Fabulous repeats this week include Tafelmusik’s Austrian baroque programme with Manfredo Kramer at the George Weston Recital Hall on Tuesday (details here) and the two season-opening Canadian Opera Company’s productions.
La Bohème (with its rotating casts) repeats on Wednesday and Saturday. Peter Grimes returns Tuesday and Friday [Update: Ben Heppner returned to the role on Oct. 8, is said to have done very well, and everyone expects him to finish the run]. (COC details here.)
TUESDAY
- Pianist Arnaldo Cohen at the Jane Mallett Theatre, 8 p.m.
It’s been four years since this underappreciated Brazilian pianist (who now spends most of his time in the United States) was last invited here by Music Toronto. This visit he brings a varied programme that begins with J.S. Bach’s Partita No. 1 and ends with Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 7. Details here.
WEDNESDAY
- Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, noon. Free.
Tenor Andrew Haji, bass-baritone Gordon Bintner, mezzo Charlotte Burrage and soprano Aviva Fortunata celebrate Benjamin Britten’s 100th with an hour-long selection of art songs. Details here.
THURSDAY
- Mischa and Lily Maisky at Koerner Hall, 8 p.m.
The world’s most obviously charismatic cellist sits down with pianist (and daughter) Lily Maisky to present a programme so rich you’ll need vodka shots to cleanse the palate between each piece. On Monday morning, there was a small handful of tickets left. Check out the details here.
THURSDAY & SATURDAY
- Violinist James Ehnes & the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at Roy Thomson Hall, 8 p.m.
The world’s most suave violinist, who just happens to be Canadian, adds his tribute to Benjamin Britten’s 100th with the Violin Concerto. Ehnes’s partner in this programme, which also includes Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony and a treat by contemporary Scots composer James MacMillan, is the fabulous French conductor Stéphane Denève. Details here.
FRIDAY
- Quartetski at the Music Gallery, 8 p.m.
The Music Gallery launches its 8th annual X Avant festival of all things weird and wonderful and new with a remarkable little band of Montrealers who call themselves Quartetski. These adventurous souls have a way of recasting familiar music in unfamiliar yet endearing ways. Their current claim on our attention is a reimagining of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Check out the details here.
This video contains a small taste of what Quartetski is up to:
SATURDAY
Do you prefer your music old or new?
- I Furiosi at Windermere United Church, 8 p.m.
The daring little baroque band that can turns 15 this season, and couldn’t think of a better way to kick off its four-concert season than with, “a celebration of wrinkles, adult diapers and common sense.” Check out the details here.
- Toy Piano Composers at Gallery 345, 8 p.m.
This inspirational (and inspired) Toronto composers’ collective celebrates its 5th birthday with a best-of concert featuring themselves and their friends. It should be a blast. Details here.
John Terauds