{"id":29412,"date":"2015-07-17T15:04:02","date_gmt":"2015-07-17T19:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=29412"},"modified":"2016-03-26T18:04:53","modified_gmt":"2016-03-26T22:04:53","slug":"scrutiny-toronto-summer-music-festival-opens-with-a-bang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2015\/07\/17\/scrutiny-toronto-summer-music-festival-opens-with-a-bang\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Toronto Summer Music Festival Opens With A Bang"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"MB\"
Soprano Measha Bruggergosman with pianist Steven Philcox<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Toronto Summer Music Festival: Americans in Paris (opening night).\u00a0<\/b>With soprano Measha Brueggergosman, Tania Miller conductor and others. Koerner Hall, Thursday.<\/b><\/h3>\n

[Originally published in the Toronto Star<\/a>]<\/p>\n

For those itching to hear good live classical music in the city over the summer, it can be slim pickings. But in comes the Toronto Summer Music Festival<\/a> (TSM) and all is right with the world again.<\/p>\n

This year the TSM celebrates its tenth anniversary and is dedicated to the new world, a theme that encompasses the American dream and eternal optimism.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you build it they will come \u2013 <\/span>this was in evidence from the sold-out hall. Of course, it didn\u2019t hurt to include a superstar and former host of Canada\u2019s Got Talent like soprano Measha Bruggergosman, but I digress.<\/p>\n

The party kicked off with Copland\u2019s 1945 Pulitzer Prize-winning Appalachian Spring<\/i> with Victoria Symphony Music Director Tania Miller leading the Toronto Summer Music Festival Ensemble.<\/p>\n

The music proclaimed a stunning start to the festival in Koerner\u2019s acoustically pristine hall \u2013 particularly the endowed snippets of Americana, which endear each movement as a journey to meet springtime. It was a jubilant reading of the original chamber ensemble version of thirteen instruments.<\/p>\n

Measha Bruggergosman took to the stage with pianist Steven Philcox to perform American gems by Copland, Gershwin and Bolcom.<\/p>\n

After recently giving birth to her second son, Bruggergosman looked radiant and cast a spell of pure charm that was hard to resist. From her moving rendition of Copland\u2019s \u201cHeart, we will forget him\u201d,<\/span> to Bolcom\u2019s hilarious \u201cThe Total Stranger in the Garden\u201d, Bruggergosman wholehearted and buttery tone was served hot. Playing up the role, one could see the diva not only sing the words,<\/span> but feel them deeply.<\/p>\n

Gershwin\u2019s \u201cMy man\u2019s gone now\u201d and \u201cSummertime\u201d from Porgy and Bess<\/i> are among the best-loved of the American opera repertoire. Brueggergosman crooned with confidence alongside the nimble fingers of Philcox.<\/p>\n

The show continued to heat up with a magnificent performance of a rarely heard Clarinet Concerto by Copland. The star of the number was TSO\u2019s Associate Principal Clarinet, Yao Guang Zhai whose Clarinet earned amazement and a standing ovation.<\/p>\n

Gershwin\u2019s Rhapsody in Blue<\/i> closed the evening with an almost inexhaustible supply of energy by piano soloist John Novacek. A master of the blue notes that swings with the best of them, Novacek\u2019s pounding chords and steely rhythms offered a small miracle in that the piano made it out alive.<\/p>\n

There was a new found gait in the audience as they made their way out of the hall into the summer evening \u2013 a feeling of eternal optimism \u2013 of course the free champagne at the post-concert reception never hurts.<\/p>\n

TSM Festival runs through August 9.<\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Want more updates on Toronto-centric classical music news and review\u00a0before anyone else finds out? Get our exclusive newsletter\u00a0<\/em>here<\/a><\/em><\/span>\u00a0and follow us on\u00a0<\/em>Facebook<\/a><\/span> for all the latest.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Toronto Summer Music Festival: Americans in Paris (opening night). With soprano Measha Brueggergosman, Tania Miller conductor and others. Koerner Hall, Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":29416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[118,76,19,52],"tags":[1766,2175,3138,5520,3357,3737],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/07\/MB.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-7Eo","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29412"}],"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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29412"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29420,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29412\/revisions\/29420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29412"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=29412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}