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 Michael Vincent on March 12, 2015
There’s a funny thing that happens to us in Toronto. After a number of very long, dim winter months, there comes a threshold where we can hardly fathom a landscape not encased by snow and ice. It becomes the norm. But then it happens: a miraculous spring thaw that reminds us it is possible...
(Continue reading)By Robin Roger on March 9, 2015
The onset of daylight savings time is usually a bit disorienting but it has been particularly peculiar since 2007, when it was moved to the second Sunday in March . In Toronto this means a misfit between late afternoon and early evening light that evokes a sense of summer (or used to) occurring when the weather remains frigid. One might call this climactic dissonance...
(Continue reading)By Michael Vincent on March 8, 2015
It’s early March, which means it’s time to step out of the winter boots and into a season where the air no longer hurts your face. This time of year also marks the annual New Creations Festival, which included one of the most-talked-about and hippest operas going: Written on Skin by British composer George Benjamin...
(Continue reading)By Colin Eatock on March 7, 2015
On Friday evening in Walter Hall, the spotlight was on Peter Togni. The Elmer Iseler Singers, under Lydia Adams, presented an entire program of music by the Halifax-based composer and broadcaster...
(Continue reading)By Paul E. Robinson on March 6, 2015
On the day that I played this new DVD celebrating the opening of the new Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, world news networks were reporting that prominent Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov had been murdered on the street near the Kremlin in Moscow. Yet another example of the ruthlessness of the Putin regime? Perhaps...
(Continue reading)By Robin Roger on March 2, 2015
Marc-André Hamelin’s piano program for his afternoon concert at Koerner Hall on March 1 began with a piece by the highly seminal but under performed composer, John Fields, without whom we would not have the nocturne...
(Continue reading)By Paul E. Robinson on March 2, 2015
German baritone Christian Gerhaher recently performed in Toronto and those who heard him won’t have to be told what a fine artist he is. This new recording provides even more evidence, as if it were needed, of the beauty of his voice and the keen intelligence with which he uses it. This is somewhat esoteric repertoire, but the collaboration between Gerhaher and conductor Daniel Harding is consistently compelling...
(Continue reading)By Michael Vincent on February 27, 2015
The visual art world has been exploring the role of the Internet in our lives for over a decade but, in music, the concept has been slower to catch on...
(Continue reading)By Colin Eatock on February 27, 2015
Once in a blue moon, I hear a song recital that makes me question the purpose of all other forms and genres of music...
(Continue reading)By Paul E. Robinson on February 22, 2015
The most memorable performance of Ein Heldenleben I ever heard was in Washington, D.C. January 24, 1965 with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic in a glorious performance. There was an extra-musical dimension to this performance which made it that much more special; Winston Churchill had passed away that morning and Karajan dedicated the performance to his memory. If ever a man had lived a hero’s life, Winston Churchill was surely that man, and watching a German conductor like Karajan, a one-time member of the Nazi party pay tribute to him with this piece engendered in me thoughts and emotions that would last a lifetime...
(Continue reading)
