{"id":13854,"date":"2013-07-15T08:00:03","date_gmt":"2013-07-15T13:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=13854"},"modified":"2013-07-15T08:00:03","modified_gmt":"2013-07-15T13:00:03","slug":"toronto-summer-music-festival-opens-2013-season-with-a-risky-french-twist-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2013\/07\/15\/toronto-summer-music-festival-opens-2013-season-with-a-risky-french-twist-this-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Summer Music Festival opens 2013 season with a risky French twist this week"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Trio<\/a>
Trio Pennetier Pasquier Pidoux opens the 2013 Toronto Summer Music Festival on Tuesday night.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although Toronto Summer Music Festival artistic director Douglas McNabney is a native Torontonian, home has been Montreal for quite some time. While French music is a slam-dunk in the city at the other end of the 401, that’s not the case here.<\/p>\n

Toronto may be the most multicultural burg in the world, but that hasn’t guaranteed interest in things French. The Montrealers who left more than a generation ago did not come to Toronto because they were francophiles. And there isn’t a single classical music presenter who has figured out how to attract consistent audiences from this city’s immigrant communities.<\/p>\n

And despite the devotion of those who have fallen for its intimate charms, chamber music of any sort is never an easy sell.<\/p>\n

So where does that leave this year’s Toronto Summer Music focus on La Belle \u00e9poque?<\/p>\n

My prediction is that it’s going to be a very tough three weeks for ticket sales, despite the fact that Torontonians are getting a rare opportunity to hear some very, very fine French artists perform.<\/p>\n

Tuesday’s opening concert at Koerner Hall features a trio of French titans: violinist R\u00e9gis Pasquiet, cellist Roland Pidoux and pianist Jean-Claude Pennetier in a golden programme featuring trios by Maurice Ravel and Gabriel Faur\u00e9 as well as Sergei Rachmaninov.<\/p>\n

Serious fans of vocal music should check out a master class Tuesday afternoon by Elly Ameling with Toronto Summer Music Academy fellows. Ameling, who is 80 now, was here a half-dozen years ago to coach University of Toronto students and showed herself to be an extremely effective teacher who managed to be both honest and encouraging — which is a lot less easy to do than it sounds.<\/p>\n

Most festival days feature some sort of afternoon class, lecture or event, followed by a 5 p.m. “Shuffle” concert that pairs unlikely concert-mates in the intimate (and air conditioned) Heliconian Hall, a short walk from the main venues at University of Toronto’s Edward Johnson Building and the Telus Centre.<\/p>\n

McNabney has programmed with great care. You can check out all of the Toronto Summer Music festival events on one page here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Here is a perfect example of Ameling’s impeccable artistry, in a 1965 recording with J\u00f6rg Demus on fortepiano of Franz Schubert’s Im Fr\u00fchling<\/em>:<\/p>\n