Most prominent on the week’s calendar is a rich sampling of student work — in solos and many different kinds of ensembles — from University of Toronto (at the school as well as in the free Canadian Opera Company concerts at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre), York University, the Royal Conservatory of Music’s student opera production of Francesco Cavalli’s La Calisto, and the Associates of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, in the form of ensembles from the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra. (Click on the links for more details.)
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
- Wednesday’s highlight is pianist Alexander Seredenko, who gives free solo recital at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, at the Four Seasons Centre, at noon.
Seredenko, a student of James Anagnoson at the Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould Professional School, has been showing well in competitions recently, and last week made it into the quarter finals of the highly respected, Calgary-based Honens International Piano Competition.
He presents a classic recital programme anchored on Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Also on the bill are a Scarlatti sonata, a Chopin Ballade and Memoriam for the Victims of Chernobyl, by Larysa Kuzmenko.
Here is a sample of Seredenko at play:
THURSDAY
- Violinist Véronique Mathieu and pianist Stephanie Chua at the Jane Mallett Theatre, 8 p.m.
Music Toronto’s Discovery recital series is a fine way to sample emerging talents for an inviting $21.50. In this instance, two talented young Canadian musicians, both with Glenn Gould School connections, have prepared a programme of pieces old and new exclusively by female composers.
The 19th and early-20th centuries are represented by Clara Schumann (Three Romances, Op. 22), Louise Farrenc’s Sonata No. 2 and Three Pieces for Violin and Piano, by Lili Boulanger.
Contemporary music gets its due from Kaija Saariaho’s 1991 violin-and-tape piece, … de la terre, and two Canadian works, an Adagio by Heather Schmidt and Chant, by Ana Sokolovic.
French-born Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) was a solo piano star as well as a composer at a time when women didn’t do that sort of thing. She was also the first woman hired to teach at the Conservatoire in Paris. All the music I’ve heard of hers is beautifully structured.
Here’s an example, a movement from her Piano Trio No. 1:
And here are Shunske and Takashi Sato playing “Nocturne” by Lili Boulanger:
FRIDAY
- Pianist Soyeon Lee, at the Aurora Cultural Centre, Aurora, 8 p.m.
After kicking off its new solo-piano recital series with André Laplante last month, this heritage venue north of Toronto invites Soyeon Lee, a pianist who has been earning a lot of respect and affection, although she is still, technically a (doctoral) student in New York City.
Lee is a highly expressive pianist with a fleet, velvety touch. I don’t have the programme details, but the composers listed are Bartók, Schumann, Liszt and Albéniz.
For more information, click here.
If you need an introduction to Lee, here she is playing Bach, followed by a goosebump-inducing performance of César Franck’s fearsome piano version of Prélude, Choral et Fugue:
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY
- Toronto Consort presents A Musical Bestiary at Trinity-St. Paul’s Church, 8 p.m.
One of the busiest musicians in town, period recorder and flute master Alison Melville has put together a musical tribute to animals and mythical beasts drawn mainly from the Renaissance for her longstanding musical partners, the always fine Toronto Consort.
There are specially discounted tickets for children. For more information, click here.
The Consort’s programme includes Le chant des oyseaux, by Nicolas Gombert. Here is a setting by a peer, Clément Janequin, sung by Poland’s excellent Ensemble Octava:
SUNDAY
- Tapestry New Opera Showcase, Ernest Balmer Studio, Bldg. 58, Distillery District, 7 p.m.
Mezzo soprano Krisztina Szabó and baritone Peter McGillivray are among the strong vocal talents presenting four new operas conceived and nurtured under the auspices of Tapestry New Opera Works’ fruitful composer-librettist operatic dating service.
This year, two of the works are sneak previews of planned premieres outside Toronto.
Shelter, a nuclear-themed story by always-inventive composer Juliet Palmer and librettist Julie Salverson, will have its official world premiere at Edmonton Opera next fall, under the auspices of University of Alberta’s Festival of Ideas (it is joined on the Edmonton bill by another Toronto-originated work, Svadba – Wedding, by Ana Sokolovic, premiered last season by Queen of Puddings Music Theatre)
M’Dea Undone, a contemporary retelling of Medea by Marjorie Chan and composer John Harris, is getting an eventual premiere by Scottish National Opera.
For all the details, click here.
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
