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CRITIC'S PICKS | Classical Events You Absolutely Need To See This Week: April 24 – April 30

By Arthur Kaptainis on April 24, 2023

L-R (clockwise): Cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras (Photo courtesy of the TSO); Verdi's Macbeth (Photo courtesy of the COC); Samuel Mariño (Photo: Olivier Allard)
L-R (clockwise): Cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras (Photo courtesy of the TSO); Verdi’s Macbeth (Photo courtesy of the COC); Samuel Mariño (Photo: Olivier Allard)

This is a list of concerts we are attending, wishing we could attend, or thinking about attending between April 24 and April 30, 2023. For more details on what’s happening around Toronto, visit our calendar here.

Toronto Symphony Orchestra/Jean-Guihen Queyras/Fabian Gabel

Wednesday April 26 at 8 p.m. (repeats Friday April 28 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday April 29 at 8 p.m.). Roy Thomson Hall. $72+

Fabien Gabel, the French former music director of the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, starts this colourful program with the North American premiere of Laniakea, a pulsing piece by his young compatriot Camille Pépin, and ends it with Ravel’s lavish Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2. In between we hear Stravinsky’s early Le Chant du rossignol and two items by Tchaikovsky — the Rococo Variations and Andante Cantabile — with another Frenchman, cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, as soloist. Info here.

Canadian Opera Company/Macbeth

Friday April 28 at 7:30 p.m. (repeats Sunday April 30 at 2 p.m., plus May 6, 12, 14, 17 and 20). Four Seasons Centre. $55+

Verdi’s vigorous early masterpiece is the only non-revival of the mainstage COC season. Sir David McVicar’s production (first seen in Chicago in 2021) promises appropriately historical if stylized visuals. The noted Hawaiian baritone Quinn Kelsey plays the murderous monarch of the title and the Bulgarian soprano Alexandrina Pendatchanska plays Lady Macbeth. Speranza Scappucci, the first female Italian to conduct at La Scala, is in the pit. Limited ticket availability. Info here.

Tafelmusik/Samuel Mariño

Friday April 28 at 8 p.m. (repeats Saturday April 29 at 2 p.m.). Open rehearsal Thursday April 27 at 11 a.m. Jeanne Lamon Hall. $25+ (rehearsal $5)

Tafelmusik presents this 29-year-old Venezuelan male soprano — so designated because his voice never broke — in a recital of arias by Handel, Vivaldi, Alessandro Scarlatti and Johann Adoph Hasse. Take note of an open rehearsal Thursday at 11 a.m. General admission to this is $5. Read our preview here. Info here.

Royal Conservatory Orchestra/William Eddins

Friday April 28 at 8 p.m. Koerner Hall. $25+

The former music director of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra leads the RCM students in Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra and works by John Estacio (Wondrous Light, a celebration of the Aurora Borealis) and Gabriel Pierné (Concertstück for Harp and Orchestra with Ben Albertson as soloist). A free webcast is available at RoyalConservatory-Live. Info here.

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Arthur Kaptainis
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