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Wedding season warning: Just because they say they’re an organist and God is supposed to be in the room…

By John Terauds On May 25, 2013 · Add Comment
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When the person who is about to X-ray my back says they’re a radiologist, I want that to be true. But what about all the people who call themselves organists? There is no guarantee they actually know how to do the job.
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Observation: Familiarity breeds content and finer performances in new music and old

By John Terauds On May 25, 2013 · 1 Comment
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(Robert Weber cartoon from The New Yorker.)
Earlier this week at a social event, I chatted with a composer-interpreter couple. The performer’s ensemble has a new piece by the composer in its everyday concert repertoire this season, and they both observed how frequent repetition has benefited everyone — including the piece itself.
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Concert review: Toronto Consort’s tribute to women’s voices greater than sum of interesting parts

By John Terauds On May 24, 2013 · Add Comment
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Members of the Toronto Consort present A Woman's Life on Friday night at Trinity-St Paul's Centre (John Terauds phone photo).
Some history, colourful anecdotes, a few tears and a handful of smiles added to an evening of fine musicmaking seems like a simple enough recipe. But it’s rare to see all of these elements come together as nicely as they did for the first night of Toronto Consort’s season-closing programme on Friday.
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Saturday: Organized Crime plays serious organ music for laughs at Metropolitan United

By John Terauds On May 24, 2013 · Add Comment
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Sarah Svenden, left, and Rachel Mahon in the ball gowns they use while playing organ together (Adrian Bexall photo).
Sarah Svendsen and Rachel Mahon are not stand-up comedians; they’re sit-down comedians with very busy arms and feet. And their straight man is the venerable pipe organ, an instrument that has been spending less and less time in the concert limelight in recent decades.
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Gustavo Dudamel and Valery Gergiev bring orchestras to Roy Thomson Hall for 2013-14 season

By John Terauds On May 23, 2013 · Add Comment
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Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic come to Roy Thomson Hall on Mar. 19.
Roy Thomson Hall today added a hefty dose of orchestral spice to the 2013-14 season by announcing that both Valery Gergiev and his Mariinsky Orchestra and Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic will visit.
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Preview: Alison Mackay and Toronto Consort reach back in time with women’s voices in music

By John Terauds On May 23, 2013 · Add Comment
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An illumination of writer Catherine de Pizan handing over a copy of one of her books to the Queen of France 600 years ago.
Tafelmusik double-bassist Alison Mackay has demonstrated her remarkable multimedia musical storytelling skills in House of Dreams and the Galileo Project. Now she lends her talent to Toronto Consort’s season-ending concerts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Trinity-St Paul’s Centre.
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Concert review: Toronto Symphony Orchestra fails to transcend minutiae in Brahms German Requiem

By John Terauds On May 22, 2013 · 3 Comments
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The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Mendelssohn Choir, soloists and music director Peter OUndjian at Roy Thomson Hall on Wednesday night (Dale Wilcox photo).
The world is awash in great recordings, so it’s easy to think that musical masterpieces are bulletproof — until one hears a less than endearing interpretation. As the Toronto Symphony Orchestra demonstrated on Wednesday night, technical prowess does not begin to tell the story.
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Lessons of historical performance: The future of old music should not look or sound like the past

By John Terauds On May 22, 2013 · Add Comment
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A scene from a powerful staging of Vivaldi's Montezuma by Stefano Vizioli in Ferrara five years ago (Marco Caselli Nirmal photo).
A month ahead of the annual Montreal Baroque Festival, Ensemble Caprice music director Matthias Maute has written a fascinating perspective on the period performance movement for Early Music America.
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Richard Wagner at 200: British Library puts manuscripts online and Operaplot issues Twitter challenge

By John Terauds On May 22, 2013 · Add Comment
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The world’s classical radio stations and websites have special Richard Wagner features today to mark the 200th anniversary of the German composer’s birth. More importantly, the British Library this morning posted a wealth of the composer’s manuscripts on its digital access site.
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Album review: Violinist James Ehnes aces moody Britten and Shostakovich concertos

