{"id":50467,"date":"2018-01-19T03:52:27","date_gmt":"2018-01-19T08:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=50467"},"modified":"2018-01-19T03:52:27","modified_gmt":"2018-01-19T08:52:27","slug":"record-keeping-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2018\/01\/19\/record-keeping-14\/","title":{"rendered":"RECORD KEEPING | The Amici Chamber Ensemble Capture The Spirit Of Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"INSPIRED
INSPIRED BY CANADA NOTRE PAYS. Music by Seitz, L\u00e9veill\u00e9e, Joni Mitchell, etc. Amici Chamber Ensemble. Mireille Asselin, soprano; Joaquin Valdepe\u00f1as, clarinet; David Hetherington, cello and Serouj Kradjian, piano. Marquis 774718148520. Total Time: 62:00.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Amici Chamber Ensemble (ACE), whose original members included clarinetist Joaquin Valdepe\u00f1as and cellist David Hetherington \u2014 both members of the Toronto Symphony \u2013 and pianist Patricia Parr, recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. When Parr retired in 2008, Serouj Kradjian replaced her.<\/p>\n

It is amazing that ACE has endured so long, considering that apart from trios by Mozart and Brahms, there is very little important repertoire for this configuration of instruments. The ensemble got around this basic problem by taking a different approach to programming: e.g., the members of the group perform not only as a trio but as also as a duo (i.e. clarinet and piano or cello and piano) and as soloists. On occasion, they also perform with guest artists. This variety of possible configurations greatly expands ACE\u2019s repertoire choices.<\/p>\n

For this new recording, the Amici Chamber Ensemble is joined by soprano Mireille Asselin in a celebration of Canada\u2019s 150th birthday. A great deal of research has been done to put together a program that is imaginative, diverse and inspiring, and the performances are superb. Much of the music is presented in arrangements created \u2014 mostly with great skill \u2014 by AMC\u2019s pianist, Serouj Kradjian.<\/p>\n

To say that soprano Mireille Asselin is a great addition to ACE would be a ridiculous understatement; from her first entrance in Ernest Seitz\u2019 \u201cThe World is Waiting for the Sunrise,\u201d she commands attention for the sheer beauty of her voice and the ease and naturalness of her phrasing. Did I mention that this music was composed by a young Canadian pianist only twelve years of age? Ernest Seitz (1892-1978) was born in Hamilton, Ontario and in spite of his prodigious musical gifts, studies in Europe with Josef Lh\u00e9vinne and numerous appearances with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, spent most of his life running his family\u2019s car dealership in Toronto.<\/p>\n

Although Serouj Kradjian comes up with decent arrangements of all the songs and folk songs on this CD, he sometimes gets a little too clever for his own good; for example, when he takes Scott Joplin\u2019s \u201cMaple Leaf Forever Rag\u201d and tosses in some quotations – too obscure to be effective – from both \u201cThe Maple Leaf Forever\u201d and \u201cO Canada\u201d. I also began to think that Kradjian didn\u2019t really know what to do with the cello, as most of the time it is either doubling the left hand of the piano part or is all but inaudible, rarely getting a chance to sing out in its upper register.<\/p>\n

The album presentation also leaves a lot to be desired. There are no translations from French to English or vice versa, and no printed texts for songs by Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell. Since classical music fans are the most likely buyers of this CD, one can hardly assume that these songs are so familiar that their texts don\u2019t require inclusion in the booklet. Or could it be that they were left out for copyright reasons?<\/p>\n

These reservations noted, however, I don\u2019t want to leave a negative impression. This CD, despite its shortcomings, is an imaginative contribution to the celebration of Canada on the occasion of its 150th birthday. Some of the songs included may be familiar to Canadian listeners, while others will be totally new and, as such, are valuable contributions to our understanding and appreciation of our heritage.<\/p>\n

Inspired by Canada\/ Notre Pays is available at amazon.ca<\/a> and iTunes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

LUDWIG VAN TORONTO<\/i>
\n<\/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><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0for all the latest.<\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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Despite its shortcomings, this new album by Toronto’s Amici Chamber Ensemble is an imaginative contribution to the celebration of Canada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":50472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14761,77,5739,51,52],"tags":[258,15887],"yst_prominent_words":[15888,12826,12825,12827,6715,12837,15885,12836,12840,13579,13576,13573,13090,6616,15889,12833,10620,15154,15150,6827],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/01\/71xrRfOZjL._SL1495_.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-d7Z","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50467"}],"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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50467"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50473,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50467\/revisions\/50473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50467"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=50467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}