{"id":45161,"date":"2017-05-11T09:49:01","date_gmt":"2017-05-11T13:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=45161"},"modified":"2017-05-11T09:49:01","modified_gmt":"2017-05-11T13:49:01","slug":"feature-a-musical-skol-in-honour-of-norways-national-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/05\/11\/feature-a-musical-skol-in-honour-of-norways-national-holiday\/","title":{"rendered":"FEATURE | A Musical \u201cSkol\u201d In honour Of Norway\u2019s National Holiday"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Little
Little Norway Park, Toronto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

W<\/span>hen we think of cultural diversity in Toronto, we tend to think of new Canadian communities that have arrived here from Latin America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe during the last several decades.\u00a0 But there are other threads that were woven into our multicultural tapestry earlier on, and less conspicuously, that are equally deserving of recognition.\u00a0 A smaller, but musically significant group is the Norwegian community, which began emigrating here around 1850.\u00a0 Though more Canadians of Norwegian descent live in Western Canada, in the 2006 census, close to 54,000 Ontarians reported Norwegian heritage.<\/p>\n

Toronto\u2019s Little Norway Park at Bathurst Street and Queen\u2019s Quay West commemorates the period during the Second World War when the exiled Royal Norwegian Air Force was based there and left behind a crop of Norwegian-Canadian offspring.\u00a0 The Norwegian Club of Toronto celebrates the Norwegian Constitution this year on May 13 at Dufferin Grove Park, and on May 17, Norway\u2019s, National Day there is a recital devoted to Norway\u2019s most famous composer, Edvard Grieg.<\/p>\n

The composer of \u00a0\u201cIn the Hall of the Mountain King\u201d, one of the most quoted pieces of music of all time, (heard in soundtracks for The Social Network, an episode of Mad Men, Rat Race, and films by DW Griffith and Fritz Lang to name only a few), in addition to one of the most popular piano concerti ever performed, Grieg hailed from Bergen where it rains 350 days of the year.\u00a0 He would have felt right at home during Toronto\u2019s downpour last week, on the day that I chatted with the recital programmer and performer Mike Angell, in the leaking Atrium of the Royal Conservatory.\u00a0 Despite the soggy atmosphere, we had a sparkling exchange.<\/p>\n

To counteract the over exposure of Grieg\u2019s more famous pieces, Angell told me, he has selected a somewhat quirky program of lesser-known works including an adaptation of Opus 8, for violin and piano, to a work for alto saxophone and piano.<\/p>\n

Susan Cook, whose day job is Director of the Royal Conservatory School, is a classical saxophonist who has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Joeffrey Ballet as well as other groups, will partner with Angell (pronounced like the celestial being) on piano.\u00a0 The location of the recital, at St Barnabas Church on the Danforth, also affords the opportunity to include a couple of organ transcriptions from Grieg\u2019s beloved Holberg Suite and a movement from the aforementioned concerto, Opus 16, in A minor.\u00a0 Angell, who is a double threat as a classically trained singer, (from the studio of Frances Ginzer) and pianist (from the studio of Sister Natalie Pepin at the Universite de Montreal), will perform a selection of Grieg art songs (in Danish) and read sections of letters by Grieg to other composers (in English).\u00a0 As Grieg met Tchaikovsky, Liszt and Percy Grainger, amongst other composers of his day, these are likely to be fascinating.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been playing Grieg since I was eight years old,\u201d Angell told me when I asked what prompted the idea of an all-Grieg concert. \u00a0Early exposure to this performer was part of his heritage as the grandson of a grandmother who emigrated from Norway to Western Canada, where Angell grew up.\u00a0 This is one of many initiatives he has launched since his arrival in Toronto last August.<\/p>\n

His last gig, as an artist in residence in Fort McMurray, was terminated by the wildfire in May 2016.\u00a0 \u201cBeing evacuated was a life changer,\u201d said Angell, who remains associated with Fort McMurray and teaches some of his students there by Skype.\u00a0 Until then, Toronto had not been part of his plans, but he has settled in with the kind of energy and industry that Grieg himself demonstrated as a prolific composer and indefatigable concertizer.\u00a0 Less than a year since arriving he is teaching privately and at the Kingsway Conservatory of Music, performing in recitals, and coaching voice at the Royal Conservatory.<\/p>\n

Fort McMurray\u2019s loss is Toronto\u2019s gain.\u00a0 Angell is likely the only music pedagogue in Toronto who has extensive knowledge of Fedora Aberastury\u2019s movement program, the Conscious System for Movement Technique, which he studied when he lived in Buenos Aires.\u00a0 (Aberastury was one of a series of remarkable innovators born on either side of the turn of the last century, including Moshe Feldenkrais, FM Alexander, and Ida Rolf who developed systems of embodied wisdom that are of inestimable value to musicians as well as others.\u00a0 There is little about Aberastury in English on the Web, so watch here for more on her work later in the year.)<\/p>\n

At this point, the forecast for May 17 is rain-free, so the atmosphere will be a little less Bergen-like and even more conducive to celebration.\u00a0 A Grieg recital, followed by lifting a glass to say Skol, seems like an apt way to enjoy the weather and the occasion.\u00a0Click here for all the recital details<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

Want more updates on Toronto-centric classical music news and reviews before anyone else finds out? Follow us on\u00a0<\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/u><\/a><\/span>\u00a0or <\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/u><\/a><\/span> for all the latest.<\/i><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto Norwegians celebrate Norway’s National Holiday with a concert of Edvard Grieg’s lesser-known works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":45178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,14,4967,63],"tags":[3791],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/05\/Little_Norway_Park.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-bKp","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45161"}],"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\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45161"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45181,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45161\/revisions\/45181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45161"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=45161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}