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Daily News Roundup: 21 July 2016

By Kiersten van Vliet on 21 July 2016 Canadian Music, Daily News Roundup, Mainstream Jazz, Musical Theatre, Popular Music, Scena Jazz, Violin

Today’s Daily News Roundup is heading to Broadway. Plus Aretha Franklin and Polaris Music Prize news. + Aretha Franklin will headline a New City Winery Festival in Queens in September. + Video of the Day – Eric Dolphy. + The big Franco snub: Polaris Music Prize voters aren’t showing much love for francophone albums. + This Day in Music – 1920: Isaac Stern was born. + Come from Away, the Canadian musical focusing on the 38 planes and their occupants who were redirected to Gander, Nfld., on Sept. 11, 2001, will be performed at a Shubert theatre on Broadway in February.

Isaac Stern

This Day in Music – 1920: Isaac Stern was born

By Weiyu Dang on 21 July 2016 This Day in Music, Violin

Born in what is now Ukraine, violinist Isaac Stern would immigrate to America at the age of one and go on to become one of the greatest instrumentalists of the twentieth century. His dedication to the arts showed through his dedication of Carnegie Hall as its president and his wide repertoire of recordings. Known for his powerful tone and directness of emotion, Stern proved that virtuosity is not the only way to musicality. As a pedagogue and advocate, Stern fought ardently for arts funding and notably discovered Yo-Yo Ma. Isaac Stern – Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor Op. 64

Lebrecht Weekly – Polish Violin Concertos (Naxos)

By Norman Lebrecht on 15 July 2016 Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly, Violin

There used to be a truth, universally acknowledged across the record industry, that you could put out unfamiliar music with a famous artist or popular music with an unheralded performer but never attempt what Donald Rumsfeld might have called the unknown unknowns. That fundamental truth was well and truly overturned by the rise of Naxos, which built its fortune on a catholic blend of neglected artists and untapped catalogue, often with salutary results. The present release is a case in point. None of these four concertos is much performed, even in Poland where there might be a streak of national…

Stevie Wonder

Daily News Roundup: 11 July 2016

By Kiersten van Vliet on 11 July 2016 Contemporary, Daily News Roundup, Mainstream Jazz, Piano, Popular Music, Scena Jazz, Violin

+ This Day in Music: George Gershwin died this day in 1937. + The 37th edition of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal was a resounding success for all involved, read the festival summary here. + A benefit concert for Black Lives Matter on Wednesday in New York City is tragically timely in light of recent events. + Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà’s albums have now been streamed more than 30 million times across more than 100 countries. + Read Kiersten van Vliet’s review of Gershwin arrangements for solo piano by British composer Michael Finnissy, played by Dirk Herten. “Finnissy, who celebrated…

Angèle Dubeau: An international success on streaming platforms!

By Newswire on 11 July 2016 Contemporary, Newswire, Quebec Music, Strings, Violin

More than 30 million streams for her discography and 12 million streams for the album Ludovico Einaudi: Portrait Montreal, July 11 2016 – Violinist Angèle Dubeau’s latest album, Ludovico Einaudi: Portrait, has now reached an impressive 12 million streams on the various music streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer. Yesterday, during the concert offered by Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà at the Festival International de Lanaudière, François Mario Labbé, president of Analekta, gave to Angèle Dubeau a commemorative plaque to recognize this remarkable achievement. The works from the violinist’s discography have now been streamed more than 30 million times across more than 100 countries, a rare feat for…

CD Review – Ives: Sonatas for Violin and Piano Nos. 1–4 (White)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 4 July 2016 CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Violin

Interest in American modernist Charles Ives, as these things often happen, spiked after his death. Even as the post factum father of American modernism for his use of experimental techniques as well as his quotation of American melodies from Protestant hymns to Stephen Foster, it is still difficult to find Ives on disc and in the concert halls. In fact, the only other full recording of his four violin sonatas (1906–1913) that springs to mind is Hilary Hahn’s 2012 release. The first sonata is easily the least accessible of the bunch, beginning with a cyclical creeping melody that refuses to…

Photo: Arthur Kaptainis

Concert Review: Orford Music Festival, Poulenc & Gounod

By Arthur Kaptainis on 2 July 2016 Chamber Music, Classical, Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Romantic, Violin

ORFORD – Orford Musique, as the festival in the Eastern Townships now calls itself, got under way Friday night, almost a month after it started. The educational camp fires up well before the concert calendar. Thus the first non-student program, paradoxically, represented a farewell for at least a few of the teachers who had spent most of June in residence. It also represented the kind of event that I would gladly cross several county borders to hear. Louis Spohr’s Duo for Two Violins in A minor Op. 67 No. 1? Just try to hum that one. Or more to the point, just…

Daily News Roundup: 1 July 2016

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 July 2016 Arts Industry, Classical Music, Contemporary, Daily News Roundup, Mainstream Jazz, Opera, Romantic, Scena Jazz, Violin

+ The marriage between text and music in contemporary opera is more important than ever, says William Littler, citing Fellow Travelers (Cincinnati Opera) and Les Feluettes (Opéra de Montréal) as recent examples. “Perhaps today, more than at any other time in the recent past, librettists are coming into their own as something approaching full partners with composers in the creation of successful opera. And tied to this development is the heightened importance in an age of film and television of casting singers who can give visual credibility to their roles. Tenor Aaron Blake and baritone Joseph Lattanzi both looked and…

Lebrecht Weekly – Glazunov, Khachaturian: Violin Concertos (Avanti)

By Norman Lebrecht on 1 July 2016 Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly, Romantic, Violin

The archetype Russian violin concerto – Tchaikovsky’s – looms so large over the musical landscape that all others seem no more than sidebars. Two concertos (each) by Prokofiev and Shostakovich are rooted in political circumstances, inseparable from their history. Miaskovsky’s concerto never took off, despite the advocacy of David Oistrakh, Weinberg’s is emerging too slowly to be counted and the rest barely make up a respectable quorum. Apart from the present pair. Alexander Glazunov wrote his concerto in 1905 for the violin professor Leopold Auer, a formidable authority who once refused to premiere Tchaikosky’s concerto unless he made extensive changes.…

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.…

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