Classical Music - my/maSCENA

Browsing: Classical Music

Marina Thibeault: Toquade (ATMA)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 June 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Romantic, Strings

Toquade Marina Thibeault, viola; Janelle Fung, piano ATMA 2017. ACD2 2759, 66 min 58 s. With the first recording of her career, violist Marina Thibeault strikes a balance between spirited and sentimental, tradition and innovation, accessibility and abstraction, leaving us with a clear and compelling understanding of the breadth of both the repertoire and the instrument itself. Thibeault has a sensitive but firm touch, painting long lines in which sounds become ideas. The disc opens with the Valse sentimentale from Tchaikovsky’s Six Pieces Op. 51. The transcription of the piece, originally written for piano, highlights the thematic binaries – the…

Simon Brault

Interview with Simon Brault of the Canada Council for the Arts

By Hassan Laghcha on 1 June 2017 150/375, Arts Industry, Classical Music, Interviews

“We’re able to take many more risks.” To foster artistic experimentation, begin recognizing Indigenous culture, support emerging talent, treat artists less prescriptively – these are some of the new guidelines for the Canada Council for the Arts as it emerges from years of austerity and undergoes a “historical moment,” in the words of director Simon Brault. Taking stock halfway through his mandate at the head of the CCA, which he has directed since June 2014, Brault highlights the following achievements: adopting of a new funding model, an Indigenous arts funding program, and the “CCA’s big comeback on the international scene,…

The 2016 NYO performs at the Maison Symphonique

The National Youth Orchestra: Unsilent and At The Edge

By Rebecca Anne Clark on 1 June 2017 150/375, Education, Interviews, Orchestral

When Barbara Smith and Blanche Israël greeted me at the NYO’s downtown Toronto office, they had a weary-yet-determined air – familiar to any arts administrator labouring over a cherished project. “We’re getting down to the wire,” they explained, citing less than a month until the National Youth Orchestra begins its 2017 season and welcomes 92 talented young musicians, chosen from over 500 applicants, into its training program. I commented that it’s an exciting time. “Well okay, if you say so!” they chuckled dryly before admitting that it is indeed an exciting time. The orchestra will soon embark on the Edges…

Windermere String Quartet: Inner Landscapes (Pipistrelle Music)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 June 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Chamber Music, Contemporary, Romantic

Inner Landscapes Windermere String Quartet; Elizabeth Loewen Andrews, violin; Michelle Odorico, violin; Anthony Rapoport, viola; Laura Jones, cello Pipistrelle Music, PIP 1216, 71 min 22 s. With Inner Lanscapes, the Windermere String Quartet shows how far they’ve come since their 2012 debut The Golden Age of String Quartets, which featured the Classical masters: Beethoven, Haydn, and Mozart. This disc features a commission by Canadian composer Robert Rival, Traces of a Silent Landscape, which was inspired by the Beethoven and Mendelssohn quartets on either side. The group plays on Classical period instruments, a bit lighter in tone perhaps, but no less…

Review – Vincent Bélanger: Pure Cello (Audio Note Music)

By Olivier Gentil on 1 June 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Strings

Pure Cello Vincent Bélanger Audio Note Music Available on CD, as well as on vinyl (45 RPM) for maximum resolution, this solo cello album will delight music lovers as much for its sound quality and for the originality of its recording technique as for its original program. We find notable works by Cassado, J.S. Bach, and Reger as well as, as a flagship offering, etudes 5 to 8 from the Elite Etüden by F.W. Grützmacher (recorded here for the first time). As a result, the repertoire is varied and well balanced. The register and the colors of the cello are…

Akoka: Reframing Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time (Pentatone)

By Orphée Russell on 1 June 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary

Akoka: Reframing Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time David Krakauer, Akoka; Olivier Messiaen, Quatuor pour la fin du temps; Socalled, Meanwhile… David Krakauer, clarinet; Matt Haimovitz, cello; Jonathan Crow, violin; Geoffrey Burleson, piano; Socalled, electronics Pentatone Oxingale Series 2017. PTC 5186 560. 63 min 45 s. “Recorded live, AKOKA drives home the gravity and impact of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time and affirms its relevance in the 21st century. As the forces of fundamentalism, intolerance, and violence intensify in today’s world, Messiaen’s prophecy seems all the more timely,” says cellist Matt Haimovitz. Quartet for the End…

Canadian Stage’s Matthew Jocelyn Pens Libretto for Major International Opera

By Newswire on 31 May 2017 Newswire, Opera

Toronto, ON – Canadian Stage Artistic & General Director Matthew Jocelyn, along with internationally-acclaimed Canadian-born Soprano Barbara Hannigan, will represent Canada at the 2017 edition of the UK’s Glyndebourne Festival, one of the world’s oldest and most celebrated opera festivals. For his latest international venture, Jocelyn has penned the libretto of Hamlet, Australian composer Brett Dean’s (Bliss) new opera based on Shakespeare’s best-known tragedy. With Hannigan making her Glyndebourne premiere in the role of Ophelia, Hamlet is set to perform at the East Sussex opera rendez-vous from June 11 to July 6, directed by Neil Armfield and conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Called “one of…

Lebrecht Weekly – Dmitri Shostakovich: First Symphony (Pentatone)

By Norman Lebrecht on 26 May 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly

Great recordings are easy to review. Likewise bad ones. About 99.5 percent of all releases fall somewhere in between. Of these, four in five quickly outlast their initial attraction. I had high hopes for Shostakovich’s first symphony from the Luxembourg Philharmonic and its Spanish music director, Gustavo Gimeno. The orchestra has announced a multi-record contract with the Dutch label, Pentatone, one of the last remaining labels that puts sound quality first. Gimeno, until lately principal percussionist with the Concertgebouw orchestra, has got plenty of wind in his sails. So what’s wrong with this release? Hard to isolate it. I ordered…

McGill University Confers Honorary Doctorate to Yannick Nézet-Séguin

By Orphée Russell on 25 May 2017 Classical Music, Education, Orchestral

On May 14, 2017, at a special ceremony at 3:00 pm at the Maison Symphonique de Montréal, McGill University and its Schulich School of Music awarded a Doctor of Music honoris causa to Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin. It is the University’s highest honor. Nézét-Séguin is a Montréal native, and studied at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal. Nézét-Séguin has served as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Montréal’s Orchestre Métropolitain since 2000. In 2008 he became Artistic Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and since 2012 he has also been Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. In the 2020-2021 season he will become Music Director of the Metropolitan Orchestra in…

Canadian Isabelle David Amongst 44 Selected for International Maj Lind Piano Competition in Helsinki, Finland

By Newswire on 23 May 2017 Newswire, Piano

Altogether 44 pianists have been selected for the Fourth International Maj Lind Piano Competition to be held in Helsinki, Finland on August 17–31, 2017. They represent 16 nationalities: South Korea (10 competitors), Finland (6), United States (5), Russia (4), China (3), Germany (3), Indonesia (2), Israel (2), Italy (2), Spain (1), Georgia (1), Great Britain (1), Canada (1), Norway (1), Ukraine (1) and New Zealand (1). See the list of competitors below. The competition received a record 195 applications by the deadline on April 24. The participants in the first round were selected by a competition team on the basis of video…

Previous 1 … 257 258 259 260 261 … 334 Next

Current Issue

PDF HTML

Next Issue : June/July 2024

Ad Deadline : May 24, 2024

Past Issues, Subscriptions, Advertising