It seems perverse to have to pay to go outside in weather like this, so I’ve rounded up as many fine free bets as possible to start the final week of this critic’s picks:
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
27 Monday
- Pianist Roberto Turrin shows and tells at Walter Hall, 12:10 p.m. Free.
In his fantastic concert lecture on humour in music, Alfred Brendel insists that humour and music parted ways at the start of the 19th century. Italian pianist Pasolo Pessina, an ardent champion of new music who teaches at Concordia University in Montreal, begs to differ and promises to tell us why. His lecture is on humour in 20th century music, part of the ongoing, annual festival of new music organised by the faculty of Music. (Not many) details here.
- Turrin finishes his day by performing a solo recital at 7:30 p.m. Free. (No) details here.
Here, to heat up a particularly wintry January Monday, is Turrin performing a 10-year-old set of 24 Preludes (in all of the major and minor keys) by Paolo Pessina. It’s not great music, but it’s fun, peppered with quotations from other composers:
28 Tuesday
- The Ensemble Studio cast of Cosí fan tutte at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre. Noon. Free.
Experience all of the musical joy of Mozart’s arias and ensemble pieces without the annoyances of the Canadian Opera Company’s new production (you can read my review here) as the Ensemble Studio takes us through an hour of highlights.
As has been the case for the last four seasons, the Ensemble Studio takes over one mainstage opera performance every season. This year’s comes up on Friday, Feb. 7 — details here.
29 Wednesday
- Bassoonist Nadina Mackie Jackson and percussionist Beverley Johnston at Walter Hall, 12:10 p.m. Free.
Bold, fearless and engaging is the best way I can describe the work of these two remarkable musicians, who contribute a lunch-hour’s worth of new music. (Too few) details here.
29-2 Wed. to Sun.
- Tafelmusik at Jeanne Lamon Hall (Trinity-St Paul’s Centre), 7 p.m. (Wed.), 8 p.m. (Thu.-Sat.), 3:30 p.m. (Sun.)
The new-and-improved acoustics at Trinity-St. Paul’s should make this programme of intimate music led by Jeanne Lamon all the more golden. Tafelmusik has tried to not call this a chamber music concert — but that’s really what it is. The selections are all J.S. Bach, save for the premiere of a new flue concerto, Aïga-Faros, by Grégoire Jeay, who will also do the honours of playing the solo part. Details here.
30 Thursday
- Trio Arkel and friends at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, noon. Free.
This high-powered Toronto string trio — Canadian Opera Company Orchestra concertmaster Marie Bérard, Toronto Symphony Orchestra principal viola Teng Li and assistant principal cello Winona Zelenka — teams up with harpist Erica Goodman and flutist Leslie Allt for an all-French programme of rarities. Details here.
- Alcan Quartet for Music Toronto at the Jane Mallett Theatre, 8 p.m.
This excellent quartet of Quebecers brings us the second of Ludwig van Beethoven’s three Op. 59 “Razumovsky” Quartets — reason enough to venture down to Front St. But there’s also Mozart’s gorgeous F Major String Quartet, K590, and a recent work by Italian composer Alessandro Annunziata. Details here.
31 Friday
- Karen Kieser Prize Concert at Walter Hall, 7:30 p.m. Free.
One of Toronto’s great young artists, composer Chris Thornborrow, is the lucky recipient of the 10th annual Karen Kieser Prize in Canadian Music, which honours particularly promising students at University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music. (The runner-up for the 2013 prize was Cecilia Livingston, who contributed a wonderful essay on the composer in the social media world a few days ago. You can read it here.)
The programme includes works by Thornborrow, Livingston, Toronto Symphony Orchestra composer-in-residence Kevin Lau and this year’s star guest, Gabriel Prokofiev. (Not enough) details here.
1 & 2 Saturday & Sunday
- Canadian Choral Celebration organised by Soundstreams
The land of rainforests at one end and blowing snow at the other is also a land of great choirs. Soundstreams has brought a number of Canada’s finest together for a multi-concert celebration to melt the most frostbitten of hearts. All three of Saturday’s programmes include works by R. Murray Schafer.
- On Saturday, at St Thomas’s Anglican Church (Huron St., a block south of Bloor) — full details here:
– 3 p.m.: The Elmer Iseler Singers under Lydia Adams include Peter Togni’s haunting Requiem et Lux in their concert.
– 5 p.m.: John Washburn and his Vancouver Chamber Choir dig up a 20th century chestnut: Healey Willan’s Behold, the Tabernacle of God.
– 7:30 p.m.: Pro Coro Canada under Michael Zaugg include Estonian composer Veljo Tormis’s Curse Upon Iron.
- On Sunday, at Koerner Hall, 3 p.m. — full details here:
The three choirs from Saturday’s concerts join the Latvian radio Choir and conductor Kaspars Putnins in a substantial programme of Canadian and northern European choral music.
1 Saturday
- Scaramella and friends at Victoria College Chapel (91 Charles St W., 2nd floor), 8 p.m.
Gambist Joëlle Morton has assembled an interesting programme of chamber works from 18th century Vienna performed on period instruments that include flute and French horn. You’ll find the details here.
2 Sunday
- Voicebox/Opera in Concert present Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie at the Jane Mallett Theatre, 2 p.m.
Conductor Kevin Mallon leads a golden cast of soloists — including soprano Meredith Hall, mezzo Allyson McHardy, tenor Colin Ainsworth and bass Alain Coulombe — chorus and the period-instrument Aradia Ensemble in a performance of this grand baroque opera, in celebration of the 250th anniversary of Rameau’s death. Details here.
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
