{"id":43930,"date":"2017-03-24T14:17:39","date_gmt":"2017-03-24T18:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=43930"},"modified":"2017-03-25T08:24:23","modified_gmt":"2017-03-25T12:24:23","slug":"scrutiny-tafelmusik-delivers-musical-thrills-in-baroque-diva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/03\/24\/scrutiny-tafelmusik-delivers-musical-thrills-in-baroque-diva\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Tafelmusik Delivers Musical Thrills With Baroque Diva Karina Gauvin"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Rodolfo
Rodolfo Richter (Photo courtesy Tafelmusik)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tafelmusik Orchestra. With soprano Karina Gauvin. Rodolfo Richter, conductor. Koerner Hall. Repeats to March 26<\/a>.<\/h3>\n

The first performance of Tafelmusik Orchestra\u2019s \u201cBaroque Diva\u201d concert program at Koerner Hall on Thursday night was a many layered thrill.<\/p>\n

The obvious thrill is Toronto-raised, Montreal-based soprano Karina Gauvin<\/a>, who showed off her ever-deepening artistry, tremendous vocal range and technique, and considerable dramatic chops in opera arias by George Frideric Handel and a sacred work by Antonio Vivaldi.<\/p>\n

Another thrill was the program itself, which interwove the vocal pieces with instrumental music led by Brazilian-British violinist Rodolfo Richter, in a welcome return to lead these period-instrument musicians. Although Gauvin is the most likely draw to fill Koerner Hall, Richter brings considerable talents of his own to the stage.<\/p>\n

He proved, once again, to be an impressive soloist \u2014 and equal match to Gauvin in being able to draw many colours and impeccable musical lines from his instrument. He is not a dramatic or otherwise showy performer, but the music he brings forward is pure gold.<\/p>\n

Richter is also a very able leader. The Tafelmusik Orchestra<\/a> was in particularly fine form in a program that demanded tight ensemble playing as well as nimbleness. What Koerner Hall takes away in immediacy and intimacy from Tafelmusik\u2019s concerts, it adds in a rich, burnished sound. Yet Richter was also able to help the assembled musicians fill the space with dramatic texture time after time.<\/p>\n

The other thrill of the evening was the program itself. It is rare for a concert of any kind to feel as coherently curated as was the selection of works by Baroque greats Handel, Vivaldi, and Georg Philipp Telemann, as well as lesser-known German violinist and composer Johann Georg Pisendel, an exact contemporary of the other three, composing in the first half of the 18th\u2013<\/span>century.<\/p>\n

The evening opened with some brand-new music, something that Tafelmusik does offer from time to time. The orchestra presented Colin Labadie\u2019s Entwined: A Sesquie for Canada\u2019s 150th, a fun but very thin piece of layered pattern music that is part of the mosaic of new works people are commissioning for this anniversary year.<\/p>\n

Telemann, an underappreciated master, supplied the opening violin concerto, nicknamed the Frog. It opens with the strangest musical effect, a wobbly note that makes its way through the orchestral strings to simulate something like the noise frogs would make. It\u2019s a bold stroke of whimsy that hides a very tightly structured work. The other work by Telemann was a concerto that gave Tafelmusik\u2019s bassoon and oboes an opportunity to show off their artistry.<\/p>\n

Gauvin sang an impossibly florid aria from Handel\u2019s little-known opera Ezio to start \u2014 and ended with a thunderous finale drawn from Rinaldo. In between, the program erred on the side of serious music written in serious keys, including a church sonata and a church concerto by Pisendel, that gorgeous motet by Vivaldi, and the dramatically charged aria \u201cAh, mio cor\u201d (Oh, My Heart) from Handel\u2019s Alcina<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It was all edge-of-the-seat stuff, especially so when Gauvin unleashed her full dramatic repertoire in her portrayal of Handel\u2019s sorceress Alcina<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The program repeats<\/a> every day until Sunday. If you\u2019re a vocal fan, be prepared for a pleasant surprise in the instrumental portion of the concert. It\u2019s one of this season\u2019s big treats.<\/p>\n

For more REVIEWS, click HERE<\/u><\/a><\/span>.<\/h3>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tafelmusik Orchestra\u2019s \u201cBaroque Diva\u201d concert program at Koerner Hall a many layered thrill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,74,19,52,63],"tags":[1847,6566,3223],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/03\/Rodolfo-Richter-HighRes_1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-bqy","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43930"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43930"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43965,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43930\/revisions\/43965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43930"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=43930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}