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National Arts Centre Orchestra Woodwinds. Photo: Curtis Perry

Woodwinds : La Scena’s Top 10 Solos

By Justin Bernard on 3 October 2025 Orchestral, Romantic, Winds

It must be recognized that composers love to showcase the flute, oboe, French horn, clarinet and bassoon front and centre in symphonic repertoire with solos, both long and short. These melodies stay with us long after the concert is over. The following is a ranked list of the 10 most memorable woodwind solos, with a few forays into opera and concert music, excluding concertos written especially for this family of instruments, since these deserve their own ranking. So, a disclaimer: no Vivaldi nor Telemann in this list, but a brief note on Johann Sebastian Bach. BEETHOVEN, SYMPHONY NO. 7 This…

Lebrecht Weekly | Chopin: Mazurkas (Linn)

By Norman Lebrecht on 21 September 2025 Lebrecht Weekly, Piano, Romantic

I grew up listening to Rubinstein and Horowitz play Chopin, followed by the Russians Richter and Gilels. The next generation included Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim and Vladimir Ashkenazy. I reached a mid-life point where I wondered if there was much more to say in Chopin and practically gave up listening. This was not altogether a false perception. Unless you are Polish and buy into national-hero worship, Chopin does not have much more to say in his music beyond a certain introverted sentimentality and post-coital sadness. Or so it seems to me. So I never attended the Chopin Competition in Warsaw…

Aristo Sham, of Hong Kong, China, 29, during the awards ceremony of the 17th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition at Bass Hall in Fort Worth, Texas USA. Photo: Brandon Wade

Cliburn: The Magnificent Craft of Aristo Sham

By Viktor Lazarov on 4 September 2025 Music Competition, Piano, Romantic

A short man with colourful socks, immaculately tailored suits, charcoal-black hair, and a gracious stage manner, Aristo Sham lifted the winner’s trophy at the 17th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition this past June in Fort Worth, Texas. Amidst hordes of talent from 16 countries, Sham distinguished himself with style and unwavering confidence, demonstrating impeccable pianistic craft and a reliable performance standard across six gruelling competition rounds. Born in Hong Kong in 1996, Sham’s early life seems to have followed a flawlessly successful narrative: a slew of competition wins, performances for royalty and presidents, media attention, and an appearance in a…

2022 Honens Prize Laureate Illia Ovcharenko with Jon Kimura Parker. Photo: Monique de St. Croix

Honens 2025: Jon Kimura Parker at the helm

By Bill Rankin on 4 September 2025 Music Competition, Piano, Romantic

Esther Honens, after whom the triennial Calgary international piano competition is named, wanted to leave a legacy that reflected her civic pride and her love of piano. In the fall of 1992, thanks to her $5 million endowment, the inaugural Honens International Piano Competition was held at Calgary’s Jack Singer Concert Hall, where the competition’s ailing benefactor sat in a specially-built private booth to see her vision fulfilled. Honens died five days after the first Honens finale, at age 89. Her legacy continues this October when 10 young pianists compete in the 11th Honens for substantial cash prizes and a…

Leif Ove Andsnes, piano. Photo: Helge Hansen

Leif Ove Andsnes : The View from Above

By Justin Bernard on 4 September 2025 Contemporary, Interviews, Piano, Romantic

Leif Ove Andsnes rarely takes time off from music. Winter, summer, spring, autumn—it fills his days and, sometimes, his nights. At 9:30 p.m. on the evening of our Zoom meeting, the Norwegian pianist was getting ready to sit down at the keyboard for another rehearsal session. His concerts at the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival on the west coast of Norway and then at the Chamber Music Festival in the capital, Oslo, had barely ended when the artist was already looking ahead to the new season that awaits him. And what a season it will be! In the space of just…

