Jeanne Lamon’s final season as Tafelmusik music director includes not only a fine slate of local concerts, but continued expansion of the orchestra’s already ambitious touring and educational projects.
- 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
The start of the 2013-14 season will be a bittersweet one for the orchestra as well as audiences, as Jeanne Lamon says goodbye after leading concerts from the concertmaster’s chair for 33 years, an incredible length of time by any measure (Lamon will not disappear, but stay on as music director emerita).
The opening of the season also marks the completion of substantial acoustic and seating improvements to Trinity-St Paul’s Church, Tafelmusik’s home.
To make sure contractors have enough time to finish up work at the church, the Tafelmusik season opens with Beethoven’s First and Second Symphonies at Koerner Hall under conductor Bruno Weill, starting Sept. 19.
Because these performances are part of Tafelmusik’s ongoing Beethoven cycle, the Koerner Hall performances are meant to be recorded for release on the orchestra’s in-house label.
There are two more visits to Koerner Hall during the 2013-14 season: the annual Messiah features the return of a star from Tafelmusik’s early years, British soprano Emma Kirkby; and there are performances of Handel’s oratorio Saul in February, both under conductor Ivars Taurins and including the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir.
At Trinity-St Paul’s, Tafelmusik is reviving an early multimedia shows masterminded by bassist Alison Mackay, The Four Seasons: A Cycle of the Sun, in March, 2014.
The first concert in the newly renovated space in early October will be led by guest violinist Manfredo Kraemer in a programme of baroque-era treats from Salzburg and Vienna. A much loved guest leader, violinist Stefano Montanari, returns in late March, 2014, for a programme modelled on an 18th century Parisian Concert spirituel.
Soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian, missing for too long from Tafelmusik’s programming, returns as a solo guest in April, 2014, for a set of baroque opera arias. Other great singers include soprano Suzie LeBlanc, who is joined by tenor Charles Daniels in a programme that also includes the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir under Taurins in early November.
A significant début with the orchestra is the amazing South African-born fortepiano specialist Kristian Bezuidenhout, who will direct the orchestra from his instrument in a programme that includes two Mozart piano concertos in early December.
Lamon leads a small-scale Bach programme at Trinity-St Paul’s in late January, 2014, that should include a newly commissioned piece by baroque flutist Grégoire Jeay. The season ends in May, 2014, with a programme celebrating Lamon’s 33 years.
Other significant seasonal news concerns out-of-town trips like the orchestra’s first residency at BachFest in Leipzig, which includes a concert in Bach’s Thomaskirche in June, 2014.
The orchestra returns to Stratford Summer Music to present more Bach cantatas in August of this year. It has also been invited back for a Carnegie Hall concert in March, 2014, and will tour Japan and South Korea with The Galileo Project multimedia show.
The Asian visit also works as a launch pad for the organization’s latest educational project, the Tafelmusik International Baroque Academy, where orchestra musicians can share their skills and insights while on tour.
The planned releases on the Tafelmusik Media label include Beethoven’s first four symphonies and the orchestra’s third and most recent multimedia show, House of Dreams.
The full details of all the orchestra’s activities can be found 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
