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Concert review: Montreal's Ensemble Paramirabo liven Heliconian Hall with sounds of Toy Piano Composers

By Margaret Lam on March 24, 2013

Ensemble Paramirabo
Ensemble Paramirabo

Saturday’s “Threshold/Le seuil” concert at the Heliconian Hall was a match made in heaven between Toronto’s emerging Toy Piano Composers collective and the Montreal-based Ensemble Paramirabo, both committed to new music by Canadian composers.

The idea for Ensemble Paramirabo to take the works by Toy Piano Composers on tour after a February residency in Banff came from a conversation between Paramirabo artistic director Jeffrey Stonehouse and Toy Piano Composer Chris Thornborrow after the latter’s doctoral recital at the University of Toronto.

“Threshold/Le Seuil” — featuring Geneviève Liboiron on violin, Octavie Dostaler-Lalonde on cello, Gabrielle Gingras on toy piano, François Gagné on clarinet and Stonehouse on flute — had already been heard in Banff, Regina and Hamilton before Saturday night’s Toronto concert.

Ensemble Paramirabo also prepared another programme entitled “Folklore, Myth and legend,” which went to Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina before being heard in Toronto this past Wednesday at Gallery 345.

Wednesday’s concert included a chamber-ensemble arrangement by TSO affiliate composer Kevin Lau  of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.

Such an intensive and elaborate tour is impressive considering Ensemble Paramirabo is only in its second season, and it speaks to the abilities of each performer both on and off the stage.

Much of the music by the Toy Piano Composers in Saturday’s programme spoke for itself, thanks to Ensemble Paramirabo’s engaged and committed performances. Even without the TPC’s lively spoken introductions, much of what the pieces intended to convey came through clearly.

Correia’s film score-like Phases opened the programme. It is a flowing, meditative piece filled with deceptively simple musical lines that aptly conjured images of people moving through phases of their lives.

Ryan’s Portal featured duets between violin and viola as well as clarinet and flute. It highlighted each of Ensemble Paramirabo’s individual players while also showing off how they play together as one.

Pearce’s Connotations established a musical idea, then expressed contrasting shifts on it. Tam’s Envoi used the performers’ physical movements to create a Zen-like musical experience.

Denberg’s energetic Rondo was the most abstract with almost jarring contrasting materials. Thornborrow’s  This Changing View depicted the passage of time by contrasting rapid urban development against a relatively static natural landscape, but the piece begged for more of the urban sonic cues.

Each piece showed a different approach to incorporating the sonority and texture of the toy piano in a chamber ensemble. Having been to a few Toy Piano Composers concerts, it is fascinating to hear how the music of each composer has matured and what threads carry through each new work.

Hearing Ensemble Paramirabo for the first time, their level of musicianship is top notch, but what makes them special is a devotion and commitment to new works, which they clearly love.

“Threshold/Le seuil” marked the end of Toy Piano Composers’ fourth concert season, and the last stop of Ensemble Paramirabo’s Canadian tour before a return home for a final concert in Montreal on Monday.

Both groups have embarked on a path of cultivating a vibrant space for Canadian composers and engaging contemporary audiences. Let’s keep our eyes peeled for more of these collaborations that serve to further music as a living and relevant art.

Margaret Lam
You can find out more about Margaret Lam at margism.com

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