken) stops the performance and explains to the audience that he is no longer able to meet the music’s challenges. (He has Parkinson’s disease.) Anticipating that he might not be…

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The Montreal Bach Festival opens on November 17 at the Maison Symphonique with a performance of Bach’s ­monumental Mass in B Minor by Collegium 1704, an acclaimed early-music group based in Prague. The Mass summons a month of ­performances devoted to Bach and his ­catalogue, his contemporaries, and his ­influence on the composers of our time. Collegium 1704’s Montreal ­appearance — the Canadian debut of this élite fifty-member choir and instrumental ensemble — is ­intended in part as a celebration of the 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation. This Canadian performance, which has been years in the making,…

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When the Prague-based orchestra and vocal ensemble Collegium 1704 opens the Bach Festival of Montreal with Bach’s Mass in B Minor on November 17, its founder and artistic director ­Václav Luks believes that audiences should ­expect something different. Luks says that “listeners are accustomed to hearing performances of the B Minor Mass which are reflections of the choral practice of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Bach wanted neither a choir of a hundred voices nor one singer per part. Instead, his ideal was 2–4 singers per part.” The vocal ensemble of Collegium 1704 counts only 19 members. Bach’s Mass in…

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If I look back on what they now call “the roaring Twenties”, it is like looking at a rich tapestry of almost blinding color. So much happened in those years which were marked by abundant prosperity in America and a cultural liveliness which was breathtaking. Music of our time all of a sudden became a matter of interest, and everybody felt like jumping on the bandwagon. So wrote Canadian mezzo-soprano Eva Gauthier, an artist ideally suited to a ­period that invariably attracted the ­sophisticated, the exotic, the adventurous and the new. She had already sung Satie’s music-hall tunes, was familiar…

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Born at Lac-Saint-Jean in northern Quebec, mezzo-soprano Julie Boulianne has forged an acclaimed international opera career. This month she returns to her ­operatic “home”, Opéra de Montréal, for her first Quebec performances of a favourite role — the lead in Rossini’s Cinderella opera, La Cenerentola. Interviewed on the eve of the production’s first rehearsal, Boulianne is ­palpably buoyed by anticipation. “It’s very exciting,” she says. “It’s a role I’ve loved, and finally I get to do it at home. I think of it as a big gift.” The excitement also carries certain responsibilities. In February, Boulianne received an Opus Prize,…

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We cannot speak of our mezzo-sopranos and contraltos without starting with Maureen Forrester, considered to be one of the 20th century’s greatest contraltos. Born in 1930 in Montreal and deceased in 2010 in Toronto, she starred on the world’s most famous stages. She was well known to the Canadian public, since there was once a time when our national radio and television paid attention to our classical artists. As the story goes, she first met Bruno Walter in 1956, launching between the lyrical artist and the conductor one of the century’s most famous relationships. Maureen Forrester’s voice was a rare…

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British-born Canadian mezzo Susan Platts has been delighting audiences around the world with her expertise in art song; her first solo album of songs by Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann and ­Johannes Brahms earned her ­critical acclaim. Known for her Mahler interpretations, she’s been featured on recordings singing both the full and concert versions of Das Lied von der Erde and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. She’s sung Mahler with symphonies from San Diego to Baltimore, Toronto to Santa Barbara, and Philharmonics from Boston to New Mexico, to Calgary and Krakow as well as Orchestre Métropolitain, Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, and Germany’s…

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Seiji Ozawa: Looking back at a thrilling career Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta Concerto for Orchestra. Boston Symphony Orchestra/Seiji Ozawa/Rafael Kubelik. Pentatone PTC 5186247. Time: 69:53. New Year’s Concert 2002 Music by Johann Strauss, Josef Strauss and Josef Hellmesberger. Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Seiji Ozawa. Arthaus Musik DVD 109315. Time: 109:00 + 32:00 (special features). Haruki Murakami: Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016. 325 pages. This past September Seiji Ozawa celebrated his 83rd birth­day. In spite of a serious cancer in recent years, Ozawa remains active as a conductor.Next sum­­­mer he plans to…

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Berlioz: Les Troyens (Erato) John Nelson, Joyce DiDonato, Michael Spyres, Marie-Nicole Lemieux Almost every new release I sampled this week should never have been made. One album after another lacked conviction, coherence and, sometimes, pulse. These are records where label and artist ask one another what to do next without either side asking aloud whether this project is absolutely necessary. None of which can be said about the present release. The need for a new-gen recording of Berlioz’s epic opera is pressing, given that the last two trustworthy attempts, by the late Sir Colin Davis, are wearing thin. Erato’s no-holds-barred…

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