La Scena Online is the digital magazine of La Scene Musicale.
Contents: News, Concert reviews, CD reviews, Interviews, Obituaries, etc
Editor: Wah Keung Chan
Assistant Editor: Andreanne Venne
ISSN: 1206-9973
The Ladies Morning Musical Club (LMMC) has announced their programming for the 2024-25 season.
All is Love, the new Opera Atelier production is a heterogeneous mix of numbers that impress individually but fail to add up to a dramatically satisfying whole.
I was never a fan of viola jokes. Just because the instrument is neither one thing nor the other doesn’t make it any funnier than a mezzo-soprano or a bass-baritone. It is what it is, with benefits. The viola spares you squeaky irritations of a violin and lugubrious growls of a mishandled cello. I like the viola. There, I’ve said it. What’s special about this release is the eclectic menu assembled by a young Jamaican-American, Jordan Bak, who is clearly going places. Bak opens with a three-minute Chant by Jonathan Harvey, dinking back and forth between tonal and post-tonal contemplation.…
Welcome to La Scena Musicale’s weekly Highlights, a roundup of classical music news from Canada and beyond. It’s season announcement time, and Canadian artists are popping up across the classical music globe. Bavarian State Opera Munich’s fabled Bayerische Staatsoper (Bavarian State Opera) recently announced its 24-25 season, with several Canadian singers in the mix. Bass-baritone Gerald Finley will star in the title roles of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman and Verdi’s Macbeth. He’ll share the stage with fellow Canadian Sondra Radvanovsky as his Lady in the Verdi, while the soprano also takes on the titular role in Puccini’s Turandot. Mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb returns…
If you’ve never heard of the composer Walter Kaufmann, you are not alone. A Czech Jew in Hitler’s Germany, Kaufmann was hired as a composer by an Indian friend who was founding a film company in Bombay. He was soon promoted to head of music at All India Radio, co-founded (with Meli Mehta) Bombay’s Chamber Music Society and lectured at the University. As political winds shifted, he migrated in 1946 to London, where he composed for Arthur Rank Films. He moved on again to become the first music director in Winnipeg, Canada, and again in 1957 to teach at Bloomington,…
To lovers of new music, Esprit Orchestra needs no introduction. Founded in 1983 by conductor Alex Pauk, the orchestra has been at the forefront of presenting existing contemporary classical music repertoire, as well as the commissioning of new works by Canadian composers, since its inception. Thanks to this 65-member professional orchestra, Toronto music lovers get to discover and experience works rarely presented by other orchestras. Their most recent concert, Violinissimo II, was aptly named as a follow up to the original Violinissimo, a well received, violin-centric evening presented by EO in the fall of 2022. On the program were Max…
Pianist David Potvin struggled to settle on a name for his debut album, which comes out on April 19 under Leaf Music.
This section is an advertising supplement. To announce here, contact [email protected]. SONIX AND OTHER TONIX Jan Järvlepp, composer Trio Casals; Benda Quartet; Nishikawa Ensemble; Chelsea Meynig, flute; Antonello DiMatteo, clarinet; Lumír Kavík, double bass Navona Records NV6603 Release: March 15, 2024 SONIX AND OTHER TONIX is a collection of innovative chamber works from composer Jan Järvlepp. It combines elements from his most popular chamber and orchestral works, Pierrot Solaire and Garbage Concerto, respectively. Spanning a diverse range of topics and influences, SONIX AND OTHER TONIX exemplifies the iconoclastic creativity for which Järvlepp is known. Black Sea, Orange Tree Leah Plave,…
Obituaries Renowned conductor Seiji Ozawa died in Tokyo on Feb. 6, at the age of 88. Ozawa was the first Japanese conductor to receive international recognition, having served as music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, and was the longest-serving music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which he conducted from 1973-2002. Canadian opera director Michael Cavanagh has died. He was 62. Cavanagh was appointed Artistic Director of the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, having directed upward of 150 productions at 32 companies in Canada, the United States, and across Europe. Cavanagh died of leptomeningeal carcinomatosis,…
Warwick, March 28, 2024 – For his new project “Generation Quartet”, Yannick Rieu will be surrounded by 3 musicians among the most talented of their generation. This group will be made up of pianist Jonathan Cayer, double bassist Guy Boisvert and drummer André White. As its name suggests, the “Generation Quartet” project makes possible a dialogue between two generations of musicians who, over the years and shared experiences, have developed a particular chemistry, a sound of their own. One foot in the jazz tradition, the other in innovation, this group is characterized by the great cohesion of its members, who…
