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Piano Esmonde White: The Art of the Upright

By Justin Bernard on 5 September 2019 Interviews, Piano

Founded in 1996, the Piano Esmonde White company, named after its founder Oliver Esmonde-White, has established itself as a Quebec leader in the areas of piano rental, transportation, tuning and manufacturing. Bolstered by the expertise of its technicians, this company located in Montreal’s Mile-End district has just launched a brand-new model of high-end uprights: Magic pianos. In the 1980s, in the United States, Darrell Fandrich of Fandrich & Sons had already developed a very high-quality mechanism for the upright piano – achieving sound qualities similar to those of a grand piano. The technicians at Piano Esmonde White drew inspiration from…

Photo: Monica Jane Frisell / ECM Records

Vijay Iyer and Craig Taborn: A Joint Venture and Beyond

By Marc Chénard on 3 June 2019 Interviews, Scena Jazz

With no shortage of means at its disposal, the Festival international de jazz de Montréal is set to party in style this year, and with good reason. Of the many ways to celebrate its milestone 40th edition, it has programmed a series of five concerts showcasing the ECM label. Like the festival, this Munich-based company has a long history behind it, 50 years and counting, with no signs of sitting back and resting on its laurels. Of the scheduled acts (outlined on the following page), one stands out: the two-piano duo of Vijay Iyer and Craig Taborn. Highly touted in…

Photo: Yves Lacombe

François Girard: From Film to Opera

By Justin Bernard on 30 May 2019 Arts Industry, Film, Interviews, Movie soundtrack music, Opera, Quebec Music

I’m there to serve an idea, serve the music, not so much to transmit my own views or personal concerns […] You have to ask yourself: What does this story say now, how can I give it a contemporary resonance? That’s the real task of a director, making the music and meaning resonate. The main event of this summer’s ninth edition of the Festival d’opéra de Québec is an eagerly-awaited staging of The Flying Dutchman by Richard Wagner. Under the musical direction of Jacques Lacombe, a cast led by baritone Gregory Dahl will present the mythical story in a production…

Original photo: Yves Lacombe

François Girard: Du cinéma à l’opéra

By Justin Bernard on 30 May 2019 Arts Industry, Film, Interviews, Movie soundtrack music, Opera, Quebec Music

« Je suis là pour servir un propos, une musique, pas tellement pour faire passer mes vues ou mes préoccupations personnelles […] Il faut se poser la question : que veut dire cette histoire aujourd’hui, comment lui trouver une résonnance contemporaine ? Faire résonner la musique et faire résonner le sens, c’est ça, le vrai travail de mise en scène. » La 9e édition du Festival d’opéra de Québec qui aura lieu cet été sera marquée par une production très attendue du Vaisseau fantôme de Richard Wagner. Sous la direction musicale de Jacques Lacombe, le baryton Gregory Dahl et les autres membres de la…

Photo: Terry O'Neill

Pavarotti: Genius Is Forever: Entertaining, even for experts

By Adrian Rodriguez on 29 May 2019 CD and Book Reviews, Film, Interviews, Opera

Pavarotti: Genius Is Forever, a documentary directed by Ron Howard, opens on June 6. La Scena Musicale got exclusive access to the two-hour film before the release. In the past, this acclaimed Hollywood director and producer explored the world of music with The Beatles: Eight Days a Week and, most recently, with Made in America, a documentary that involved the participation of rap mogul Jay-Z. In his new effort, Howard emphasizes the human side of Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti. He chronicles his life trough a mix of interviews with the singer’s family, colleagues, live concerts and backstage footage. We are…

QJLQ: Backroom Revolution

By Marc Chénard on 3 April 2019 Experimental Jazz, Interviews, Scena Jazz

In its day, the late 1960s, the Quatuor de Jazz libre du Québec (QJLQ) was the first local band dedicated to the cause of free jazz, the era’s most radical music. Remarkably, it grabbed headlines, joining forces for a while with singer Robert Charlebois, then the leading pop icon. As unlikely as it was, that pop-free jazz encounter was part of the order of the day, when musical genres clashed at will. This episode is but one of many dealt with in a new book (in French) on this trailblazing jazz ensemble. Entitled JAZZ LIBRE et la révolution québécoise: Musique-action,…

Photo: Nuria Soler-Milla

Thierry Bégin-L: Saved by the Guitar

By Arnaud G. Veydarier on 31 March 2019 Canadian Music, Classical Music, Interviews

While a musical calling is often apparent early, the unique sensitivity that marks a great performer often comes later in life, with experience. Even so, some artists seem from an early age to combine technical know-how with a visceral understanding of the artistic intention behind the interpreted work. Judging by the many laudatory reviews and packed concert halls, classical guitarist Thierry Bégin-L seems to be one of those lucky few for whom music just flows. If he is recognized today as one of the most promising talents of his generation, it is because he seems to have developed a nearly…

Photo: Josèphe Peppelnak

Christopher Dunham – Baritone at Work

By Adrian Rodriguez on 28 March 2019 Interviews, Opera, Vocal

Christopher Dunham will sing the famous role of Escamillo in the upcoming Opéra de Montréal production of Bizet’s Carmen. The Niagara Falls native possesses all the qualities we wish to hear in a Kavalier baritone, including chiaroscuro timbre with strong middle voice and easy emission in the high notes but with more bite than a lyric voice. Such a voice is perfect for other roles like Don Giovanni or Eugene Onegin. In my opinion he is a Canadian talent that deserves more attention. Over the last few years he has been quietly carving himself a place in the industry. Some…

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Celebrating a Century of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn with Poetry and Music

By Charles Geyer on 19 November 2018 Chamber Music, Classical, Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Education, Interviews, La Scena Online, La Scena Spotlight, Literature, Piano, Scena Arts

PREVIEW: of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn at 100, at New York City’s 92nd Street Y, Monday, November 19, 7:30 p.m.; and INTERVIEW: with pianist and conductor Ignat Solzhenitsyn, son of Nobel Prize-winning author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the heroic anti-Soviet dissident whose vital and uncompromising documentation of the horrors of the Stalinist police state won the 1970 Nobel Prize for literature and provided indispensable impetus to the forces that brought on the communist regime’s late 20th-century downfall, would have turned 100 this December 11. In what promises to be an especially rich, personal and heartfelt early celebration of that centenary, New York City’s…

Soprano Hyunah Yu in the middle, flanked by players from Piffaro and Prism, at the premiere of “The Anchoress” at the Kimmel Center (Philadelphia); photo by Pete Checchia/Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

“The Anchoress” – Songs of a Soul in Solitude

By Charles Geyer on 4 November 2018 Art Song, Baroque and Early, Chamber Music, Classical, Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Experimental Jazz, Interviews, La Scena Online, Music Competition, Musical Theatre, Opera, Theatre, Vocal, World Music

REVIEW: of The Anchoress, a world premiere of a new musical monodrama/song cycle composed by David Serkin Ludwig with text by Katie Ford, performed by soprano Hyunah Yu, accompanied by saxophone quartet PRISM and ancient-instrument ensemble Piffaro; on Wednesday, October 17, at the Perelman Theatre of Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, and on Thursday, October 18, at New York City’s DiMenna Center for Classical Music (the latter performance reviewed here); and INTERVIEWS: with composer David Ludwig and poet Katie Ford. The impulse to retreat from the world in search of spiritual insight or purity has manifested throughout human history. Twenty-one centuries of Christianity…

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