Michael McMahon, piano. Photo: TamPhotography

Michael McMahon: The Singer’s Pianist

By Emma Yee on 3 September 2025 Art Song, Interviews, Piano, Romantic

By Emma Yee; interview by Wah Keung Chan Not many pianists, no matter how accomplished, can say they learned lieder from Elly Ameling; taught alongside famed language and diction pedagogue Nico Castel; and accompanied Maureen Forrester, Gerald Finley, Richard Margison, and Catherine Robbin. Or have been passed the torch by the founders of McGill University’s famous opera and song interpretation programs. But as Michael McMahon says, he’s “worked really hard, not because [I have] to, but because [I love] it so much.” The pianist and professor who, on April 17, 2025, was awarded the Order of Canada. McMahon grew up…

Erica Petrocelli (Jitka); Members of the Bard Festival Chorale; "Dalibor" by Bedřich Smetana; Bard SummerScape 2025; photo by Maria Baranova

A Czech Masterpiece Reclaimed – “Dalibor” at Bard SummerScape

By Charles Geyer on 31 July 2025 Choral, Classical Music, Opera, Romantic, Theatre

Czech composer Bedřich Smetana, most famous for his comic “folk” opera, The Bartered Bride (Prodaná nevěsta), culled from the myth-shrouded annals of Czech history the material for his only foray into tragic opera, Dalibor. The result is a lush, melodic late Romantic tale of knights, vendettas, heroic resistance, chivalric romance, and – most centrally – male bonding that reaches beyond the grave. And as this year’s featured opera highlight at Bard College’s 2025 SummerScape festival (Annandale-on-Hudson, New York), Dalibor is being accorded what appears to be its historic first-ever fully-staged professional production in America. Czech-ered Past… Premiering in Prague in…

Roberto Alagna as Don José (left), and Elīna Garanča as Carmen (right)

Carmen at 150: A Listener’s Guide

By Adrian Rodriguez on 31 March 2025 Opera, Romantic

“L’amour est un oiseau rebelle que nul ne peut apprivoiser, Et c’est bien en vain qu’on l’appelle, S’il lui convient de refuser.” With these lines, Georges Bizet’s Carmen bursts onto the stage, declaring that love is wild, untameable, and indifferent to human desire. This is the heart of Carmen: a tale of irresistible attraction and fatal freedom, set against the sun-drenched streets of Seville. Nearly 150 years after its premiere, Carmen remains a fan favourite. According to OperaBase, it is the third most performed opera in the world, with 19,405 performances across 4,686 productions, including 232 performances in Canada. History…

Marie-Nicole-Lemieux in the role of Carmen at the Chorégies d'Orange. Photo: Christophe Agostinis

Marie-Nicole Lemieux as Carmen: A Canadian first

By Justin Bernard on 31 March 2025 Interviews, Opera, Romantic

If Marie-Nicole Lemieux’s arrival in Canada—and in Quebec, in particular—is always an event, what can we say about her local debut in Bizet’s Carmen, which celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2025! Her very first take on the role dates back to 2017, in Paris, alongside tenor Michael Spyres. “I was ready to sing Carmen long before I did it,” she says. “I was waiting for a conductor to have the courage to entrust me with the role, and that was Michel Franck, general director of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. Let’s face it, Carmen is mostly given to tall brunettes, which…

Andrei Feher, Bryan Cheng and Daniel Bartolomew-Poyser. Photo of Bryan Cheng by Andrej Grilc.

Orchestre symphonique de Laval: Two Conductors, Two Visions

By Justin Bernard on 31 March 2025 Orchestral, Romantic

One month apart, Orchestre symphonique de Laval (OSL) is presenting two concerts with dissimilar repertoires and moods, but they are linked by a name that resonates: Brahms the Romantic. These concerts are also an opportunity to get to know two young conductors with complementary visions. Symphonic Jazz Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser grew up in Montreal and then moved to Calgary. His professional career has taken him to the United States, Ontario and Nova Scotia, among other places. His April 16 OSL concert at Salle André-Mathieu will mark his second return to Quebec in just over a year. On the program are compositions…

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