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Video of the Day – Jacques Offenbach

By Michele Duguay on 20 June 2016 Opera, Romantic, Video of the day

Born on June 20 1819, German-born French composer Jacques Offenbach is particularly known for his operettas. Orpheus in the Underworld and The Tales of Hoffman are still part of today’s repertoire. During Offenbach’s lifetime, Paris’s Opera-Comique was not interested in staging his works and the composer had to rent his own venue and the Champs-Élysées. Watch an excerpt of La Périchole where the title character sings after a few evening drinks.

This Day in Music – Happy Birthday Gounod & Stravinsky

By Michele Duguay on 17 June 2016 Contemporary, Dance, Romantic, This Day in Music, Video of the day

Today marks the anniversary of Gounod’s (1818) and Stravinsky’s (1882) births. Winner of the 1839 Prix de Rome, Gounod studied at the Paris Conservatory. His musical legacy comprises a dozen of operas, oratorios, and several motets and songs. His 1872 piano piece The Funeral March of a Marionette, orchestrated in 1879, achieved fame in the 20th-century as the theme music for Alfred Hitchcock Presents. One of the defining figures of 20th-century music, Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky defied convention and achieved worldwide fame with his compositions for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in Paris. The uproar caused by the premiere of The Rite…

This Day in Music – Edvard Grieg & Ella Fitzgerald

By Michele Duguay on 15 June 2016 Romantic, Scena Jazz, This Day in Music, Video of the day, Vocal Jazz

June 15, 1843 is the birthday of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. Born in Bergen, he is widely considered as one of the leading romantic composers. His music celebrates both the Norwegian Folk heritage and the width of European culture. Listen to a 1906 recording of Grieg playing Butterfly, one of his 66 Lyric Pieces for piano. Today also marks the death anniversary of the First Lady of Song Ella Fitzgerald, who passed away on June 15 1996. She led a brilliant solo career—as her 14 Grammy awards indicate—and also recorded and performed with other great jazz musicians such as Duke…

CD Review: James Ehnes & Andrew Armstrong

By Jeanne Hourez on 1 June 2016 CD and Book Reviews, Romantic, Violin

James Ehnes and Andrew Armstrong Violin Sonatas: Debussy, Elgar, Respighi, Sibelius Onyx 2016. ONYX4159. 68 min 56 s. James Ehnes and Andrew Armstrong deliver a rich, luminous CD with an original choice of works. In symbiosis from start to finish, they transport us to the different atmospheres of the pieces with refinement and poise. It was a judicious choice to combine these four composers and in particular these three sonatas, which are relatively unknown but no less interesting for that. The sonata by Debussy, one of his last works, displays his multiple colours and shadings as well as his delicate sensibility.…

Lebrecht Weekly – Ralph Vaughan Williams: Symphonies 2 and 8 (Onyx)

By Norman Lebrecht on 20 May 2016 Lebrecht Weekly, Orchestral, Romantic

Unless you live in England – and, in most of the country, even if you do – you will have few opportunities to hear live performances of the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, the dominant national composer between Elgar and Britten. A passing violinist may offer The Lark Ascending and a string orchestra might play VW’s setting of the Tudor tune ‘Greensleeves’, but the meat of this great composer, his symphonic work, is seldom served and then only with apology. There has only ever been one live cycle of the symphonies – by the late Richard Hickox – and the…

"Anton Nel, winner of the first prize in the 1987 Naumburg International Piano Competition at Carnegie Hall enjoys a remarkable and multifaceted career that has taken him to North and South America, Europe, Asia, and South Africa."

Anton Nel Spectacular in Saint-Saëns Egyptian Concerto

By Paul E. Robinson on 2 March 2016 Concert Reviews, Piano, Romantic

Grantham: J’ai été au bal Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 5 in F major Op. 103 “Egyptian”* Serpa: An Invocation Copland: Rodeo (complete ballet score) Anton Nel, piano* Austin Symphony Orchestra/Peter Bay, conductor Long Center for the Performing Arts Austin, Texas Saturday, February 27, 2016 Some years ago I came across a 1993 live recording of Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 5, featuring Sviatoslav Richter. I didn’t know the piece, but I figured that if a great artist like Richter thought it was worth his time to learn it, it was probably worth my time to listen to it. And what a…

CD Découverte – Ewald Cheung et Philip Chiu

By Michele Duguay on 20 May 2015 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Orchestral, Piano, Romantic, Strings, Violin

Ewald Cheung et Philip Chiu Cette semaine, La Scena Musicale en collaboration avec Espace 21 offre à ses abonnés un enregistrement d’oeuvres de Brahms par Ewald Cheung (violon) et Philip Chiu (piano). Les deux artistes s’impliquent beaucoup sur la scène musicale actuelle et dans leurs champs respectifs. Le violoniste Ewald Cheung est l’un des membres fondateurs du groupe de musique Geistrio et du Quatuor à cordes Roddick. De son côté, le pianiste Philip Chiu est le fondateur et le directeur du programme de piano d’accompagnement du Domaine Forget. Ils ont enregistré les trois sonates pour violon et piano de Johannes Brahms,…

Discovery CD – Ewald Cheung and Philip Chiu

By Michele Duguay on 20 May 2015 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Orchestral, Piano, Romantic, Strings, Violin

Ewald Cheung and Philip ChiuThis week, La Scena Musicale, in collaboration with Espace 21, offers you a recording of Brahms’ work done by Canadians Ewald Cheung (violin) and Philip Chiu (piano) for our Discovery CD. Both artists are involved in the musical scene and in their respective fields. Ewald Cheung is one of the founders of the music groups Geistrio and the Roddick String Quartet. As for Philip Chiu, he’s the founder and director of the Domaine Forget Collaborative Piano Program.You can download the first track here : Track 1Back in 2012, one of our writers, L. H. Tiffany Hsieh,…

CD Découverte – Stéphan Sylvestre

By Michele Duguay on 22 April 2015 CD and Book Reviews, Piano, Romantic

CD Découverte – Stéphan Sylvestre Le CD découverte du pianiste canadien Stéphan Sylvestre propose des œuvres de Johannes Brahms dont huit pièces pour piano, deux rhapsodies, trois intermezzos et un Albumblatt en la mineur, opus posthume.Plusieurs critiques ont encensé Sylvestre, dont CBC Music qui affirme que son approche de Brahms est « beaucoup plus romantique [que celle de Perahia], mais aussi intéressante. Sa manière de jouer est introspective et réfléchie, et est accompagnée d’une sensibilité profonde ». Il a également été comparé à Artur Rubinstein pour son talent naturel (La Presse, Montréal). Sa carrière se déroule à l’internationale et il a donné des…

Eifman Ballet performs Anna Karenina to music by Tchaikovsky in Montreal’s Place des Arts 15-18 April

Anna Karenina: Dancing on the Grave of Love

By Robert Kilborn on 14 April 2015 Concert Reviews, Dance, Romantic

Is Anna Karenina the greatest novel ever written? Dostoyevsky and Nabokov declared it “flawless.” Faulkner described it as “the best ever written.” Hemingway, Woolf, Proust, Joyce, Mann, and countless others learned large parts of their craft from it. In 2007, Time magazine published a poll of 125 big-name authors – from Norman Mailer to David Foster Wallace – which placed Tolstoy’s epic tale of outlaw passion and self-destruction at Number One in a list of “The Top Ten Books of All Time.” Numerous stage, film, television, radio, opera, dance, and other adaptions of Anna Karenina have swelled consciousness for more than…

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