Trio And Soprano Serve Up Charming And Eclectic Menu
By Bill Rankin
CALGARY - For their subtle concert at the University of Calgary, Toronto's Gryphon Trio and Canadian soprano Patricia O’Callaghan performed works from various traditions, including classical, pop, and cabaret.
Mullova Is Special As She Mixes With Early-Music Group
By Colin Eatock
TORONTO – Russian violinist Viktoria Mullova isn’t an early-music specialist, or a specialist in anything, really. But she was a first among equals with members of the Italian ensemble Accademia Bizantina.
Singular Sonorities In Four New Works Get Big Bass Boost
By Arthur Kaptainis
MONTREAL – Reveling in a big, big way, the Montreal Symphony lauded the 50th anniversary of the city's Metro subway and explored new sounds in Jewish music in back-to-back concerts. Also unveiled – a monster octobass.
Lackluster Staging Undercuts Strong Singing in ‘Norma’
By Arthur Kaptainis
TORONTO – Sondra Radvanovsky shines in the daunting title role, with Russell Thomas as Pollione, in a misbegotten if harmless rendition of Bellini's bel canto drama to open the season at the Canadian Opera Company.
Near Centennial, Vancouver SO Is Also Near Change
By David Gordon Duke
VANCOUVER – Bramwell Tovey began his next-to-last season as the Vancouver Symphony's most successful music director ever with a splashy proposition very much to his taste, including a roof-raising Le sacre du printemps.
Monteverdi Helps Musicians Honor Late Conductor
By Arthur Kaptainis
MONTREAL - The Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal paid tribute to Christopher Jackson, its leader until his death last year, with a performance of Monteverdi's Vespers led by Jackson friend and colleague Julian Wachner.
Festival Mimics Concert Styles Of Old London Town
By Colin Eatock
TORONTO – A "London Calling" theme has yielded chamber music programs for 2016 Toronto Summer Music, which reconstructs 18th- and 19th-century traditions for coronations and fashionable concert societies.
Charles Pope Jr., Noted Canadian Critic, Dies At 69
By Earl Arthur Love
IN MEMORIAM – Charles Pope Jr. of Ottawa, Ontario, an elegant writer who was a longtime correspondent for Opera Canada and frequent contributor to ConcertoNet.com, died suddenly on May 31, 2016.
Grand Mahler 8th Caps Minczuk Era With Calgary Phil
By Bill Rankin
CALGARY - There was a spirit of unabashed sentimentality as well as musical energy when the Calgary Philharmonic and a sold-out audience said farewell to Roberto Minczuk, who is moving on after a decade as music director.
Toronto Festival Yields Gamut Of New Compositions
Colin Eatock
TORONTO - The third annual Twenty-First Century Music Festival at the Royal Conservatory of Music presented scores ranging from here-today-gone-tomorrow works to pieces that could have some staying power.
Artistry Afresh At National Arts Centre Orchestra
By Richard Todd
OTTAWA, Canada – It wasn't the last concert of the season or even a regular subscription concert. But the orchestra's "Life Reflected" program was an impressive climax to Alexander Shelley's first year as artistic director.
Coming Events: Small-Scale Gems Dot Northern Fests
DATE BOOK – Haitian born Canadian soprano Marie-Josée Lord’s small-ensemble homage Femmes, with archetypes from Delilah to Piaf, embodies the vibrant spirit of Canadian summer festivals in historic venues and scenic locales.
Patrician, Populist Impulses Compete In New Music Fest
By David Gordon Duke
VANCOUVER – Chamber groups Kronos Quartet and Standing Wave joined the Vancouver Symphony in a four-day fest of the new, shaped by conductor Bramwell Tovey and quirky choices of composer Jocelyn Morlock.
Long Estranged, Dutoit, Montreal Reignite Old Fire
By Earl Arthur Love
MONTREAL — After slamming the door on the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal in 2002, Charles Dutoit, who is 79, returned for the first time to conduct two concerts, and a brilliant Petrouchka recaptured their storied rapport.
A Baroque Band Stretches To Make Beethoven Modern
By Colin Eatock
TORONTO – The Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, under the German maestro Bruno Weil, completed its cycle of all the Beethoven symphonies with a Ninth that – like Nos. 1-8 – was permeated by a sense of striving and struggling.
Calgary Conjures Surreal Isolation Of ‘Die tote Stadt’
By Bill Rankin
CALGARY, Alberta - Erich Korngold's 1920 opera, about a grieving husband who thinks his dead wife has come back to life, received a potent revival at Calgary Opera, conducted by Bramwell Tovey and directed by Kelly Robinson.
‘Dark Sisters’ Sheds Light On Muhly’s High Opera Profile
By David Gordon Duke
VANCOUVER – A revival of Nico Muhly's opera about the aftermath of a police raid on a fundamentalist Mormon compound, at the Vancouver Opera, showcases his flair for music-drama. The company has been new-opera friendly.
New Orford Proves Poised Quartet In Beethoven Concert
By Colin Eatock
TORONTO – The top-notch New Orford String Quartet is comprised of two players each in the Toronto and Montreal Symphonies. They're unlikely to leave their day jobs any time soon, so New Orford concerts are rare, special occasions.
Opera’s Premiere Links Modernism With Monteverdi
By Colin Eatock
TORONTO – The Canadian Opera Company displayed some outside-the-box thinking in pairing Monteverdi and Barbara Monk Feldman. Despite the gulf separating these two composers, there are some striking similarities.
