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Ensemble Scholastica at Notre Dame de Bon Secours. Photo: Paul Eifert

Ensemble Scholastica: Illuminating Montreal’s Medieval Manuscripts

By Heather Weinreb on 8 November 2024 Classical Music, Montreal

A medieval musical manuscript has a long way to travel before reaching our ears. On Nov. 10, Montreal audiences have the opportunity to travel through time and space as Ensemble Scholastica performs a selection of McGill’s collection of medieval manuscripts. At the Notre-Dame-De-Bon-Secours chapel, the ensemble will perform a program of medieval chant in various musical settings. “This is a huge and varied repertoire,” says Artistic Director Rebecca Bain, “of which we are picking specific pieces that are found in the sources (manuscripts and fragments) of McGill’s collection. We will perform them according to medieval practice. We’ll have some period…

Photo : Karen Reeves

Esprit Orchestra: Keeping audiences on the edge of their seats

By Eva Stone-Barney on 8 November 2024 Orchestral

Esprit Orchestra’s 2024-25 season is titled “The Edge of Your Seat”—but that could well describe their entire ethos. Established in 1983 by Music Director and Conductor Alex Pauk, the 65-member orchestra is one of the few organizations of its kind on a global scale. It is Canada’s only professional, full-sized orchestra dedicated to the promotion and performance of new orchestral music. Its new season comprises two Prelude Concerts at Toronto’s Koerner Hall in November and February as well as an International Festival made up of five concerts, kicking off in March and taking place at both Koerner Hall and Trinity…

Video Review | Deepa Johnny as Carmen, Palazetto Bru Zane

By John Gilks on 8 November 2024 Classical Music

Bizet: Carmen Deepa Johnny, mezzo-soprano; Stanislas de Barbeyrac, tenor; Nicolas Courjal, bass; Iulia Maria Dan, soprano; Choeur d’enfants de la Maîtrise du Conservatoire de Rouen; Choeur accentus / Opéra de Rouen Normandie; Orchestre de l’Opéra de Rouen Normandie; Ben Glassberg, conductor Bru Zane DVD, 2024 Palazetto Bru Zane is known for its meticulously produced audio recordings of French works of the long 19th century, often of some obscurity like Saint-Saëns’s operetta Phryné. These recordings usually involve the creation of a new performing score based on best scholarship and carefully researched performance practice. The CD recordings are typically accompanied by a…

CD Review | Rachel Fenlon, Winterreise

By Gianmarco Segato on 8 November 2024 Art Song, CD and Book Reviews, Vocal

Schubert: Winterreise Rachel Fenlon, soprano & piano Orchid Classics, 2024 Franz Schubert’s devastatingly confessional song cycle, Winterreise (1828) charts the journey of a spurned narrator through 24 songs set to poems by Wilhelm Müller. It is a pinnacle of Romanticism and foundational to the German Lied (Song) tradition. Although more associated with male singers, it was recorded by German mezzo-soprano Elena Gerhardt as early as 1928 and, in more recent times, by mezzos Christa Ludwig, Brigitte Fassbaender and contralto Nathalie Stutzmann. What makes Canadian soprano Rachel Fenlon’s new traversal unique is that she acts as her own accompanist, the first…

Tafelmusik: A rare presentation of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio

By Denise Lai on 8 November 2024 Choral

With the Christmas season fast approaching, that holiday staple, Handel’s Messiah, is being performed everywhere. Tafelmusik is no exception, and its singalong version is a perennial holiday tradition in Toronto. This year, however, Tafelmusik will also present a much less ubiquitous seasonal work: Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. Composed in 1734, the Oratorio tells the story of the nativity, from the birth of Jesus through to the arrival of the Three Wise Men. It comprises a series of jubilant choruses, tender chorales and introspective solo arias, with recitatives sung by a tenor Evangelist to provide the narrative. Bach uses chorales…

Dorothéa Ventura. Photo: Tam Photography

Dorothéa Ventura : At the Crossroads

By Justin Bernard on 8 November 2024 Baroque and Early, Chamber Music, Interviews, Piano, Vocal

Dorothéa Ventura knows how to do almost everything: dance, act, sing, conduct. The versatility of this artist is such that today she is employed as a harpsichordist, soprano, dancer and actress—and sometimes does double or triple duty! Her preferred repertoire, however, remains Baroque music. Meet the woman who has taken over the reins of Les Idées heureuses, succeeding the ensemble’s founder, Geneviève Soly, as artistic director. Snowy wedding, happy marriage Dorothéa Ventura remembers the first concert of Year 1—38 years ago, in the middle of a snowstorm. “At the time, I was Geneviève Soly’s harpsichord student. She introduced me to…

Tafelmusik panel in South Korea with Cristina Zacharias & Rachel Podger. Photo: Kakao Talk

Tafelmusik: Bringing Baroque to South Korea

By Stephen Low on 8 November 2024 Classical Music

Tafelmusik, Canada’s premier Baroque orchestra, has a long touring history to destinations as far-flung as Athens, Germany, Japan, Australia—and even under the shadow of Vesuvius in Rieti, Italy. Continuing this tradition, the Toronto-based ensemble toured to South Korea in late October and early November, presenting a version of the Brilliant Baroque program they will play in Toronto in January and February at Jeanne Lamon Hall. The program includes Baroque favourites like Handel’s Concerto grosso in G Major, Purcell’s Suite from The Fairy Queen and Bach’s Violin Concerto in A minor as well as rarities like Avison’s Concerto No. 6 in…

Geneviève Soly. Photo: Robert Etcheverry.

Geneviève Soly: Looking back at an outstanding musical career

By Viktor Lazarov on 8 November 2024 Baroque and Early, Interviews, Piano

Surrounded by her books, her harpsichord, and furniture dating back to New France, the founder of Les Idées heureuses and specialist of the works of Christoph Graupner, Geneviève Soly, reviews her musical career. People of the soil, music in their hearts “I come from a farming family,” she says. “My ancestors were profoundly musical people and like many country families in Quebec, everyone sang.” Growing up with her twin sister Isolde and brother Éric, her family wasn’t typical of the 1950s and ’60s. Their father, Bernard Lagacé, taught the organ at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal (CMM) and their…

Francis Colpron. Photo: Hugo B. Lefort

Les Boréades: The Age of Reason

By Justin Bernard on 8 November 2024 Baroque and Early, Chamber Music

Composers of Western music have long been torn between two contradictory forces: order and reason on the one hand and passion on the other. At their concert on Nov. 28, Les Boréades de Montréal will choose to side with reason, says Artistic Director Francis Colpron. “On this occasion, I’d like to demonstrate a rather rational, almost scientific, approach to the art of music to convince people that music is a universal language—a product of human genius and, therefore, a science. It’s about understanding that sometimes this language can be obtuse, expansive, hermetic, scholarly. In any case, what’s important to remember…

Giacomo Puccini Five Great Arias

By La Scena Musicale Team on 8 November 2024 Opera

by Justin Bernard, Wah Keung Chan, Adrian Rodriguez, Gianmarco Segato, Joseph So To celebrate the centenary of the death of Italian composer Giacomo Puccini on Nov. 29, our team of opera experts present La Scena Musicale’s five favourite Puccini arias. See below for links to the performances. Che gelida manina, La bohème Sung by Rodolfo (tenor) Puccini is the composer of great arias, and the best arias are serenades. “Che gelida manina” from La bohème is among the greatest. The text is classic, starting with “How cold your little hand is,” to the telling of “who I am” to how…

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