This week everyone tries to get in the last of their pre-Christmas concerts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, underlining the occasional futility of this critic’s picks list and the overabundance of musical choices in Toronto:
WEDNESDAY
- Montreal Symphony Orchestra at Roy Thomson Hall, 8:30 p.m.
Montreal Symphony Orchestra music director Kent Nagano is typically more ice than fire on the podium, which may be fine for a programme that includes Joseph Haydn’s “Surprise” Symphony (the surprise is one of Haydn’s jokes, designed to wake up slumbering listeners) and Igor Stravinsky’s great ballet suite, The Rite of Spring, which turns 100 next May. Note the late start time. You’ll find all the details here.
THURSDAY
- Faculty recital in honour of St Cecilia’s Day at Walter Hall. 12:10 p.m. Free.
Soprano Lorna MacDonald, flutist Susan Hoeppner, clarinettist Peter Stoll and pianist Steven Philcox celebrate music in a rich programme that includes art songs by underappreciated 19th century German composer Franz Lachner as well as Newfoundland folksongs and more contemporary pieces by Albert Roussel and Toronto composer John Beckwith. All the details are here.
FRIDAY
- Swedish master organist Hans-Ola Ericsson at the Church of the Holy Trinity, 7:30 p.m.
It would be great to know what McGill University’s new star organ pedagogue will perform at his recital here. But if you’re willing to take a bit of Friday-evening pot luck, this master should reward with some spectacular musicmaking. He returns on Saturday at 10 a.m. to give master classes at the acoustically gracious church behind the Eaton Centre. For more details, such as they are, click here.
Here is Ericsson playing the fifth movement of Olivier Messiaen’s Les Corps glorieux at Lulea Cathedral in Sweden:
- The Taiwan National Choir conducted by Ages Grossmann at Koerner Hall, 8 p.m.
This promises to be a fine voyage into the heart of Germanic 19th century choral classics. I’ll have more on this concert later this week. You’ll find all the details here.
SATURDAY & SUNDAY
- Pianist Alexandre Tharaud joins the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. 8 p.m. at Roy Thomson Hall on Sat. and 3 p.m. at George Weston Hall on Sun.
Tharaud, who has built an enviable reputation for his interpretations of Chopin and great French composers, has just released something very different in Le Boeuf sur le toit, a disc of cabaret music from 1920s Paris that includes an unexpected cameo by opera star Natalie Dessay. Tharaud lovingly assembled the programme and crafted many of the transcriptions himself. (Album details here.)
So, shake yourself a gin fizz and enjoy this little tango, performed by Tharaud last month at Le Poisson Rouge:
SUNDAY
- Brian Current conducts his opera Airline Icarus, in concert at Mazzoleni Hall, 2 p.m.
Toronto composer Brian Current has invited the wonderful soprano Carla Huhtanen to join a small group of soloists and a chamber orchestra in the Canadian premiere of his chamber opera, Airline Icarus.
Current has more than a decade-long history as an inventive composer. Airline Icarus is a great effort, combining emotional punch as well as entrancing atmosphere. The libretto is by Anton Piatigorsky. It had its premiere in New York City five years ago. It won Italy’s Fedora prize for chamber opera last year. And now, we finally get to hear the work in its hometown.
You’ll find the details here.
Here is the Italian performance:
- Pianist Piotr Anderszewski plays Bach at Koerner Hall, 3 p.m.
It’s not just any Bach, but Bach at his most lyrical — two English and one French Suite plus the Italian Concerto — from the great Piotr Anderszewski. I hope to have more to write about this later in the week. For recital details, click here.
John Terauds