{"id":109534,"date":"2024-11-15T15:29:15","date_gmt":"2024-11-15T20:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=109534"},"modified":"2024-11-18T07:00:04","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T12:00:04","slug":"scrutiny-rhapsody-blue-glorious-gershwin-celebration-markham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2024\/11\/15\/scrutiny-rhapsody-blue-glorious-gershwin-celebration-markham\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Rhapsody in Blue: A Glorious Gershwin Celebration in Markham"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"L-R:
L-R: Adrianne Pieczonka, soprano (Photo: Bo Huang); Jonelle Sills, soprano (Photo courtesy of the artist); Daniel Vnukowski, piano (Photo courtesy of the artist); Justin Welsh, baritone (Photo courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rhapsody in Blue: A Gershwin Celebration | Daniel Vnukowski, piano, Adrianne Pieczonka, soprano; Jonelle Sills, soprano; Justin Welsh, baritone; St\u00e9phane Mayer, piano. Markham Flato Theatre, November 14, 20<\/strong><\/em>24.<\/p>\n

Last night, while downtown Toronto was abuzz with excitement about a certain pop superstar, vocal and piano fireworks were ablaze inside the Flato Markham Theatre, packed to capacity for an intimate concert that played tribute to an early 20th century rockstar.<\/p>\n

American composer George Gershwin is best known for his pioneering of fusion musical styles that spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. In addition to several acclaimed orchestral works and a couple of operas of mixed successes, he penned numerous songs for Broadway and Hollywood, together with his brother Ira who provided exceptionally witty lyrics.<\/p>\n

The evening was hosted by Daniel Vnukowski, known to many Torontonians as the charismatic host of Classical 96.3 FM’s “Jukebox.” Vnukowski is a fine pianist in his own right, and he shows immense versatility in his craft in several jazzy pieces. The musical highlight of the evening is his mesmerizing performance of \u201cRhapsody in Blue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the Rhapsody is usually performed as an orchestral piece that opens with the signature clarinet glissando, Vnukowski\u2019s solo piano version is no less compelling. He completely captures the jazzy spirit of Gershwin with dramatic dynamic contrasts. The passionate playing is accompanied by many, but never excessive, artistic flourishes.<\/p>\n

This year marks the 100th anniversary\u00a0of Gershwin’s iconic masterpiece. It is hard to imagine that he \u201cunintentionally\u201d wrote this work in just a few weeks, which has since become one of his most beloved compositions. There is the well-known story of Gershwin applying to study under Maurice Ravel, only to be rejected by the master, who famously said, “Why become a second-rate Ravel when you’re already a first-rate Gershwin?”<\/p>\n

No all-Gershwin concert would be complete without tunes from the Great American Songbook. This concert had one of, if not the best, living Canadian sopranos singing them. Internationally renowned Adrianne Pieczonka has sung on the world\u2019s greatest stages. Not only was it interesting to hear her outside of her natural habitat of an opera house, it was special that she came out of recent retirement to perform. In an earlier interview with Ludwig van Toronto<\/a>, Pieczonka said that Broadway was her first love, before she even discovered opera. Pieczonka performed six solo pieces, recognizable tunes like \u201cLove walked in\u201d, \u201cSomeone to watch over me\u201d and \u201cOur love is here to stay.\u201d There was also \u201cBy Strauss,\u201d a parody of the waltz king Johann Strauss which mocks American composers like Cole Porter, Jerome Kern and Gershwin himself. Though Pieczonka sings mostly in her middle range, her phrasing is unmistakably beautiful, and her lavishly rich voice still carries and envelopes you like a warm blanket.<\/p>\n

The performance also featured two Canadian rising stars, soprano Jonelle Sills and baritone Justin Welsh.\u00a0Sills notably made her Canadian Opera Company debut last year as Mimi in La boh\u00e8me. Welsh, a COC Ensemble Studio alumnus, also starred in that same production as Schaunard. The duo performed solo numbers and a few duets, among which were excerpts from Porgy and Bess, another Gershwin masterpiece.<\/p>\n

Sills is a natural and engaging performer of showtunes from the Gershwin era. She has a bright palette and warm timbre that are well suited to songs like \u201cEmbraceable you\u201d and \u201cSummertime.\u201d She uses her opera voice with a mighty vibrato when singing the higher range which soars all the way up to a high B.<\/p>\n

Welsh is an animated performer, and his resonant baritone comes with a good dose of gravitas. His rendition of the crowd-pleaser \u201cSwanee\u201d is lively and energetic. His best moment is as the slimy Sportin\u2019 Life in Porgy and Bess, in which he drums up the audience to join in and repeat lines after him in \u201cAin\u2019t necessarily so.\u201d<\/p>\n

It would be remiss not to mention the wonderful playing from pianist St\u00e9phane Mayer, who accompanied the vocalists throughout the evening.<\/p>\n

The trio of vocalists brought the concert to a fitting close with \u201cI got rhythm,\u201d again with audience participation. The evening transported me to a 1920s and 30s jazz club, and I found myself humming Gershwin tunes all the way home.<\/p>\n

Rhapsody in Blue: A Gershwin Celebration repeats in Welland (Nov 16) and Burlington (Nov 21)<\/p>\n

Are you looking to promote an event<\/u><\/span><\/a>? Have a\u00a0news tip<\/u><\/a>? Need to know the best\u00a0events<\/u><\/a>\u00a0happening this weekend? Send us a\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>note<\/u>.<\/em><\/strong>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/b><\/em><\/h3>\n

Get the daily arts news straight to your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sign up for the Ludwig Van Toronto e-Blast! \u2014 local classical music and opera news straight to your inbox <\/em>HERE<\/a>.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vocal and piano fireworks were ablaze inside the Flato Markham Theatre, packed to capacity for an intimate concert that played tribute to George Gershwin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":109536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[40967,19,32,43,47,49,52,63],"tags":[177,36103,36626,40856],"yst_prominent_words":[24255,14729,18357,16413,12927,12916,14706,12857,14728,29376,17103],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/11\/Copy-of-PREVIEW-97.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-suG","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109534"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109534"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109568,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109534\/revisions\/109568"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109534"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=109534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}