
This is a list of concerts we are attending, wishing we could attend, or thinking about attending between February 3 and 9, 2025. For more of what’s happening around Toronto, visit our calendar here.
Canadian Music Centre: More Rivers Album Release Concert
Tuesday, February 4, 7:30 p.m.
Chalmers Performance Space, Canadian Music Centre, 20 St. Joseph St., free with RSVP
Our own local composer, Frank Horvat’s More Rivers, a set of seven piano solo pieces, came to life through pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico in a new recording released on Navona Records on January 24. If you’ve been mesmerized by Ann Southam’s water-themed minimalist works, this would be a great way to continue to expand your ears through Horvat’s take on the theme of river — as a transformative and ever-changing entity: from near stillness to life-drowning power. And this event being open to the public for free, it’s a great way to experience live performance by Quilico, a true master of Canadian contemporary music with decades of experience as a musician, and a deep thinker. There will even be a post-concert reception — a great way to sneak in some arts on a still-dark February weekday evening, and to think about what is Canadian art, as the current tariff war highlights questions regarding our national identity. Read our Interview with Christina Petrowska Quilico here. Info here.
Soundstreams: TD Encounters: Poitu Varen
Wednesday, February 5, 7:30 p.m.
Green Sanderson Hall, Hugh’s Room Live, 296 Broadview Ave., free.
Kalaisan Kalaichelvan, winner of the 2024/25 Soundstreams New Voices Curator Mentorship Program for the Encounter Series, presents this ambitious program with Chris Pruden (piano), Walker Grimshaw (electronics), and Zoe Markle (double bass). Known for their seriously good contemporary music programming, this Soundstreams performance promises intriguing details: four pianos, tethered to a series of speakers, will attempt to transform Hugh’s Room into a simple space of resonance, where the traditional fence between performers and audience is eliminated — listeners will be placed on the same plane as the sound sources, giving a chance to experience the immediacy and intimacy of live sound. Sound, a phenomenon that became so easily accessible at the touch of a button, has lost much magic through small, teeny speakers and earbuds — there is no space or physical resonance in mechanical reproduction through streaming platforms, CDs and tapes — even LPs. If you aren’t convinced, do come out, and see if you can discern the difference between the fully embodied resonance of sound vs what we have come to equate as sound, in this generous free event. If you are convinced, well, bring a friend! Read our Preview here. Info here.
Toronto Symphony: All Beethoven with Lisiecki
Wednesday, February 5, 8 p.m., Thursday, February 6, 8 p.m.
Roy Thomson Hall, $67+
This slightly unusual programming features all five Beethoven piano concertos over two evenings, with soloist Jan Lisiecki, a familiar face to the city, leading the ensemble from the keyboard. I’ve only seen one other such program live —all the way back in 2015, at a BBC Prom, where they programmed Prokofiev piano concertos, all five, with Daniil Trifonov, Sergei Babayan and Alexei Volodin, accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra led by Gergiev. Nearly a decade later, I still remember it as one of the most interesting and bizarre concert experiences. Hearing someone’s life journey and shifting of styles and interest in an uninterrupted series, a bit like a biopic, is a very peculiar thing, and with the exception of dedicated festivals (Bayreuth Festival, anyone?) such programming is a rarity. The hall is filling out fast, so if you are curious, get on it now, and see what it feels like to have a serious immersion into this very peculiar, small slice of art: Beethoven’s piano concertos. Info here.
New Music Concerts: Schnee: A Window into Winter
Saturday, February 8, 7:45 pm., Young Artist Overture, 8 p.m., main concert
Snell Hall, St. James Cathedral Centre, 65 Church St. $20+
Hans Abrahamsen, one of the finest 21st century composers, is a Dane. Danes, like Canadians, are familiar with the long winter — maybe it’s slightly worse in Denmark, as they get an average of 171 days of precipitation, most of winter drenched in rain and not much snow —and as we know so well, these long winter days, covered in shades of grey, start to roll into one another, in a Kafkaesque dream state. Perhaps this is where Abrahamsen’s appreciation of the snow comes from. Schnee (‘Snow’), this 50-minute work for small ensemble, sometimes barely audible, explores dualism, or opposition: the inevitability of reality through human analogies — is it a question, or an answer? How do we experience such intense rigour in pursuit of such fragile, lucid transparency? Abrahamsen’s simple observation of time, and its infinite possibilities through its circular nature, makes this piece a true masterpiece – a worthwhile experience; the embodiment of real sounds emanating and dissipating in physical space. Along with Linda Catlin Smith’s ‘We’ve gone forth for dancing’, Rashaan Allwood presents his first piece, Black Ice, as the NMC Composer-in-Residence. Check out our Interview with Rashaan Allwood here. Info here.
Royal Conservatory of Music: Louie Lortie
Sunday, February 9, 3 p.m.
Koerner Hall, $60+
Lortie brings an all-Ravel program to Koerner. Pavane, Sonatine, Gaspard, Jeux d’eau, Valse Nobles et Sentimentales, and La Valse: this program is pure Klimt in the sonic world — blood, death, eroticism, and so much gold, and the darkest pit —a true void… Ravel’s compositions have one common potentially fatal flaw: they are very difficult to play. The sheer technical demands and musicality required to bring these works to true glory is simply astounding, though one would never guess that in the face of truly talented performers; through their body and mind, difficulties disappear and meld into pure musical ecstasy. Thinking about what may be possible through Lortie’s Ravel program is such delicious anticipation. Do go experience this decadent, rich, and also purely innocent music in the leisure of a Sunday afternoon. Info here.
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