Critic’s Picks (Nov.20-26)
Ludwig van Toronto’s weekly Critic’s Picks are a fully curated list of some of the best concerts happening now through the end of the week. This is not to say we are the provocateurs of taste, but simply seek to provide a good weekly summary. For a look at the full breadth of what’s available in and around Toronto, check out our curated concert listings here.
Monday 20
University of Toronto Faculty of Music | Faculty Artists Ensemble. 7:30 p.m. Walter Hall, Edward Johnson Building. $40/$25(sr)/$10(st)
Uri Mayer conducts the Faculty Artists Chamber Ensemble in Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer and Symphony No. 4, with soprano Monica Whicher and tenor Darryl Edwards. Edward Tait is music director. Two very well-known Canadian voice teachers go from the studio to the stage for this performance. | Listing
Tuesday 21
Toronto Children’s Chorus | Light the Flame. 7 p.m. Trinity St. Paul’s United Church. $20-$35
Concert featuring the Toronto Children’s Chorus. (No program details on their website) Ticket sales go to support Chamber Choir’s 2018 tour to Newfoundland and Labrador, plus participation in the biennial Podium Conference and Festival in St. John’s. | Listing
Wednesday 22
National Ballet of Canada | Nijinsky. 7:30 p.m. Four Seasons Centre. Repeats Nov 23 (mat., eve), 24 (eve), 25 (mat., eve), 26 (mat.) $39-$265
John Neumeier’s Nijinsky is described as both a biographical narrative and a “memory-ballet,” story-telling from the character’s own perspective. This is an extraordinary show, universally acclaimed and not to be missed. Music by Robert Schumann, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Dmitri Shostakovich. | Listing
Thursday 23
U of T Faculty of Music | Don Giovanni 7:30 p.m. MacMillan Theatre, Edward Johnson Building, University of Toronto. Repeats Nov. 24, 25, 26 (mat.) $40/$25(sr)/$10(st.)
The U of T Opera School’s fall production is the great Mozart masterpiece Don Giovanni. Uri Mayer conducts the U of T Orchestra, with staging by Marilyn Gronsdal. All roles taken by students in the U of T opera program; sung in Italian with English surtitles. Opera Talk, a pre-performance lecture, takes place 30 minutes before curtain in Room 130 of Edward Johnson Building. | Listing
Toronto Symphony Orchestra | Mahler: Symphony No. 6 8 p.m. Roy Thomson Hall. Repeats Nov. 25, 7:30 p.m. $40.75-$154.00
Scottish conductor Donald Runnicles is in town for the monumental Mahler Symphony No. 6. Maestro Runnicles is known for tackling large-scale works. I heard him conduct an unforgettable Wagner’s Ring Cycle last April, in his home theatre of Deutsche Oper Berlin. Members of the Toronto Wagner Society are given the opportunity to attend a rehearsal on Tuesday 1:30 – 5 pm. and meet the Maestro for a Q&A. If you are a TWS member, you should be at the stage door (musician’s entrance on the south side) of Roy Thomson by 1:15 p.m. | Listing
Friday 24
Royal Conservatory of Music | Tania Miller Conducts the RCM Orchestra 8 p.m. Koerner Hall. $25-$55
Conductor Tania Miller, Music Director of the Victoria Symphony, conducts the Royal Conservatory Orchestra in Stravinsky Petrushka (1947 version); Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, op. 16 (Sae Yoon Chon, piano), and Michael Oesterle: Home (world premiere). | Listing
Saturday 25
Tallis Choir | Forty! Forty! Forty! 7:30 p.m. St. Patrick’s Church, 141 McCaul St. $30/$25/$10
To celebrate its 40th anniversary, The Tallis Choir of Toronto is joined by alumni and friends to present the music of Thomas Tallis, including the 40-part Spem in Alium, and the work that inspired it, Striggio’s Ecce Beatam Lucem. Peter Mahon conducts. | Listing
Sunday 26
Voicebox: Opera in Concert | Rodelinda. 2:30 p.m. St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front St. E. $29-$73
Opera In Concert presents a semi-staged concert performance of Handel’s Rodelinda, sung in Italian with English surtitles. Larry Beckwith conducts. Soloists are soprano Christina Raphaelle Haldane, countertenor David Trudgen, tenor Charles Sy, baritone Alexander Dobson. | Listing
Off Centre Music Salon | Medicine and Music: A Cardiac Affair. 3 p.m. Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre, 427 Bloor St. W. $50/$40 (sr/st)
Trust Off Centre Music Salon to come up with creative programming! It features sopranos Ilana Zarankin and Virginia Hatfield, mezzo Meghan Simon, tenor Ernesto Ramirez, violist Steven Dann, and pianists Inna Perkis and Boris Zarankin. Hosts are David Goldbloom and Julia Zarankin. An exploration of mental illness and creativity in the music of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Mahler, Shostakovich and Schumann. | Listing
Mooredale Concerts | Rebelheart Collective with Mai Tategami. 3:15 p.m. Walter Hall. $30/$20. Music and Truffles at 1:15 p.m.
Mooredale Concerts presents violinists Erika Raum and Scott St. John, violist Sharon Wei, cellist Thomas Wiebe, with guest Mai Tategami, violin, in a program of Haydn, Dvorak, and Mendelssohn. | Listing
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