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Philippe Bourque

Philippe Bourque’s Mendelssohn Elijah

By Xenia Hanusiak on 1 April 2017 Choral, Romantic

In 1846, when Felix Mendelssohn conducted the commissioned premiere of his oratorio Elijah for the Birmingham Festival he presided over an orchestra of one hundred and twenty five musicians, ten soloists, and a chorus of four hundred singers. Mendelssohn was in his mid thirties. Fast-forward one hundred and seventy years, and another conductor in his mid- thirties will direct one of the most popular oratorios of the choral repertoire. On March 9, for the 45th anniversary of the St. Lawrence Choir, its Artistic Director Philippe Bourque will debut his first Elijah. “This work is intensely personal for me,” says Bourque.…

Artistic director Ted Sperling conducts the audience, Photo: Erin Baiano

With This St. John Passion, MasterVoices Announces There’s a New Evangelist in Town

By Charles Geyer on 17 February 2017 Baroque and Early, Choral, Concert Reviews

PERFORMANCE REVIEW AND TEXT ANALYSIS: MasterVoices’ new English-language version of J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion, translated by Michael Slattery (at Carnegie Hall, February 9, 2017, 7 p.m.). New York City had sustained a twelve-hours’ accumulation of snow. By 7 p.m. on February 9, post-storm sub-freezing temperatures had turned midtown Manhattan’s grid into a treacherous terrain of jagged curbside alpine ranges bounding streets and sidewalks alike of glassy ice. Traffic and transit were hobbled, commerce and commuting statistically decimated. Thus it might seem sheer masochism, or penance, to hazard the elements and venture forth for something so non-essential as choral music.…

Svend Asmussen, Famous Jazz Player, Died yesterday

By Olivier Gentil on 8 February 2017 Canadian Music, Choral, Classical, Contemporary, Daily News Roundup, Quebec Music, Violin

CANADA The Amadeus Choral from Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean will celebrate its 75th anniversary on February 12 with a special mass. [Plus d’infos] Classical’s nomination for the JUNO Awards. A special article of The Scena Musica on it ! [JUNO Awards – And the 46th JUNO Award Nominees are…] Program announced for the 21C Music Festival in May 24-28 2017. [Newswire in My Scena] INTERNATIONAL The famous violinist Svend Asmussen died yesterday, a few days before his 101th birthday. He was well-know for his performances with many stars of jazz like with Stéphane Grappelli, Josephine Baker and Duke Ellington. LaPresse : [Plus d’Infos] LeDevoir: [Plus d’Infos] LeFigaro: [Plus…

Ted Sperling, Photo: Laura Marie Duncan

Maestro Ted Sperling’s Polite Passions – from Broadway to Bach

By Charles Geyer on 7 February 2017 Baroque and Early, Choral, Interviews, Musical Theatre

PROFILE: Interview with Ted Sperling, artistic director of MasterVoices (formerly the Collegiate Chorale); PREVIEW: MasterVoices’ new presentation of J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion – Carnegie Hall, February 9, 2017. He’s soft-spoken, genial, elegantly self-possessed. It’s difficult to imagine him indulging in tirades, or hurling withering invective. He’s a nice guy. He’s also brilliant, prodigiously talented, professionally indefatigable, and apparently liked by everyone. Ted Sperling is, in short, a bit of a blessed paradox: probably the most mannerly guest at any dinner party, he is also one of today’s most accomplished, versatile – and, yes, passionate – practitioners of a craft…

Daniel Taylor: The Tree of Life (Sony)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 February 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Choral

The Tree of Life Daniel Taylor & The Trinity Choir Sony 2016. 88985387032. 55 min. Its conspicuous release before Christmas is no accident: like the 2015 release of Four Thousand Winter, The Tree of Life is a selection of a capella Christmas pieces. Unlike the previous album, The Tree of Life is curated to lead the listener on a journey where stillness and silence are equal players to the music of Mouton, Tavener, Britten, Elizabeth Poston, Robert Parsons, and Pärt. On this disc, leading Canadian countertenor Daniel Taylor is joined by soloists Jeremy Budd (treble), David Clegg (alto), Nicholas Pritchard…