By John Terauds On May 21, 2013 · Add Comment
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I never cease to listen in awe at the supernatural control violinist James Ehnes has over his bow. His latest album, featuring the Benjamin Britten and Dmitri Shostakovich concertos with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra may not be easy listening, but it commands instant and total respect.
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    • Wedding season warning: Just because they say they’re an organist and God is supposed to be in the room…
    • Observation: Familiarity breeds content and finer performances in new music and old
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    • Saturday: Organized Crime plays serious organ music for laughs at Metropolitan United
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  • Wedding season warning: Just because they say they're an organist and God is supposed to be in the room...
  • Observation: Familiarity breeds content and finer performances in new music and old
  • Concert review: Toronto Consort's tribute to women's voices greater than sum of interesting parts
  • Saturday: Organized Crime plays serious organ music for laughs at Metropolitan United
  • Gustavo Dudamel and Valery Gergiev bring orchestras to Roy Thomson Hall for 2013-14 season
  • Preview: Alison Mackay and Toronto Consort reach back in time with women's voices in music
  • Concert review: Toronto Symphony Orchestra fails to transcend minutiae in Brahms German Requiem
  • Lessons of historical performance: The future of old music should not look or sound like the past
  • Richard Wagner at 200: British Library puts manuscripts online and Operaplot issues Twitter challenge
  • Album review: Violinist James Ehnes aces moody Britten and Shostakovich concertos
  • How come classical audiences don't get to take home a piece of what they experienced?
  • Critic's picks: Toronto concerts for May 21 to 26
  • Fine Eurocentric watching and listening for a holiday-weekend Sunday
  • Interview: Organist Karen Christianson makes pre-high school grad recital visit to Toronto
  • Get them while they're young works for music as well as addictions and gangs
  • Keyboard Thursday album review: Conrad Tao treats Getty miniatures with large-scale care
  • Keyboard Thursday album review: Nothing exceeds like Christopher O'Riley's Liszt excess
  • Belgian Marc Bouchkov takes first prize at Montreal International Violin Competition
  • Concert review: A night of fine Russian chemistry from Toronto Symphony and Kirill Gerstein
  • Tomorrow: A sneak peek at opera Figaro daringly reimagined for 21st century Toronto
  • Concert review: A satisfying meeting of East and West in Soundstreams' Music for China
  • Opera review: Composer Andrew Ager's quicksilver take on mercenary Henry James characters
  • Preview: Toronto Mendelssohn Choir wrestles with the beast that is Beethoven's Missa Solemnis
  • Album review: Bach Cello Suites change character but lose no magic with Hopkinson Smith's theorbo
  • Interview: For Soundstreams conductor Leslie Dala, discovery is what engages him with music
  • Tonight: Toronto's newest classical orchestra part of Lulaworld 2013 festival
  • Critic’s picks: Toronto concerts and opera May 13 to 19
  • We worry too much about liking classical music
  • No Canadian among six Montreal International Violin Competition finalists
  • Careers in classical music: The crazy tightrope between encouragement and reality
  • National Youth Orchestra of Canada musicians India-bound for two-weeks of learning and collaboration
  • Opera review: Lesson of Da Ji well taught by Toronto Masque Theatre
  • Photos: Hip 21st century Toronto coffee house meets J.S. Bach
  • Markham Theatre's classical programming for 2013-14 season includes Royal Moscow Ballet and Measha Brueggergosman
  • Tonight: A real slice of 18th century salon life with the Eybler Quartet and R.H. Thomson
  • Today: Canadian violinist Nikki Chooi makes semi-finals at Montreal International Musical Competition
  • Keyboard Thursday album review: Garrick Ohlsson convincingly presents merits of composer Charles Griffes
  • Keyboard Thursday album review: 150 minutes of strong, seductive Chopin from Vassily Primakov
  • Informal Toronto memorial for ex-Tafelmusik oboist Washington McClain set for May 31
  • Opera review: The deep, dark seductions of Canadian Opera Company's Dialogues des carmélites
  • Video: Wrecking pianos to sell luxury cars. Really?
  • Preview: Toronto Masque Theatre Lessons of Love are Chinese and Roman, new and old
  • In his own words: Pianist Ryan MacEvoy McCullough on crafting concert vs flight of beer
  • Album review: Angela Hewitt prefers her Mozart like your skin -- clear and flawless
  • Judith Forst leads a female cast of can-do Canadians in COC production of Dialogues des carmélites
  • Critic's picks: Toronto concerts and opera May 6 to 12
  • Amici Chamber Ensemble four-concert 2013-14 season includes visit from Lara St. John
  • The Star's Greg Quill was an example of how practical insight is essential in a good critic
  • From parsnip oboes to a room-turned-walk-through lute, Musicworks lives on the edge
  • Concert appreciation: Childlike magic from Peter and the Dinosaurs
  • Beware the subversive power of the church organist, says new British survey
  • Opera on DVD: Benjamin Britten's art and preoccuppations distilled to their essence in Owen Wingrave
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  • Album review: Fine Common Ground under pianist Christ Donnelly and clarinettist Kornel Wolak
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  • Concert review: James Ehnes and Russell Braun made fine 115th birthday present for Women's Musical Club of Toronto
  • Keyboard Thursday album review: Christophe Rousset's flexibly expressive harpsichord makes magic of Jacques Duphly
  • Keyboard Thursday album review: The spectacular sound of Regensburg's Pope Benedict organ
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