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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

Lebrecht Weekly – Anonymous: Six concertos (CPO)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 27 May 2016 Lebrecht Weekly

The best fun I’ve had all week is trying to identify the composers of six 18th century concertos that have turned up in the vaults of the Saxon State University library in Dresden. Five of the concertos are for flute, which suggest a possible Frederick the Great connection, the sixth is for cembalo. All are entertaining, accomplished, professional – top-drawer music for a courtly dinner party. But who wrote them? The obvious suspects are the Dresden concertmaster Johann Georg Pisendel (1687-1755) and the singer and composer Carl Heinrich Graun (1704-1759). Both turned out music of high quality and near-memorability but,…

Jean-Michel Richer (Comte Vallier de Tilly) et Etienne Dupuis (Simon Doucet) Photo: Yves Renaud

Review: Les Feluettes by Opéra de Montréal and Pacific Opera Victoria

By Kiersten van Vliet on 23 May 2016 Concert Reviews, Opera

Saturday night’s world premiere of Les Feluettes was an accomplishment long in the making. A co-commission by Opéra de Montréal and Pacific Opera Victoria, the opera was conceived by Australian composer Kevin March, who saw the English movie adaptation, Lilies, over a decade ago. Set in a men’s prison in the 1950s and 1910s, the story is popular in Quebec through the play by Michel Marc Bouchard. Bishop Jean Bilodeau (tenor Gordon Gietz) visits the prison to hear the last confession of his boyhood friend Simon Doucet, played by baritone Gino Quilico. In a Man of La Mancha-style construction, the all-Canadian, all-male cast of inmates stage…

Etienne Dupuis (Simon Doucet) Photo: Yves Renaud

This Week in Montreal (May 23–29)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 23 May 2016 Choral, Contemporary, Opera, Orchestral, This Week in Montreal

War Requiem at the Maison Symphonique Kent Nagano and the OSM with the OSM chorus present Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem May 25 and 28 at 8:00 pm and 29 at 2:30 pm at Maison Symphonique. Soloists include soprano Catherine Naglestad, tenor Ian Bostridge, and baritone Russell Braun, who is replacing Thomas Hampson for health reasons.http://www.osm.ca/en/concert/war-requiem Concours Musical International de Montréal The CMIM kicks off this week with Quarter-final rounds May 23–25, and Semi-final rounds May 27 and 28 at Bourgie Hall. Catch masterclasses with judges Ida Kavafian and Pierre Amoyal on Thursday May 26 at 2:30 pm and 7:30 pm, respectively at the Chapelle Historique…

Rebecca Woodmass, coloratura soprano (young Patricia). Photo: Mathieu Dupuis

Review: Chants Libres – The Trials of Patricia Isasa

By Kiersten van Vliet on 20 May 2016 Concert Reviews, Opera

Last night’s world premiere of Kristin Norderval’s The Trials of Patricia Isasa at the Monument-National was a resounding success, to say the least. The opera, libretto by Naomi Wallace and dramaturg Bibbi Moslet, is based on the true story of Patricia Isasa, who was only 16 when she was abducted in her hometown of Santa Fe, Argentina by the military Junta without trial. Daringly cerebral, The Trials of Patricia Isasa depicts not the events of her imprisonment itself but Isasa’s reckoning with the past decades later as she tries to find justice for herself as well as the 30,000 other “disappeared.” Presented as part of…

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…

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

By Kiersten van Vliet on 20 May 2016 Classical Music, Lebrecht Weekly

Anne Sofie von Otter, photo Ewa-Marie Rundquist

This Week in Montreal (May 16–22)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 16 May 2016 Baroque and Early, Contemporary, Musique québécoise, Orchestral, This Week in Montreal

Final concerts in the SMCQ’s John Rea series Directed by Denis Marleau, Walter Boudreau and Plasirs du clavecin perform Le petit livre des Ravalet, an atypical opera composed by Rea. Period instruments, audio, singers, and actors take the stage. Usine C, May 16, 7 pm. www.smcq.qc.ca The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra Mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter and countertenor Andreas Scholl join San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra to celebrate 30 years at the podium for Nicholas McGegan, the orchestra’s conductor and artistic director. On the program: opera arias and duos and Handel oratorios, as well as a work written by Arvo Pärt…

Lebrecht Weekly – Joseph Haydn: Violin concertos (Panclassics)

By Norman Lebrecht on 13 May 2016 Classical, Lebrecht Weekly, Violin

It must be a seasonal thing. When fresh mushrooms simmer and asparagus gently steams, it starts raining …Haydn. Sure enough, four Haydn releases have landed this month. Decca has a positively frisky set of four symphonies, 78-81, from Ottavio Dantone and the Accademia Bizantina. The period-instrument precision is awe-inspiring, a worthy counterpoint to that epochal Decca set (1969-73) of Haydn symphonies from Antal Dorati and the Philharmonia Hungarica. Dorati changed the weather for Haydn while, with 104 symphonies, confirming the prejudice that the composer wrote too much. Other conductors gave up midway. I like Dantone’s note-perfect approach very much and…

Arion orchestre baroque

This Week in Montreal (May 9–15)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 9 May 2016 Baroque and Early, Orchestral, This Week in Montreal

End of Season at the Chapelle Historique The Chapelle will close its spring season with pianists Kyoko Hashimoto and Ilya Poletaev playing works by Brahms, Debussy, Mozart, and Rachmaninov. May 15, 3 pm. www.ville.montreal.qc.ca/chapellebonpasteur An Awaited Return and a New Face at Arion To mark his return, violinist and guest conductor Stefano Montanari will draw from the singular repertoire of the sinfonia concertante. Concerti alla Montanari comprises works by Sammartini, Boccherini, and Cambini. Soloist: Kate Bennett Wadsworth, cello. Bourgie Hall, April 8 to 10. The first concert in Montreal by the British harpsichordist and conductor Steven Devine will be the…

Lebrecht Weekly – Beethoven: Symphonies 4 and 5 (Sony)

By Norman Lebrecht on 9 May 2016 Classical, Lebrecht Weekly, Orchestral

In May 2015, visibly frail, the august Nikolaus Harnoncourt stood before his Concentus Musicus Wien and directed two Beethoven symphonies in a reading that followed closely what the composer had written in his score. If Beethoven gave a primitive horn an impossible low D to play, that’s how Harnoncourt wanted it played and not, as others do, switched it to the bassoon. It’s a vital question, he said at the time, of “whether it is possible to achieve your goals.” Harnoncourt and his Concentus had spent their lives together trying to achieve a literal understanding of great art, written by…

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