I’m taking 10 days off to clear my head and get Musical Toronto moved to a new, hopefully faster and less hacker-prone web server. The site may be down for a few hours at a time. And here are some highlights for the coming days. I should be back here on July 3.
TORONTO & SURROUNDINGS
June 22: Composer Mark Richards oversees a first full performance of his opera about Laura Secord near the scene of the War of 1812 heroine’s fine deeds: Niagara-on-the-Lake. It’s part of the pre-festival activities organised by Music Niagara. Details here.
June 26 & 27: Tenor Bud Roach, with cellist Gordon Cleland and pianist Erika Reiman present a programme of art song with a gay twist at the Canadian Music Centre (20 St Joseph St). All of the pay-what-you-can proceeds go directly to support the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives. You’ll find more details below.
June 27: Markham’s resident Kindred Spirits Orchestra and music director Kristian Alexander close their season late with Royal Conservatory grad, pianist Darrett Zusko in a programme of Brahms and Mendelssohn at the Flato Markham Theatre. Details here.
June 29 & 30: The Westben Festival in Campbellford continues its year-by-year improvements with the arrival of a full concert grand and two great opening concert programmes with orchestra. You’ll find the details here.
June 29 to July 1: The first-ever Canadian Flute Convention takes over Oakville’s Appleby College. The list of distinguished teachers, masterclass hosts and performers is a powerful reminder of this country’s amazing musical talent pool — from the Toronto Symphony’s Nora Schulman to New Music Concerts’ Robert Aitken, to Mr. “Extreme Flute” himself, Bill McBirnie. There are enticing recitals every day for those brave enough to head down the QEW. Details here.
Here for inspiration is a clip of one of the convention’s international guests, Niall O’Riordan, with pianist Ciara Moroney in his own transcription of a beautiful sonata by Marie Grandval:
ONLINE
June 23: Medici.tv presents the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle performing Beethoven’s Ninth. The tenor soloist is Canadian Joseph Kaiser. Also on the programme at Berlin’s open-air Waldbühne is Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, played by Christian Tetzlaff. The concert is streaming live early in the morning (Eastern) and will be available for free on-demand viewing after that. Details here.
Any day: An enterprising Dutch musical magpie, Nico Schilder, has compiled lists of the world’s classical radio stations — both online and terrestrial — as well as a few composer biographies and a dictionary of classical music terms. His labour of love is impressive, and opens a wonderful window on the web of classical music love around the world. You can find his site, Classical DJ, here.
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MORE ON THE CONCERTS TO BENEFIT THE CANADIAN GAY AND LESBIAN ARCHIVES
For some time now I have been looking for a performance opportunity for Jeffrey Ryan’s song cycle Of Passion’s Tide, with text by C. P. Cavafy, considered one of the finest modern Greek poets.
Back in 2010, I had given the Canadian premiere of Andrew Staniland’s setting of Walt Whitman’s Calamus 6 for voice and cello at the Canadian Music Centre during Nuit Blanche. Earlier this year, Andrew sent me a brand new Calamus setting, so now I had material for a “mini-programme” that would be fitting for Pride Week celebrations.
Although Whitman’s sexuality has been debated at great length, his Calamus poems have generally been accepted as expressions of same-sex attraction, particularly in his references to “adhesive” love (a term borrowed from phrenology). The two poems Andrew has set are “Not heaving from my ribb’d breast only” and “No labor-saving machine,” both for tenor and cello.
Jeffrey Ryan has written about his cycle Of Passion’s Tide: “Years ago, I read a review of a recording of Schumann songs by mezzo-soprano Brigitte Fassbaender. Several songs had texts in a ‘male voice,’ and the reviewer discussed at length the double standard that allows women to sing songs intended for male singers, while disapproving of the reverse. Furthermore, while men and women can sing about each other, and women can sing about women, there are few works in which men sing about men. Of Passion’s Tide is my contribution to this scant repertoire.
“The poems were written in the 1910s and ’20s by C. P. Cavafy, used here in Rae Dalven’s English translation from the original Greek. I selected these particular poems from Cavafy’s collected works because they fell nicely into an umbrella storyline of an older man reflecting on a relationship from his youth. The first song, Desires, expresses the importance of acting on one’s feelings while one has the chance. In the second song, The Next Table, he sees a young man at a café who reminds him of his past love. The next three songs chronicle that relationship from its rapturous beginning to its unavoidable ending. Finally, Return expresses his yearning to rediscover those sensations of his youth.”
These concerts last about 45 minutes, with lots of time to walk from Chalmers House to the Archives building at 34 Isabella St to take in the current exhibits. If you are not familiar with the valuable work of the Archives, more information can be found here: http://www.clga.ca/news
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John Terauds