Classical Music - my/maSCENA

Louis Lortie at Bourgie Hall. Photos: Claudine Jacques

Review | Louis Lortie Plays Crystal Clear Ravel

By Heather Weinreb on 6 February 2025 Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Montreal, Piano

It is a rare and special concert when one senses that not only the performer, but the composer, is on stage. On February 4 at Bourgie Hall, Louis Lortie played a wealth of Ravel’s piano works, from the iconic Pavane pour une infante défunte to the highly intricate Gaspard de la nuit. He played each piece with such stunning clarity it seemed as though Ravel himself was onstage with Lortie, calmly listening to his own pieces being played just as he would have wanted them to be. What you missed: Lortie’s playing is particularly striking in its attention to the…

Vancouver Opera Announces 2025-2026 Season

By Newswire on 4 February 2025 Canadian Music, Classical Music, Newswire, Opera, Orchestral, Vancouver, Vocal

FEBRUARY 4, 2025, VANCOUVER, B.C. / Traditional territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations – Vancouver Opera announces an exciting and audience-inspired 2025–2026 season with three classic opera productions. The 2025-2026 season begins in October with Verdi’s eternally thrilling Rigoletto, followed by Mozart’s light-hearted Così fan tutte in February 2026. La Bohème, Puccini’s enduring love story, closes the season in blockbuster style with a five-show run in April/May 2026. “For our 66th season, we’re bringing operas by the art form’s greatest composers to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre stage,” said Tom Wright, Vancouver Opera General Director. “These…

Juan Sebastian Delgado with Ensemble Obiora. Photo: Tam Photography

Ensemble Obiora: Redefining the Canadian Orchestral Landscape

By Viktor Lazarov on 4 February 2025 Orchestral

In 2021, as the world slowly emerged from a deflating pandemic, Allison Migeon and Brandyn Lewis sprung into action. By founding Canada’s first classical music ensemble composed primarily of professional musicians from diverse cultural backgrounds, they forged a new path in the national orchestral landscape. “With everything happening at the time, such as the death of George Floyd, we started asking questions about diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as our role as cultural workers,” explains Migeon. As a cultural coordinator in France, she aspired to innovate the world of classical music. Awarded the Opus Prize Montréal for “Inclusion and…

The CMIM announces 24 singers selected for Voice 2025

By Newswire on 4 February 2025 Arts Industry, Choral, Classical Music, Montreal, Music Competition, Newswire, Vocal

Montreal, February 4, 2025 – The Concours musical international de Montréal (CMIM) is proud to announce the names of the singers chosen to participate in the Voice 2025 edition. This 23rd edition of the CMIM brings together some of the most outstanding classical singers of the new generation. Under the expert eye of a prestigious jury, the 24 selected artists gather in Montreal from May 25 to June 6, 2025, for an exceptional experience and the chance to make their mark on the international scene. This year, the CMIM once again received applications of superior quality from around the world,…

CD Review | More Rivers Christina Petrowska Quilico, Navona Records

By Heather Weinreb on 4 February 2025 Classical Music

More Rivers Christina Petrowska Quilico, piano Navona Records, 2024 More Rivers is a suite of seven solo-piano pieces by Frank Horvat, commissioned and performed by Canadian pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico. These pieces are meant to serve as a continuation to Ann Southam’s piece, Rivers, by which Quilico is greatly inspired. While rivers follow winding trajectories and ultimately end up in the ocean, these pieces don’t really go anywhere. Each piece sticks to one mode and lacks forward motion. With little musical tension within the melodies, harmonies, or sound qualities, this album provides an overly sentimental vision of what are often…

La Scena’s Singing Valentines: Back for its 15th Edition to Spread the Love

By La Scena Musicale Team on 4 February 2025 Vocal

Last year, we decided to offer 100 free Singing Valentines serenades for seniors 65-plus and the feedback we received from the recipients was amazing. So this year we continue to show love to our community by repeating the offer.

CD Review | Jacques Hétu, Two Orchestras, One Symphony

By Justin Bernard on 3 February 2025 Classical Music

Two Orchestras, One Symphony Jacques Hétu, composer; National Arts Centre Orchestra, Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir; Alexander Shelley, conductor Analekta, 2024 Jacques Hétu’s fifth and last symphony has been given a brand-new recording on Analekta, the fruit of an exceptional collaboration between the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Orchestre symphonique de Québec and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. Two orchestras, as the album title suggests, and three cities represented: Ottawa, Quebec and Toronto. This work is a benchmark in the contemporary landscape. Its success owes much to the final movement with choir, written to the words of Paul Éluard’s poem…

Winners of the 28th Gala des Prix Opus

By Newswire on 3 February 2025 Arts Industry, Classical Music, Montreal, Music Competition, Newswire, Quebec City

Montréal, Sunday, February 2, 2025 – Earlier today at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ Bourgie Hall, the Conseil québécois de la musique (CQM) held its 28th Opus Awards Gala. Presented in partnership with Power Corporation of Canada, this major annual gathering of Québec’s concert music community celebrated the musical achievements of the 2023–2024 artistic season. The gala’s seasoned team, comprised of master of ceremonies and host Jocelyn Lebeau, executive producer and artistic director Sylvie Raymond, and lighting designer and stage director Cédric Delorme-Bouchard, successfully showcased the 32 winners of this edition. In addition, courtesy of ATMA Classique, the general…

Olga Kudriakova (piano) with the Orchestre symphonique de Laval. Photo: Gabriel Fournier

Review | Orchestre symphonique de Laval and the Idea of North

By Jan Krejcar on 3 February 2025 Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Orchestral, Piano, Strings

Winter has been in full swing this past week and with it, the fourth edition of Orchestre symphonique de Laval (OSL)’s Festival classique hivernal. The festival’s aptly titled second concert, Nordic Mosaic, consisted entirely of music composed north of latitude 45 (Feb. 1 at Salle André Mathieu). The program followed a standard format, with the commanding Jean-Marie Zeitouni at the helm delivering a shorter symphonic work (Jacques Hétu’s Legendes, op. 76), and a concerto (Edward Grieg’s famous one for piano and orchestra op. 16). The second half was dedicated to Jean Sibelius’ Symphony, No. 5 in E-flat Major, op. 82.…

Kirsten MacKinnon as Christine in COC's La Reine-garçon. Photo: Michael Cooper

Review | Outsider as symbol in under-characterized COC La Reine-garçon

By Gianmarco Segato on 2 February 2025 City, Classical Music, Concert Reviews, La Scena Online, Opera, Toronto, Vocal

Composer Julien Bilodeau and librettist Michel Marc Bouchard’s La Reine-garçon represents a milestone as the first co-production of a new “mainstage” opera between two of Canada’s major opera companies. Premiered at Opéra de Montréal almost exactly one year ago, it made its Canadian Opera Company debut on Jan. 31st. Taking iconoclast 17th-century monarch Queen Christine of Sweden as its subject, the new work ambitiously grapples with big topics like the emergence of free will, the rationalist philosophy of René Descartes, religious freedom and unconventional sexual desire. With an evocative score and poetic libretto, La Reine-garçon succeeds on many levels, but…

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