The season is in full post-New Year swing. Here is a concert a day worth finding time for. I’ve mixed paid with free, evening as well as midday.
John Terauds
MONDAY
- The Gryphon Trio plays new music at Walter Hall, 7:30 pm
All three members of the Gryphon Trio teach at University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music, and are adding this contribution to the Faculty’s annual festival of new music (Jan. 22 to Feb. 5).
Monday night’s programme includes pieces by this year’s resident composer, Sweden’s Anders Hillborg, as well as Toronto veteran Alexina Louie. The trio also premieres new works by Torontonian Brian Current as well as American Dan Visconti.
More info and tickets here.
Here is “Lontana in Sono,” a nice piece of Hillborg’s from close to 10 years ago, performed by Anna Sofie von Otter and the Gothenburg Sympony, with Kent Nagano conducting. The sustained ethereal drone in the background is a glass harmonica:
- 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
TUESDAY
- Andrew Adair plays works of J.S. Bach at St. James Cathedral, 1 pm
While Toronto’s Anglican cathedral looks for a new director of music, young U of T grad Andrew Adair has been filling in in a variety of musical roles, including being a regular presence in the church’s various concert series.
Today, Adair continues on his quest to perform all of Bach’s works for organ in public.
Free (donations encouraged).
WEDNESDAY
- Toronto Symphony Orchestra with guest conductor James Gaffigan at Roy Thomson Hall, 8 pm
Well-liked 32-year-old American conductor James Gaffigan heads up an unorthodox mix of pieces. Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn goes well with Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto, featuring TSO principal trumpet Andrew McCandless. But these two standbys are programmed with Béla Bartók’s sweat-inducing suite from the ballet The Miraculous Mandarin. Talk about contrasts.
The programme repeats Saturday. Thursday’s variation is a Keeping Score presentation of the Bartók piece.
Tickets and info here.
THURSDAY
- Pianist Alejandro Vela performs solo at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, noon
Today’s programme focuses on virtuosic showpieces: Robert Schumann’s Symphonic Études, Op. 13, John Corigliano’s Etude Fantasy and études by Sergei Rachmaninov (Op. 33, No. 6), Manuel Ponce (“Hacia la Cima”), Gyorgi Ligeti (“Automne à Varsovie”) and Nikolai Kapustin (Op. 40, No. 8).
At the Four Seasons Centre. Free.
Here’s a taste of Vela serving up a piece of schmaltz by Ponce at Classical 96 FM last spring:
FRIDAY
- Tenor Charles Daniels sings Renaissance lute songs at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre, 8 pm
The Toronto Consort hosts English tenor Charles Daniels and lutenist David Miller in a concert of songs by Renaissance omposers Thomas Morley, John Danyels, Thomas Campian and Etienne Moulinié. Daniels, a longtime favourite guest of Tafelmusik and the Consort, is a master of the sensitive expression these songs need.
Tickets and info here.
SATURDAY
- Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham in recital at Koerner Hall, 8 pm
This American vocal magician is as magnetic in solo recital as she is on the opera stage. Recently in Toronto for the Canadian Opera Company’s Iphigénie en Tauride, Graham returns for a solo art-song and Broadway programme, accompanied by pianist Malcolm Martineau.
Tickets and info here.
Here, Graham sings “L’Heure exquise,” by Reynaldo Hahn:
SUNDAY
- Amici Chamber Ensemble, with designer Rosemarie Umetsu at the Glenn Gould Studio, 3 pm
This flexible group of top-level Toronto professionals and guests — including powerhouse violinist Lara St. John — continues its season with a twist by pairing great music with high fashion, as filtered through the palette of designer Rosemarie Umestu.
Tickets and info here.
The programme includes one of my desert-island pieces: The Concert in D Major by French composer Ernest Chausson. Here is the “Sicilienne” movement, featuring the Avalon Quartet, violinist Rachel Barton Pine and pianist Matthew Hagle:
http://youtu.be/tGzl1JfTbPM
- 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
