MONDAY
- Continuum Contemporary Music at the Music Gallery, 8 p.m.
Taking advantage of its strong links with new music presenters in Holland, Continuum opens its season with the world premiere of a fascinating-sounding work of music theatre by Dutch composer Martijn Voorvelt centred around Sir Morell MacKenzie and his laryngeal ministrations to a dying German Emperor Frederick III. Also on the programme is a witty piece by Vancouver composer Christopher Butterfield and the premiere of a newly commissioned work from Linda Catlin Smith. Brian Current conducts. Mezzo Marion Newman and tenor Christopher Mayell are the vocal guests. Find all the details here.
TUESDAY
- Musicians from Marlboro at Mazzoleni Hall, 7:30 p.m.
Seven members of the touring ensemble of excellent chamber players representing the summertime musical riches of the Marlboro Festival in Vermont perform a recital that includes a string quartet by Joseph Haydn, the String Quintet No. 1 by Felix Mendelssohn and the Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano by György Ligeti. Details here.
THURSDAY
- Members of the COC Orchestra at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, noon. Free.
The gorgeous Sextet from Richard Strauss’s opera Capriccio and Arnold Schoenberg’s entrancing Verklärte Nacht are performed by Canadian Opera Company Orchestra members: violinists Aya Miyagawa and Bethany Bergman, violinists Joshua Greenlaw and Yosef Tamir and cellists Alastair Eng and Olga Laktionova. Details here.
- Rob Kapilow on Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony with the TSO at Roy Thomson Hall, 7:30 p.m.
American musician and musicologist Rob Kapilow has perfected the art of the entertaining concert-lecture. This one, focused on Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 — the “Jupiter” — presents the music in its historical context and outlines the specific things in the score that make it so interesting to listen to. The second half of the programme consists of an uninterrupted performance of the whole work by the Toronto Symphony. Details here.
FRIDAY
- Valery Gergiev and the Stradivarius Ensemble at Koerner Hall, 8 p.m.
Even at prices much higher than it usually charges for its concerts, there is only a handful of seats left for Mariinsky superstars, conductor Valery Gergiev and his Old Master stringed instrument-playing Stradivarius Ensemble as they make their Koerner Hall début in a programme that includes Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen. Details here.
- Phantoms of the Organ Hallowe’en concert at Metropolitan United Church, 10 p.m.
Co-sponsored by the home of Canada’s largest church pipe organ and the Toronto chapter of the Royal Canadian College of Organists, this spooky, late-night programme mixes popular favourites from The Phantom of the Opera and Ghostbusters with classics, such as J.S. Bach’s hair-raising Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Visitors are encouraged to come in costume. Details here.
SATURDAY
- Opera Atelier presents Der Freischütz at the Elgin Theatre, 7:30 p.m.
Opera Atelier begins its Baroque opera-free new season with an 1821 work rarely seen in Toronto by German opera pioneer Carl Maria von Weber. Tafelmusik and conductor David Fallis support a fantastic singing cast led by Croatian tenor Kresimir Spicer. The Artists of the Atelier Ballet will be there, too. Marshall Pynkoski directs. The short run continues to Nov. 3. Details here.
- Amadeus Choir sings Rachmaninov’s Vespers at Yorkminster Park Baptist Church, 8 p.m.
Sergei Rachmaninov’s Russian All-Night Vigil, sung unaccompanied, is one of those long, mesmerizing choral works that has the power to leave a listener transformed. This is the right venue, with an excellent choir, led by the always-reliable Lydia Adams. And don’t worry, its 15 movements, written in 1915 yet every bit as timeless as the gilded interior of a Russian Orthodox church, do not last all night. You’ll find the details here.
Here’s a very nice Dutch performance from early 2011 of the whole work by the Groot Omroepkoor under conductor Sigvards Klava:
SUNDAY
- Baritone Philip Addis at the Glenn Gould Studio, 2 p.m.
Before going off to Pacific Opera Victoria in the new year to sing Sid in Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring and then to France for the staged premiere of an operatic Importance of Being Earnest, baritone Phillip Addis (now comfortably ensconced in Stratford) kicks off Roy Thomson Hall’s Canadian Voices recital series with pianist Emily Hamper. You can find all the concert details — except for an actual programme — here.
- New Orford String Quartet at Walter Hall (for Mooredale Concerts), 3:15 p.m.
The wonderful New Orford String Quartet — Toronto symphony concertmaster Jonathan Crow, associate principal viola Eric Nowlin and Montreal Symphony concertmaster Andrew Wan and principal cello Brian Manker — present quartets by Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven and late Montreal composer Jacques Hétu for Mooredale Concerts. Details here.
CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY
There are only three performances left of Il Trovatore (Oct. 25, 28 & 31) at the Four Seasons Centre. The strength of the singing and orchestra make this a great way to enjoy one of Verdi’s most popular operas. Details here.
John Terauds
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