Choral - my/maSCENA

CD Review – Woefully Arrayed : Sacred & Secular Choral & Polychoral Works

By Arnaud G. Veydarier on 7 February 2018 CD and Book Reviews, Choral, Classical Music, Contemporary, Vocal

Woefully Arrayed : Sacred & Secular Choral & Polychoral Works Jonathan David Little, Navona Records NV6113 Woefully Arrayed by the Australian-born composer Jonathan David Little is dedicated to choral music. Recorded for the most part in churches in 2016, the six pieces have been performed by various ensembles, including Vox Futura, the Thomas Tallis Society Choir and The Stanbery Singers. As the title suggests, Little’s musical manner is in line with such Renaissance polyphonic composers as Palestrina and Josquin des Prés. However, Little does not just imitate the language of his predecessors. If he accepts the formal general characteristics, such as contrapuntal…

Dr. Trevor W. Payne: Still a Choral Force

By Dwain Richardson on 5 February 2018 Arts Industry, Choral, Classical Music, Vocal

After 43 years at the helm, Dr. Trevor Payne has decided to put down the baton. His final appearance with the Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir was on Dec. 7 in a concert with the Orchestre symphonique de Longueuil. He hasn’t left the choir for good, though: Payne will continue to serve as artistic director and producer. Here’s a look at his memorable moments, his musical background, and the motivation behind his conducting. Anyone who retires from a job after more than four decades would normally feel a sense of accomplishment, relief, and liberation. “Quite the contrary,” said Payne in a laid-back…

Kings College Choir Delivers Uplifting English Brahms Requiem

By Norman Lebrecht on 24 November 2017 Choral, Lebrecht Weekly, Piano, Romantic

Brahms: An English Requiem (Delphian) Mary Bevan, soprano Marcus Farnsworth, baritone James Baillieu and Richard Uttley, piano Choir of Kings College London, conductor Joseph Fort This has to be the least expected record of the year – a performance of Ein deutsches Requiem in the original English, at least in the texts of the original English Bible. The work was so popular on reception, at a time when Bismarck was planting German boots all over Denmark, Austria and France, that London impresarios felt it might be prudent to produce it in a less contentious language. Since Victorian concertgoers knew their…

Philip Chiu

Previews – Toronto – November

By Gregory Finney on 12 November 2017 Chamber Music, Choral, Classical Music, Opera, Orchestral, Vocal

Tania Miller and the Royal Conservatory Orchestra The first Canadian Maestra to become Music Director of a major symphony orchestra, Tania Miller takes the podium to lead the Royal Conservatory through a program that includes works by Prokofiev and Stravinsky. Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto no. 2 will be played by pianist Sae Yoon Chon. The Royal Conservatory Orchestra is comprised of members of the Glenn Gould School’s Performance Diploma and Artist Diploma programs. Nov. 24, Koerner Hall. www.rcmusic.ca Rodelinda with VOICEBOX: Opera In Concert One of Canada’s oldest opera companies continues it 2017-18 season at the Jane Mallett Theatre (St. Lawrence Centre…

L'Ensemble Variances

Previews – Ottawa – November

By Richard Todd on 12 November 2017 Chamber Music, Choral, Classical Music, Vocal

Cantata Singers of Ottawa — Fauré Requiem Artistic Director Andrew McAnerney will lead a candlelight program of Mozart, Bach and Fauré. The centrepiece of the programme will be Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem (1893 version) with an orchestra of strings, horns, harp and organ. Other works will include Mozart’s “Misericordia Domini” and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, performed by the orchestra. November 4, 8:00 pm – 9:30 p.m. St. Joseph’s Church. www.cantatasingersottawa.ca Seventeen Voyces — Haydn’s Mass in Time of War Seventeen Voyces’s 2017-2018 season will begin dramatically with a presentation at St. Matthew’s of Franz Joseph Haydn’s Mass in Time of War…

Photo Pierre Arsenault

Montreal Bach Festival 2017: An Emotional Connection to the Sublime

By Xenia Hanusiak on 9 November 2017 Baroque and Early, Choral, Classical Music, Vocal

The Montreal Bach Festival opens on November 17 at the Maison Symphonique with a performance of Bach’s monumental Mass in B Minor by Collegium 1704, an acclaimed early-music group based in Prague. The Mass summons a month of performances devoted to Bach and his catalogue, his contemporaries, and his influence on the composers of our time. Collegium 1704’s Montreal appearance — the Canadian debut of this élite fifty-member choir and instrumental ensemble — is intended in part as a celebration of the 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation. This Canadian performance, which has been years in the making,…

Austin Symphony’s “Feast of Voices” Imaginative Programming

By Paul E. Robinson on 9 October 2017 Choral, Classical, Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Orchestral

“FEAST OF VOICES” Beethoven-Bruckner: Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor Op. 13 “Pathétique” (lst movement) Vaughan Williams: Flos Campi Mahler-Britten: Symphony No. 3 (2nd movement) Bruckner: Te Deum Bruce Williams, viola Julia Taylor, soprano Claudia Chapa, mezzo-soprano Brian Yeakley, tenor Charles Evans, baritone Chorus Austin (Ryan Heller, director) Austin Symphony/Peter Bay Long Center for the Performing Arts Austin, TX October 7, 2017 In his opening remarks, conductor Peter Bay informed the audience that they were about to hear only the second performance ever of Anton Bruckner’s orchestration of the first movement of Beethoven’s “Pathétique” Sonata, making this a U.S.…

2017–2018 Opera Diary Dates

By Patricia Weber on 1 September 2017 Art Song, Choral, La Scena Spotlight, Opera

With an impressive roster of seasoned performers and many more in training, opera is a major component of classical music in Canada. Our homegrown talent is gaining recognition abroad, and many of our singers appear regularly in the world’s great opera houses. Here’s a look at some of their diaries for 2017–2018. Soprano Layla Claire, whose Donna Elvira was warmly received by audiences at Opéra de Montréal last November, recently made a debut solo album with ATMA Classique, entitled Songbird. High point of the year for this British Columbian will be her title role in Alcina at the Bolshoi Theatre…

Lebrecht Weekly – Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius (DG)

By Norman Lebrecht on 4 August 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Choral, Lebrecht Weekly, Orchestral

The first thing you need to know about Daniel Barenboim’s live performance with the Staatskapelle Berlin is that it is the best-sounding Gerontius on record. No British string section has ever played the work with such sweet serenity. No British winds ever breathed with such deep assurance. Strange as it may seem, the Berlin musicians and chorus singers feel this most English of works in their fingers and bones. There is something akin to love in their playing. This is not to disparage past recordings, all by English forces, notably the Halle’s with John Barbirolli and two-thirds of a dream…

The Chœur classique de l’Outaouais will perform in “A Chorus of Voices!”, the closing concert of the Classical Spree at the Maison symphonique de Montréal

By Newswire on 2 August 2017 Arts Industry, Choral, Classical, Classical Music, Newswire

The Chœur classique de l’Outaouais will perform in “A Chorus of Voices!”, the closing concert of the Classical Spree at the Maison symphonique de Montréal, at 11 am on August 13, 2017. The choir will share the stage with seven other amateur ensembles, uniting their voices in the stirring grand finale of the celebrated “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Gatineau, August 1, 2017 — The Chœur classique de l’Outaouais is delighted to have been chosen to sing in the Classical Spree 2017 closing concert, at the Maison symphonique de Montréal at 11 am on August 13, 2017. Conducted…

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