Contemporary - my/maSCENA

Lebrecht Weekly – Dmitri Shostakovich: piano trios and viola sonata (Decca)

By Norman Lebrecht on 17 June 2016 Chamber Music, Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly

The three works on this album encompass an entire composing life. The first piano trio was written by a 17 year-old for his girlfriend in 1923. The mastery is already undeniable and the thumbprints instantly recognisable: pathos, scepticism and the juxtaposition of polar opposites. This is not the way most of us would go about wooing the love of our life. Shostakovich was always an original, even at his most eclectic. Everything he writes can be interpreted equally as its opposite, a device that became the key to the composer’s survival in Soviet Russia. The second piano trio, written in…

This Day in Music – Maurice Duruflé

By Michele Duguay on 16 June 2016 Contemporary, This Day in Music, Video of the day

On June 16 1986, organist and composer Maurice Duruflé passed away at the age of 84 years old. He stopped his musical activities in 1975, after a car accident that left him severely injured. Organist at Saint-Étienne-du-Mont church in Paris, he premiered Francis Poulenc’s Organ Concerto in 1939. His most renowned work, the Requiem Op. 9, draws inspiration from Duruflé’s predecessor Fauré, Renaissance music, and gregorian chant.

Lebrecht Weekly – Feldman, Crumb: Piano pieces (Hyperion)

By Norman Lebrecht on 3 June 2016 Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly, Piano

Every few months I take my ears out for a cleaning. This is not as easy as it sounds. Finding music that is original, unfamiliar, astringent, elevating and altogether uncomplacent restricts the seeker to the dustiest corners of recorded repertoire. And no sooner do you find a box that fits the bill than what you thought was household detergent comes stuffed with sticky minimalisms. Anyway, this week, I’ve struck lucky with some top-grade industrial ear cleanser from a British pianist I’d normally associate with Beethoven, Rachmaninov and Messiaen. Steven Osborne, though, has a quirky turn of mind and a wonderful…

Rufus Wainwright on Prima Donna

Rufus Wainwright: Prima Donna

By Caroline Rodgers on 1 June 2016 Contemporary, Interviews, Opera, Popular Music, Quebec Music

Better late than never: Rufus Wainwright’s first opera, which premiered in 2009, will at last be performed in Montreal this summer in a concert version as part of the Montreal International Jazz Festival. Born into a family of musicians, Rufus Wainwright was surely destined to follow in the footsteps of his parents, folk singer Kate McGarrigle and singer Loudon Wainwright III. At the age of 13 he was already touring alongside his mother, aunt Anna McGarrigle, and sister Martha, as part of The McGarrigle Sisters and Family, an expanded version of the famous Kate and Anna duo. Nothing in this…

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…

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, Orchestral, Quebec Music, 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…

Lukas Geniušas and Lucas Debargue, photo Vladimir Kevorkov

Tchaikovsky Competition winners face off — and get along

By Arthur Kaptainis on 9 May 2016 Chamber Music, Contemporary, Piano

Two 2015 Tchaikovsky Competition laureates for the price of one: This was the upscale bargain offered by the Show One concert organization, whose many Toronto followers obligingly filled Koerner Hall. Few could have left disappointed. Lucas Debargue and Lukas Geniušas were the visiting pianists, the former born in Paris, the latter in Moscow. Debargue is already a minor celebrity owing to an improbable life story that includes a late start at 11 and a three-year hiatus from his chosen instrument in his late teens. The slim 25-year-old says he has learned some complex 20th-century scores by ear, a claim that…

Lebrecht Weekly – Mahler: 3rd Symphony (DSO Live)

By Norman Lebrecht on 2 May 2016 Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly, Orchestral

What can New York expect of its next music director? Jaap van Zweeden’s recordings can be counted on your fingers and most are – like this release with the Dallas Symphony – live concerts. Mahler’s third symphony is a large and unwieldy piece with a mezzo soloist and women’s and children’s choruses, a test of organisation for any conductor before he or she can begin to think about interpretation. On first hearing, this performance is efficient and attractive with sustainable speeds and some fetching solos from the concertmaster, Alexander Kerr. The vocal soloist Kelley O’Connor lacks heft and any dimensiom…

Audience members circulate among the singers. Photo R. K. Basdeo

Polyphonic Extravagance Wows Audiences at the Gesù

By Rebecca Anne Clark on 19 April 2016 Baroque and Early, Choral, Concert Reviews, Contemporary

Musica Orbium, under the direction of Patrick Wedd, treated audiences to some stunning vocal performances at two performances of their concert “Extravagance Polyphonique” at the Église du Gesù last Sunday, April 17. The program, based around the illustrious motets Spem in alium by Tallis and Ecce beatam lucem by Striggio, also contained lesser-known gems, including works that predate the aforementioned motets such as Johannes Ockeghem’s Deo gratia à 36 and Josquin des Prez’s Qui habitat in adiutorio altissimi for 24 voices, as well as contemporary works including Patrick Wedd’s Nines₂, composed for Musica Orbium’s tenth anniversary, and Gregg Smith’s Sound…

Singer/songwriter "Lior" (left) and Australian composer Nigel Westlake (right)

U.S. Premiere in Austin (Tx): “Compassion” Shows the Way Towards Peace and Understanding

By Paul E. Robinson on 17 April 2016 Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Orchestral

Verdi: Nabucco Overture Schubert: Symphony No. 8 in B minor “Unfinished” Nigel Westlake/Lior Attar: Compassion (U.S. Premiere) Lior Attar, singer Austin Symphony Orchestra/Peter Bay Long Center Austin, Texas Saturday, April 9, 2016 For many decades now, one of the most intractable problems facing world leaders has been the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbours. Although experienced diplomats have tried their best to bring it about, peace seems beyond their reach. Over the years, a number of artists have tried to bridge the gap in their own ways.Daniel Barenboim, for example, created the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra to bring young Israeli and Arab musicians together and it has been…

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