MONDAY
- The music of Christos Hatzis at Walter Hall, 7 p.m.
The well-established Gryphon Trio and the upstart TorQ Percussion Quartet are but two sets of many proponents of University of Toronto composition professor Christos Hatzis’s creations.
Even more importantly, he has stimulated many creative minds, paying forward his love of music that speaks eloquently to a culturally diverse, historically eclectic culture. The Gryphons and the Penderecki String Quartet return the favour both ways, by performing works of Hatzis’, as well as premiering a new work by one of his students. You’ll find the details here.
TUESDAY
- Songs of Benjamin Britten presented by University of Toronto students at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, noon. Free.
The performers are students, but the music is by a master whose centenary we celebrate this year. This hour of music includes a wide range of Britten’s vocal settings, accompanied on the piano. You can see the full programme here.
- Duo Les Amis (violinist Lynn Kuo and pianist Marianna Humetska) at Gallery 345, 8 p.m.
These two passionate young musicians have put together a mix of serious and fun for this convivial, intimate space, including César Franck’s great A Major Sonata and a concert fantasy on George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, with detours via Nino Rota and Astor Piazzolla. You’ll find the details here.
WEDNESDAY
- Elaine Keillor launches her survey of Canadian piano music at Chalmers House, 4:30 p.m.
This veteran Ottawa-based performer and musicologist has recorded a significant survey of Canadian music for solo piano, covering the earliest colonial days to the present. Issued by the Canadian Music Centre’s Centrediscs label, the box set gets its official launch, with a short performance by Keillor in the organization’s new concert space. Details here. You can read my take on the album and its music here.
THURSDAY
- Pianist Tony Yike Yang at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, noon. Free.
This diminutive 14-year-old who has been studying with James Anagnoson at the Glenn Gould School is making his mark in junior competitions — but plays more like a grown-up. His hour-long lunchtime programme is a great way to check him out with Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin and Ginastera. You’ll find all the details here.
Here he is at the ripe age of 12 playing Beethoven’s C-minor Variations:
- Esprit Orchestra at Koerner Hall, 8 p.m.
The country’s only orchestra devoted to new music closes its 30th season with two premieres as well as some crowd-pleasing stuff, like Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze. The guest soloists are sax powerhouse Wallace Halladay and percussionist Ryan Scott. You’ll find all the details here.
FRIDAY
There are two great ways to enjoy serious reflective time in great sacred spaces:
- Two magnificent French Requiems at Metropolitan United, 7:30 p.m.
French baroque composer Jean Gilles wrote a gorgeous setting of the Requiem that I don’t think we’ve ever heard in Toronto. It is paired with a 20th century masterpiece setting of the same text by Maurice Duruflé — both ideally suited to this big, resonant space. The organist is very talented young Nova Scotian Sarah Svendsen, and the church’s music masters rounded up a fine set of soloists and instrumentalists. You’ll find more details here.
The Duruflé Requiem is one of my favourite pieces of 20th century French music — and the setting by Gilles is one of my favourite pieces of French baroque music, written by a composer who spent his life in southern France, outside the Parisian circle of influence. He died a month after his 37th birthday. Here is a performance of his Requiem, so loved in its day that it was dusted off for King Louis XV’s funeral nearly 70 years after Gilles’ death. It is performed here by the Concert Spirituel, conducted by Hervé Niquet:
- Toronto Mendelssohn Choir at St Paul’s Basilica, 7:30 p.m.
As is now tradition, the city’s venerable choral society presents meditative music in this gorgeous architectural and acoustic space. Most of it is unaccompanied, including Pope Marcellus Mass by Palestrina and the famous Miserere Psalm setting by Allegri. The choir likes to mix new and old, so the evening includes the premiere of a new setting of the text “God So Loved the World” by Timothy Corlis. You’ll find all the details here.
SATURDAY
- I Furiosi at Windermere United Church, 8 p.m.
Toronto’s bad boys and girls of the baroque play host to Tafelmusik bass player Alison Mackay in a concert they’ve titled The Down-Low. There’s a whiff of extra detail here.
SUNDAY
- Schola Cantorum and Theatre of Early Music at Trinity College Chapel, 7:30 p.m.
Countertenor Daniel Taylor has been sharing his huge expertise in early Music and baroque performance with students at University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music. During this, his first academic year at UofT, Taylor set up the Schola Cantorium, which gives its end-of-year recital of sacred choal works with a couple of members of Taylor’s own Theatre of Early Music in this beautifully austere space. A few more details here.
John Terauds