MONDAY & WEDNESDAY
- Organist Mélanie Barney at Church of the Holy Trinity (behind the Eaton Centre), 12:15 p.m. PWYC
The architecturally significant mid-19th century church behind Sears on Trinity Square — and the place where I am now the music director — launches the 22nd season of its 45-minute Monday lunchtime concerts with Montreal organist Mélanie Barney, whose programme skews heavily toward late-19th century symphonic repertoire. Included are pop-classic gems by Camille Saint-Saëns (the Danse Macabre) and Edward Elgar (Nimrod, from Enigma Variations).
The programme comes from Barney’s excellent 2012 album, The Power of the Organ 2. This video is full of audio samples of pieces she’ll play today:
Barney returns to Holy Trinity with Franco-Albertan violist Tina Cayouette for an Organix 13 concert on Wednesday night. The programme includes a viola solo (Meditation, by Benjamin Britten) and a rich set of duos ranging from J.S. Bach to Ralph Vaughan-Williams. You’ll find all the details here.
TUESDAY
- Violinist Keir GoGwilt and pianist-composer Matthew Aucoin at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, noon. Free admission.
Boston-area native Matthew Aucoin (son of Boston Globe theatre critic Don Aucoin) is just 23 and graduated from Harvard last year, but has already worked as an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera (on Thomas Adès’ Tempest) and is an accomplished composer. He has teamed up with 21-year old violinist Keir GoGwilt in a fascinating programme featuring the music of J.S. Bach, Mozart, Olivier Messiaen and a paraphrase of Franz Schubert’s Nacht und Traüme by GoGwilt.
Here is a recent Boston radio interview with Aucoin:
WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY & SATURDAY
- Violinist Joshua Bell with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at Roy Thomson Hall, 8 p.m.
The star violinist of our time teams up with composer-bassist Edgar Meyer in the Canadian premiere of Meyer’s Concerto for Violin and Double Bass. There is plenty of 20th century tone poetry in the rest of the programme, which starts with Aaron Copland’s charming Appalachian Spring and ends with Ottorino Respighi’s Pines of Rome. Bell gets to show off in Maurice Ravel’s Tzigane. Music director Peter Oundjian conducts. Details here.
THURSDAY
- Pianist Mauro Bertoli with cellists Conrad Bloemendal and Sybil Shanahan at Gallery 345, 8 p.m.
This hip Parkdale space is being turned over to the 19th century in a programme of Beethoven, Brahms and Auguste Franchomme. You’ll find all the details here.
FRIDAY
Two great choices eaturing slightly unusual instrument combinations in the hands of young performers:
- The Wong Chen Duo at St Clements Anglican Church, 59 Briar Hill Rd, 7:30 p.m.
To close the Organix 13 festival, violinist Lewis Wong and organist Chelsea Chen, both Juilliard grads, mix West and East in an eclectic programme that goes from baroque (J.S. Bach and Jean-Marie Leclair) to modern (Francis Poulenc and Sergei Prokofiev), with two of Chen’s own creations thrown in for good measure. You’ll find all the details here.
- Trio Laurier at Gallery 345, 8 p.m.
Three fine young artists — flutists Diana Lam and Jeffrey Stonehouse and pianist Anya Alexeyev — present a rich programme of tales told with music, from an arrangement of Histoire de Babar by Francis Poulenc to new music by talented young Toronto composer Chirstopher Thornborrow. You’ll find all the details here.
FRIDAY TO SUNDAY
- John Malkovich in The Giacomo Variations at the Elgin Theatre, various showtimes.
Montreal gets the official Canadian premiere of this play-cum-musical starring John Malkovich earlier in the week, but Toronto gets more performances. The show, based by Michael Sturminger on Casanova’s memoirs, features music from Mozart’s operas played by a full orchestra. You’ll find details here.
John Terauds