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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

Photo: Julian Simmonds

Lebrecht Weekly | Jean Sibelius/Arne Nordheim; The Tempest (Naxos/LAWO)

By Norman Lebrecht on 17 February 2023 Lebrecht Weekly

Jean Sibelius: *** Arne Nordheim: **** By no means one of Shakespeare’s more popular plays, the Tempest has been adapted into no fewer than 45 operas and many concert works besides. It has intrigued composers as unlikely as Beethoven and Berlioz, Arthur Sullivan and Michael Tippett, by exposing primal fears of the force of nature and the inadequacy of human relationships. Sibelius wrote incidental music for a Copenhagen production of Shakespeare’s play in 1926, adding an epilogue the following year for a Helsinki revival. By this time, however, Sibelius was all but played out. His seventh and last symphony had…

Report | Prix Opus: Homage to Pauline Vaillancourt

By Justin Bernard on 7 February 2023 Arts Industry, Daily News Roundup

On Feb. 5, after two years and as many virtual occasions, the Prix Opus gala returned to the Salle Bourgie at Montreal’s Museum of Fine Arts, attended by community contributors. The annual ceremony which recognizes excellence in music (and musicology) of the past year was emceed by the comedian Jocelyn Lebeau. For almost three hours, he most skilfully led the presentations and interviews with the 2023 award winners. Musical presentations that are rarely heard punctuated the evening. First came some Bach pieces performed by the outstanding baroque ensemble Les Boréades de Montréal about passing through Quebec by canoe-kayak. Halfway…

Ambur Braid as Salome (front) and Karita Mattila as Herodias (back) in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Salome, 2023. Photo: Michael Cooper

Review | Canadian Opera Company’s Salome a Love-Hate Production

By Denise Lai on 6 February 2023 Concert Reviews, Opera, Orchestral, Toronto, Vocal

Richard Strauss’ Salome is a story of lust, obsession and unrequited love. Salome, step-daughter of King Herod, is the object of desire of both Herod and his army captain, Narraboth. Salome, however, only has eyes for Jochanaan (John the Baptist), who is being held prisoner by Herod. Jochanaan denounces the adulterous Herod and his wife Herodias, and spurns Salome’s advances. When Herod offers Salome anything she desires for a dance, she demands Jochanaan’s head on a silver platter. What you missed A sense of déjà vu hit me when the curtain lifted—the steeply raked stage bears an eerie semblance to…

Wed, Feb 1, 2023 -- Chicago Symphony Orchestra Riccardo Muti, Conductor 2023 Winter Tour Concert 1 in Toronto © Todd Rosenberg Photography 2023

Review | Fiery Mussorgsky Marks Chicago Symphony’s First Toronto Visit in a Century

By Joseph So on 3 February 2023 Concert Reviews, Orchestral, Toronto

Beethoven: Coriolan Overture, Op. 62; Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op.93; Liadov: The Enchanted Lake, Op. 62; Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (Orch. Ravel). Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Riccardo Muti, conductor. Koerner Hall, Feb. 2, 2023. We are still in the early stages of the new year, and already Toronto has experienced what surely will count as a highlight of the 2023 musical season. I am talking about the visit earlier this week of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, under its music director Riccardo Muti, for two performances at the acoustically superb Koerner Hall. This tour was Muti’s last as CSO’s…

Photo: Michael Cooper

Review | The Marriage of Figaro Makes a Triumphant Return to Canadian Opera Company Stage

By Denise Lai on 3 February 2023 Concert Reviews, Opera, Toronto, Vocal

The Marriage of Figaro features a convoluted plot filled with love and desire, disguise and deception, mischief and jealousy–all elements that make for a juicy opera story. Count Almaviva tries to sabotage the wedding of Susanna and Figaro, both servants in his household. The Count intends to seduce Susanna for himself, while pressuring Figaro to marry another woman to whom Figaro owes an old debt. Along with the spurned Countess, Susanna and Figaro scheme to thwart the count’s evil plans and teach him a lesson in love. It all culminates in a happy ending with double weddings, and nobody dies…

