Toronto Summer Music festival has announced its 2013 season, running July 16 to Aug. 3. The theme is Paris la Belle Époque, which includes a lot of French music as well as musical visitors in programming focused on chamber music and art song.
As before, the big concerts take place at Walter Hall and Koerner Hall, while the parallel academy for advanced students is centred at University of Toronto’s Edward Johnson Building.
There are many familiar faces among the professional visitors, who also serve as academy mentors.
Among piano trios, Toronto’s Gryphon Trio is joined by three great French musicians, violinist Régis Pasquier, cellist Roland Pidoux and pianist Jean-Claude Pennetier.
Visiting string quartets are the Brentano and Pacifica. There is also a concert featuring the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet on July 25.
There are great pianists at every Toronto Summer Music Festival. André Laplante, who has wowed audiences every summer since the first year, is back. We will also hear duo pianists in action: Toronto’s James Anagnoson and Leslie Kinton take on Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring on July 19, while the French Labeque sisters work out a 21st century programme on Aug. 1.
Art song fans should each be given 20 lashes if they don’t come out for a July 23 recital that pairs hot young Montreal baritone Philippe Sly with master accompanist Julius Drake.
A notable solo-piano recital comes via the Toronto début of French pianist Cédric Tiberghien. Although he was hailed as something special when he graduated from the Conservatoire in Paris at age 17 and has enjoyed a busy European career that is as much about collaboration as solo performance, he isn’t well-known in North America.
Thibergien is in his late 30s now, and plays with a wonderful combination of highly articulated clarity and elegance.
Everything about this year’s programming speaks of the great care festival artistic director Douglas McNabney has put into matching artists and repertoire in complementary ways for the 15 main concerts. There will also be smaller-scale student-and-teacher performances as well as lectures and other events associated with the festival.
You can check out all the details here. Tickets go on sale Thursday (Apr. 11).
You can hear Thiberghien in a very nice performance Beetoven’s Piano Concerto No.1 with the Orchestre National de L’Ile de France on Radio-France here. It was broadcast from Salle Pleyel in Paris on March 28. The Beethoven starts just after the 21-minute mark, and is followed by Thiberghien’s Beethoven encore.
John Terauds