The spirit of creating lists and my favourite performances of 2011 converged on this funny update on “I’ve got a little list” from Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado (from the Last Night of the Proms in 2004 — the conductor is Leonard Slatkin. Note that it’s only applause after the song).
Now, seriously, folks…
I don’t care if I’m watching a sitcom, a film, a play, an opera or sitting at a concert. What I care about is being led on a journey so compelling that it excludes any other thought or distraction during that span of time.
Technique and a basic outline of the contours are givens.
In a time when we soak in recorded music from dawn to dusk, the performer needs to slap us in the face and remind us that THIS is why nothing can replace a live concert.
I sat in on at least four-dozen truly great concert and opera performances in 2011, but some are more special than others:
DAZZLING SOLOISTS
The classical nod goes to Thomas Allen, whose remarkable July 26 performance at Koerner Hall for the Toronto Summer Music Festival is one I’ll cherish for a long time.
I wrote in the Toronto Star:
Allen, who is 66, is no longer at the peak of his vocal powers. His rich, honeyed baritone is a bit frayed at the edges. But his command of the craft is so powerful, and his personal charm so present, that instead of getting in the way of the music, the occasional scratchy note merely served to intensify the experience.
I covered some performances at the Toronto International Jazz Festival, which exposed me to remarkable globetrotting pianist Jackie Terrasson at the Glenn Gould Studio on June 26.
He rocked my world:
Besides showing off incendiary technique both on the keys and inside the guts of the piano itself, Terrasson wasn’t shy about making us smile.
You have to love a guy who can craft a solo symphony out of the theme from the Harry Potter movies, Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” and vintage schlock-pop song “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” – and then end his concert with “Just a Gigolo.”
Despite the material, there wasn’t even the thinnest slice of cheese in Terrasson’s music as he wove a mesmerizing spell from melodic licks landing and taking off on unfamiliar harmonic terrain.
Terrasson often seemed oblivious to whether his right hand knew what the heck his left was doing. But, of course, he was in full control of every detail.
Lifetimes of memories are made up of music that packs this much emotional and intellectual punch.
Check this guy out:
MAGICAL COLLABORATIONS
The Royal Conservatory of Music’s ARC Ensemble, a semi-flexible chamber group made up of the school’s finest teachers, has been making a name for itself with an ongoing series of recordings and tours of music and composers from the 19th and early 20th centuries who have fallen into obscurity.
But it’s rare to hear them together at home, which made the two concerts I attended at Koerner Hall particularly happy occasions. Both left me dazzled by the depth of musicianship. The first was with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, on April 26. The second was with baritone Russell Braun and members of Smithsonian Players, Oct 22 in an all-Mahler program.
Braun deserves an additional bouquet for a gorgeous rendition of Franz Schubert’s Winterreise Cycle with Pentaèdre, at Walter Hall, for the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto, on April 14.
All were total-immersion experiences.
Here are two members members of the ARC Ensemble, pianist David Louie and violinist Benjamin Bowman (who is also National Ballet Orchestra concertmaster and assistant concertmaster with the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra) performing a recently discovered D minor Violin movement by Felix Mendelssohn. The score was reconstructed by Louie:
A ‘PROUD TO BE A TORONTONIAN’ MOMENT
Aside from cringing at the antics of the two brothers in charge of our burg, I’m proud to be a Torontonian. (I think Sarnia or Sault-Ste Marie would be better suited to a Ford Weltanschauung.)
I felt a hot surge of pride as I sat in Carnegie Hall for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s concert under music director Peter Oundjian, on March 26.
As a pride and reality check, I had invited a Russian-born professional pianist who has been around the block a couple of times, and clearly thought she had better ways to spend a free Saturday night in Manhattan, a city she had only recently moved to.
I was transfixed. And my companion was transformed, suddenly becoming a lot more interested in what other treats Toronto might have in store.
Here’s a snippet from my Star review:
Realizing that here was Toronto sitting on one of the most storied musical stages in the world made the opening notes of the first piece, Benjamin Britten’s 1945 Sea Interludes suite from the opera Peter Grimes, especially tense.
Britten sets out a series of angry little figures for the violins that, like every note in the rest of the suite, leaves every musician fully exposed. Each violin needs to come in at exactly the right split-second. It’s enough to make a musician’s palms sweat.
For the audience, the opening needs to be a short, sharp call to attention. The first movement is sweetly called Dawn, but the hoped-for quiet shimmer of a new day on the sea portends something deep, dark and menacing.
Oundjian and the orchestra captured the notes — and the mood — perfectly, leading us on to an emotionally and physically stormy musical voyage.
In less than 20 minutes, we heard an orchestra in full technical control, beautifully balanced and sounding rich and succulent in Carnegie Hall’s flattering acoustics.
Equally stunning for both its mix of technical clarity and careful artistry was a deep and affecting reading of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ bleak Symphony No. 4, which dates from 1934. This is not a piece that orchestras frequently put on their season programs, making the concert an even more valuable treat.
- 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