Lebrecht Weekly | Krzysztof Meyer, Dmitri Shostakovich: Cello-piano sonatas (Kaleidos)

By Norman Lebrecht on 3 February 2023 Lebrecht Weekly

When asked to review compositions by a living musicologist, my inclination would be to catch the night train out of town and not approach a window before daylight. Musicology has degenerated in the past two decades into factional wars, with one American sideshow even arguing that it’s not necessary to read music in order to obtain a musicology PhD. Krzysztof Meyer is, however, no ordinary musicologist. The foremost authority in Eastern Europe on the life and works of Dmitri Shostakovich, he pulls no punches about Shostakovich’s oppression by the Communist state, an attitude that made him less than popular among…

Review | TSO: Tarmo Peltokoski and Jonathan Crow Memorable

By Andrea Rush on 2 February 2023 Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Orchestral, Toronto, Violin

It was a wintery night, and the program was particularly well suited for those who braved the storm warnings. The trek to Roy Thomson Hall to hear Shostakovich 5 & Crow Plays Brahms was well rewarded. Listeners voted with their feet and the thunderous multiple standing ovations for guest conductor Tarmo Peltokoski and violinist Jonathan Crow, the TSO’s beloved concertmaster. The selection of pieces and the performances were timely and memorable. What you missed? Protégé guest conductor Peltokoski has reportedly received almost as many prizes as his age, 22. His conducting is detailed, insightful and clear and according to his…

News | 2023 JUNO Award Nominees Announced

By La Scena Musicale Team on 1 February 2023 Classical Music, La Scena Online, Scena Jazz

The Juno Awards just announced their nominees. Here are the finalists in the classical and jazz categories. VOCAL JAZZ ALBUM OF THE YEAR I ALBUM DE JAZZ VOCAL DE L’ANNÉE Featuring Caity Gyorgy La Reserve*The Orchard blue Diana Panton Independent*The SRG/ILS Group Venez donc chez moi Laura Anglade and Sam Kirmayer Justin Time*F.A.B./Nettwerk Nikki By Starlight Nikki Yanofsky MNRK The Ostara Project The Ostara Project Cellar*The Orchard JAZZ ALBUM OF THE YEAR (SOLO) I ALBUM JAZZ DE L’ANNÉE (SOLO) Joy Ernesto Cervini TPR*A-Train A Little Louder Now Lauren Falls Independent El Tinajon Luis Deniz Modica*Believe Rumba Rafael Zaldivar Effendi*Propagande/Naxos Kinds…

Lebrecht Weekly | Prokofiev: Violin concertos (Channel Classics)

By Norman Lebrecht on 27 January 2023 Lebrecht Weekly

The old French truism that the best is the enemy of the good – le mieux est l’ennemi du bien – does not apply to musical performance. The best is simply the best. There are half-a-dozen recordings of the two Prokofiev concertos that stand way above the rest, whether by reason of primacy (Oistrakh, Heifetz), serenity (Janine Jansen, Perlman) or combustion (Vadim Gluzman, Leila Josefowicz). This does not, however, turn all the rest into also-rans. On the contrary, my curiosity is often quickened by the arrival of a new recording, especially if the soloist is not a star name and…

Photo: Eric Rudd

Lebrecht Weekly | Anthony McGill: Brahms sonatas/American Stories (Cedille)

By Norman Lebrecht on 13 January 2023 Lebrecht Weekly

Brahms Sonatas: **** American Stories: *** The principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic can claim with some ease to be America’s finest. He has played for a decade at the Met, serenaded Barack Obama at his inauguration, commissioned screeds of new music for his instrument and is professor at Juilliard, actively seeking students from under-represented backgrounds. As for the music, he has few peers. In two simultaneous releases, I was keen to hear what he made of Brahms last pair of sonatas, written for clarinet (or viola) and piano. The pieces, while valedictory, constantly challenge players to colour them…

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