Browsing: Classical Music

MCGILL CHAMBER ORCHESTRAOn October 18th, Montreal’s oldest chamber orchestra presents two great romantic double concertos, featuring Swiss violinist and Université de Montréal professor Laurence Kayaleh as well as Stéphane Lemelin, a Québécois pianist with an international career. Works presented are Mendelssohn’s Double Concerto and Chausson’s Concert. Salle Claude Champagne. 514-487-5190, www.ocm-mco.orgMAISON DE LA CULTURE CÔTE-DES-NEIGESLe concert commenté Pléiades présente un panorama du répertoire contemporain pour ensemble à percussions. Dans une mise en scène de Michel G. Barette, au moyen de quatre œuvres, dont trois écrites par des compositeurs québécois, Sixtrum se propose d’initier le public aux grandes familles d’instruments à…

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by Paul E. Robinson Whatever else he may be as a man and a musician, Kent Nagano is insatiably curious. So far, his Montreal audiences have not only accepted, but embraced, his voyages of discovery.This week Maestro Nagano and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) gave Place des Arts concert-goers a feast of the familiar and the unfamiliar that was truly exceptional, and I think they liked it.The evening’s star attraction was the outstanding violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, now a fully mature artist after years of wonder as a young prodigy encouraged by the likes of Herbert von Karajan, Andre Previn…

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by Paul E. RobinsonThe Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (OSM) is an orchestra without a home – at least in the summertime. For some years now, it has been trying to cobble together a summer work schedule that would satisfy its commitments to players, its financial responsibilities, and the larger Quebec area’s classical music-loving public. OSM’s latest experiment took place this past week at Festival Orford, both at Orford itself and in the nearby town of Magog, one of Quebec’s prime destinations for summer vacationers. Is this the answer for the perpetually itinerant OSM? Maybe yes, and maybe no; it is…

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By Frank CadenheadThe first concert of my week at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland was, I expect, not the highlight. While the festival program correctly listed the conductor as Paul McCreesh, the Canadian star I had hoped to see, Measha Brueggergosman, had been replaced by another star, Sophie Koch. I was not too dismayed because this French mezzo is one of the great voices you are likely to hear these days. The program was also changed and Berlioz’s “La Mort de Cléopatre” was now the same composer’s song cycle, “Les Nuits d’Eté,” to the text by Théophile Gautier. I did not…

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by Paul E. RobinsonSUMMER MUSIC FESTIVALS 2010Aspen Music Festival and School After a few days in Vail enjoying the music-making of Jaap van Zweden and the Dallas Symphony at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Marita and I drove over to Aspen, about 100 miles away through the mountains. What we found there was a much older community and a festival and school operating on an equally high artistic plane but with a more varied range of goals and activities. True, Aspen has been in the news lately for its administrative infighting which saw music director and conductor David Zinman…

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By Frank CadenheadNo serious opera fan should miss the astounding Robert Lepage production of Stravinsky’s “Rossignol et autres fables,” which is available for a limited time for free streaming on Arte Live Web. It is the same production that received rave reviews in October of last year at the COC. Seen as the triumph ofthe Aix-en-Provence Festival and hailed in the European press as a highlight of the operatic year, the American press and public seem unconcerned and unaware of this even though the same director is to stage the new Wagner Ring Cycle at the Metropolitan Opera.Recorded from the July 7 performance at the Grand Théâtre de Provence, it has the…

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by Paul E. RobinsonSUMMER FESTIVALS 2010Bravo! Vail Valley Music FestivalImagine a music festival that features three of the world’s top orchestras in successive week-long residencies. Throw into the mix the likes of Yo-Yo Ma, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and Gil Shaham. Shake things up with some of the best conductors at work today: Jaap van Zweden, Alan Gilbert, Charles Dutoit, and Marin Alsop. And don’t forget to add lots of chamber music. Set all this talent up in one of the most spectacular mountain locations you can think of – say, Vail, Colorado – and run your festival for about six weeks.…

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Conductor Agnes Grossmann (Photo courtesy of TSMF)Summer has traditionally been a quiet time musically in Toronto, with the opera, symphony and ballet all in hiatus. The little bit that were available – like the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at Ontario Place and the Canadian Opera Company’s Altamira Harbourfront Concerts, have long been consigned to history. Music-starved Torontonians, myself included, have had to venture out of town for our musical fix, to places like Elora, Parry Sound, Campbellford, Sharon, Niagara for example. While many of us continue to do that, those who would rather stay in town can still experience great music…

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LA ROULOTTE AU PAYS DU MAGICIEN D’OZ THÉÂTRE LA ROULOTTEDU 30 JUIN AU 24 AOÛT Saviez-vous que le Théâtre La Roulotte a été fondé en 1953 par Paul Buissonneau, à la demande de la Ville de Montréal, dans l’objectif d’initier les jeunes aux joies du théâtre à la belle saison et dans les parcs de la ville? Devenue une tradition respectée, la Roulotte offre de plus aux finissants de l’École nationale de théâtre – comédiens, décorateurs ou professionnels de la production – l’occasion de se mesurer une première fois au milieu professionnel. Il faut surtout savoir que le Théâtre La…

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