Lebrecht Weekly – Schoenberg and Shostakovich (CSO.Resound)

By Norman Lebrecht on 4 November 2016 Choral, Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly

Two composers in despair, reaching deep into their souls. Arnold Schoenberg, a penniless refugee in Los Angeles in 1938, was commissioned by a liberal temple to make a modern version of the Yom Kippur introductory prayer. Dmitri Shostakovich, dying of lung cancer in 1974, wrote a song cycle for bass singer and piano from Michelangelo’s battle between public expectation and personal need. Together, the two works contains some of the darkest moments known to music. Schoenberg, unexpectedly, delivers confidence, hope and consolation. Without yielding to the temptations of simple faith or melody, he conjures serenity out of musical austerity by…

Joshua Bell, Photo: Eric Kabik

Ottawa Previews: October 2016

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 October 2016 Choral, La Scena Spotlight, Orchestral, Piano, Romantic, Violin

NACO Opening The NAC Orchestra opens its 2016–17 season in the newly renovated Southam Hall with a very busy October, including several soloists not to be missed. On October 6 and 7, virtuoso Joshua Bell performs the Brahms Violin Concerto in a program that includes Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra. Music Director Alexander Shelley conducts after his 7PM pre-concert talk with music journalist Jean-Jacques Van Vlasselaer (Oct. 6 & 7, 8PM, NAC Southam Hall). www.nac-cna.ca Schumann and the Songwriters Angela Hewitt joins Shelley and the NACO for an evening of early Schumann and Beethoven for the first performance in the…

Brian Current

Brian Current: The Keys to Creativity

By Caroline Rodgers on 1 October 2016 Canadian Music, Choral, Contemporary, Interviews, La Scena Spotlight, Orchestral

This month, Brian Current will experience something many composers would envy: the premiere and recording of one of his major works by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. The $50,000 Azrieli Prize enabled him to compose The Seven Heavenly Halls for solo tenor, choir and orchestra. The composer talked to La Scena Musicale about this work and his career. Like many musicians, Brian Current first learned piano as a child. “I was lucky my parents were so persistent and constantly got me to practice, even when I didn’t want to,” he says. “My parents weren’t musicians by profession, but they sang in…

Jordan de Souza

La Rentrée Musicale: Vocal & Opera

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 September 2016 Art Song, Choral, La Scena Spotlight, Opera

Opera Montreal’s opera season begins with the Opéra de Montréal’s Aida on September 17. Running until the 24, the show features Kamen Chanev (Radames), Olesya Petrova (Amneris), Gregory Dahl (Amonasro), Phillipe Ens (Ramfis), Anatoli Sivko (The King of Egypt), with Russian soprano Anna Markarova in the title role. Paul Nadler conducts. The November production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni features the return of Canadian bass-baritone Gordon Bintner to the Opéra de Montréal stage as the philandering anti-hero. Includes an all-Canadian cast of Daniel Okulitch (Leporello), Emily Dorn (Donna Anna), Jean-Michel Richer (Don Ottavio), Layla Claire (Donna Elvira), as well as up-and-coming…

Aleksey Bogdanov (Baron Scarpia), Tosca, Opera North, Photo: Lisa Morrison

Review: Putting Puccini in His Place

By Charles Geyer on 19 August 2016 Art Song, Choral, Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Opera, Orchestral, Romantic

CONCERTS: Puccini “Beyond Verismo” at Bard SummerScape 2016 OPERA: Tosca at Opera North Puccini qua, Puccini là! Arguably the most popular and successful opera composer in history has been enjoying his typical ubiquity this summer, as a single weekend’s sampling around the Northeast United States will demonstrate. Friday, August 12 saw the closing performance of the maestro’s Tosca as rendered by Opera North (Lebanon, New Hampshire) in a taut, handsome production. And at Bard College’s final weekend of SummerScape 2016 (Dutchess County, New York), three full days of programming (August 12 through 14) were dedicated to winding up an exploration of…

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