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The Problem of Modern Music

By Arthur Kaptainis on 1 February 2019 Contemporary

“Only madmen invent entirely new languages,” wrote the Viennese-born British critic Hans Keller in a 1961 essay for The Musical Times bearing the same title that adorns this column. The comment puts me in mind of Walter Boudreau’s Concerto de l’asile, one of the more substantial Canadian contemporary pieces of recent years to reach a nonspecialist public, by which I mean OSM subscribers in the Maison symphonique, who heard the premiere in January 2013 with Alain Lefèvre at the piano and Ludovic Morlot on the podium. There were performances also last year by the National Arts Centre Orchestra under Alexander…

Samy Moussa, Citizen of the World

By Arthur Kaptainis on 1 February 2019 Contemporary

Samy Moussa was calling from the Villa Massimo, the spacious former estate of an aristocratic family in Rome, where he has lodgings as a fellow of the Accademia Tedesca or the Deutsche Akademie, depending on your language of choice. “A place where you can work, meet people, and be inspired,” he calls it. “I try to be here as much as I can.” No wonder. But multiple commitments draw the Montreal-born composer away from this outpost of German culture in the Eternal City, notably to Berlin, where he has lived for seven years. “I know you wrote a couple of…

COC Announces New Commission: The Old Fools by Sokolović and Bentley

By Newswire on 11 December 2018 Contemporary, Newswire, Opera

Toronto – The Canadian Opera Company announced today a new mainstage commission: The Old Fools bycelebrated Montreal-based composer Ana Sokolović and seasoned British librettist Paul Bentley. La Reine-Garçon, first announced in 2015, is moving forward as a co-commission with the Opéra de Montréal; it’s the first mainstage collaboration of its kind between the two major Canadian opera companies and at its helm are two exceptionalCanadian artists: Julien Bilodeau as composer and Michel Marc Bouchard as librettist. The Old Fools This opera in two acts was inspired by “The Old Fools” by renowned English poet Philip Larkin. The poem concerns Larkin’s fear…

La Reine-Garçon – A New Work by Michel Marc Bouchard and Julien Bilodeau at the Opéra de Montréal

By Newswire on 11 December 2018 Contemporary, Newswire, Opera

Montreal, December 11, 2018 – The Opéra de Montréal announces a new opera, La Reine-Garçon, with a libretto by Michel Marc Bouchard and music by Julien Bilodeau, which will be presented in Montreal and in Toronto in 2023. This work, the first to be co-commissioned by the Opéra de Montréal and the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, once again substantiates Montreal’s undeniably important role in creating a new opera repertoire showcasing our greatest homegrown talents. The popular and critical success of the opera Les Feluettes, which had its world premiere at the Opéra de Montréal in May 2016, confirmed Montrealers’…

Julian Anderson: Heaven in shy of earth (Ondine)

By Norman Lebrecht on 30 November 2018 Contemporary

Contemporary composers are not, on the whole, the most considerate members of the human species. Their time is spent writing music, promoting it, and making a living at some more profitable form of musical activity, like banking a university salary. Whatever time they have left is treated as me-time, understandably so. All the more reason, then, to remember Oliver Knussen, who died earlier this year, for his vast generosity in conducting works by other composers – time that he might otherwise have spent finishing his own works. Ollie was a perceptive interpreter and naturally communicative conductor. He brings to life…

Photo: Sasha Onyshchenko

Marc Djokic – Musician Without Limits

By Justin Bernard on 27 November 2018 Canadian Music, Chamber Music, Contemporary, Violin

Marc Djokic is a violinist on the move. Winner of the 2017-2018 Mécénat Musica Prix Goyer and an Opus award from the Conseil québécois de la musique, he’s had a busy year touring while pursuing new projects. Last summer, Djokic began his first European tour with solo recitals, chamber music concerts and masterclasses in Venice, Geneva and Bern. He was also recently appointed concertmaster of the McGill Chamber Orchestra. His first album, Solo Seven, was released on the ATMA Classique label in the fall. For our interview, Djokic suggested that we meet at the Association Récréative Milton-Parc, in downtown Montreal,…

21C Music Festival 2019: A festival of Newly-minted music by the world’s foremost stars of independant musical thinking and innovation

By Newswire on 13 November 2018 Arts Industry, Canadian Music, Contemporary, Orchestral

21C Music Festival – five days of newly-minted music during which audiences have an opportunity to experience fresh new sounds and ideas from the greatest musical minds of today – moves from May to January with the sixth edition of the festival. From January 16 to 20, this edition will celebrate the American minimalist composer Terry Riley, with his music being performed in three of the concerts, including one that he will headline, titled Terry Riley: Live at 85! Additionally, more than a half of the works presented during the festival will be receiving premieres – 6 world, 1 North American, 10 Canadian, 4 Ontario, and 1 Toronto, by 10 Canadian composers. Other highlights include the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’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…

The Monster (baritone Joshua Jeremiah) from Gregg Kallor's Frankenstein Suite; presented by The Angel's Share; photo by Kevin Condon

New York City October Surprises: Lang on the High Line, Kallor in the Catacombs

By Charles Geyer on 31 October 2018 Arts Industry, Chamber Music, Choral, Classical, Classical Music, Contemporary, Education, Experimental Jazz, La Scena Online, Musical Theatre, Opera, Orchestral, Piano, Popular Music, Scena Arts, Technology, Theatre, Vocal

REVIEW: of works by composers David Lang and Gregg Kallor – The Mile-Long Opera by Lang, performed on the High Line; and sketches from The Frankenstein Suite, plus the monodrama “The Telltale Heart,” by Kallor, performed in the Catacombs of Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Some uncanny musical surprises graced unusual locations both above and below New York City street-level during the early part of Halloween month. Here’s a diary retrospective. Going the Extra Mile Beginning at twilight on six consecutive evenings (October 3 through 8; viewed October 7), Pulitzer-Prize-winning composer David Lang and a host of collaborators presented a unique choral…

Tribute to Krzysztof Penderecki and a Musical Celebration of Poland’s Independence

By Sébastien Daigle on 31 October 2018 Classical Music, Contemporary

On Nov. 11, 1918, at the end of the First World War, Poland became an independent state. To celebrate the centennial of this event, the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in Canada and the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Montreal are presenting a Tribute to Penderecki concert, which also celebrates the 85th anniversary of the composer Krzysztof Penderecki. The featured work, Penderecki’s Resurrection Piano Concerto, was composed in response to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. “It is a very powerful work, written in the spirit of the great concertos of the 20th century,” according to…

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