We have detected that you are using an adblocking plugin in your browser.
The revenue we earn by the advertisements is used to manage this website. Please whitelist our website in your adblocking plugin.
By Paul E. Robinson on April 4, 2015
Very few recordings I’ve heard in recent months have given me as much pleasure as this one. While Dvořák is one of my favourite composers, the Violin Concerto has always seemed to me more impressive on paper (score) than in live performance or on a recording...
(Continue reading)By Neil Crory on April 1, 2015
It seems hardly possible that Opera In Concert (now rebranded as Voice Box/Opera in Concert) marks its 41st anniversary this past season. The organization - founded by the irrepressible vocal coach and pianist, Stuart Hamilton, C.M., – made its debut on October 21, 1974 with Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet. Since then they have presented over 150 different operas - most of them true rarities...
(Continue reading)By Michael Vincent on March 28, 2015
Driven under the dancing baton of visiting conductor Krzysztof Urbański, it’s not hard to see how the Rite provided a way out of the “theatre of the mind.”...
(Continue reading)By Paul E. Robinson on March 28, 2015
Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt has played so much Bach and played it so well she has become known as one of the great Bach players of her time. In fact, her Bach reputation is so great that it is often assumed that she plays little else. Nothing could be further from the truth and this new CD provides conclusive evidence...
(Continue reading)By Colin Eatock on March 27, 2015
There are some singers who sound great in opera productions. And there are also singers who excel in Lieder. But, unfortunately, there aren’t very many who are masters of both genres. Is Elliot Madore one of these rare creatures?...
(Continue reading)By Lev Bratishenko on March 23, 2015
The Ladies' Morning Musical Club is the most civilized thing you can do in Montreal on a Sunday afternoon. They’ve been in continuous operation since 1892 and I have no doubt they’ll find a way to keep putting on concerts through the coming ecological apocalypse. Perhaps they will sell distilled water...
(Continue reading)By Joseph So on March 19, 2015
Since its premiere on December 17th 1864, Offenbach’s La belle Helene has remained one of the most popular of French operettas. It’s easy to see why – a piece that takes place in mythical Greece, with larger than life characters caught in improbable situations, set to an inspired score full of memorable tunes. For a work that celebrated its 150th anniversary last December, its hold on the public remains strong...
(Continue reading)By Paul E. Robinson on March 19, 2015
These performances were recorded live during the Pull Out All the Stops Festival launching the refurbished Royal Festival Hall organ, fully operational again for the first time since 2005. The organ sounds terrific and the performances are first-rate...
(Continue reading)By Robin Elliott on March 17, 2015
The Los-Angeles-based Canadian trumpet virtuoso Jens Lindemann gave a varied and highly entertaining recital for the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto on Thursday afternoon (March 12th). The ten selections on his program ranged widely across both classical and jazz idioms. And that’s where history was made – this was the first time in 117 years that jazz has been featured on a WMCT program...
(Continue reading)By Paul E. Robinson on March 14, 2015
Elgar is practically part of the DNA of a certain group of Canadian classical music lovers; it goes with their Anglo-Saxon heritage and recognition of the Queen of England as their sovereign. For many classical music lovers in the United States and beyond, it is a different matter. Elgar’s music, while regularly programmed by British orchestras, was never widely performed or appreciated in the USA or Europe in the past and that is still the case today...
(Continue reading)
