{"id":52093,"date":"2018-04-04T22:27:01","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T02:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=52093"},"modified":"2018-04-04T22:27:58","modified_gmt":"2018-04-05T02:27:58","slug":"feature-soundstreams-2018-19-season-is-a-contemporary-music-linchpin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2018\/04\/04\/feature-soundstreams-2018-19-season-is-a-contemporary-music-linchpin\/","title":{"rendered":"FEATURE | Soundstreams 2018-19 Season Is A Contemporary Music Linchpin"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Soundstream's
Soundstream’s 2018-19 season looks forwards and backwards in provocative ways. Lawrence Cherney walks us through Soundstreams latest season as Toronto’s contemporary music keystone. (Photo courtesy Soundstreams)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I<\/span>n any season, I\u2019m really interested in new works and premieres,\u201d says Lawrence Cherney, Artistic Director of Toronto\u2019s Soundstreams. It goes along with the organization\u2019s mandate, but for the 2018\u201319 season, there\u2019s a little older new music in the mix.<\/p>\n

Two of the season\u2019s concerts revolve around works by Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer Steve Reich, pieces that premiered in the 1970s and 1980s. With Soundstreams\u2019 emphasis on the new, the older pieces provide a link to the roots of modern music as a context for new compositions. \u201cThey never come out of nowhere,\u201d Cherney notes. Reich is a contemporary of Phillip Glass, and likewise considered an icon of minimal music. \u201cThere are certain works that are milestones,\u201d Cherney says, \u201clike Reich\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six 6-foot grand pianos, in close proximity on stage. It\u2019s riveting visually as well as audibly, and that\u2019s the idea of Six Pianos<\/em>, the season opener. The program is anchored by Steve Reich’s seminal piece of the same name. Six Pianos<\/em> had its premiere in 1973, a kind of grandfather to a newly commissioned piece for multiple pianos by Canadian composer Andr\u00e9 Ristic that will premiere that evening. Works by John Cage, Lutos\u0142awski, Alexina Louie, and Colin McPhee \u2014 all of them involving more than one piano \u2014 will also be on the program. \u201cIt\u2019s an excuse to showcase some pretty interesting repertoire,\u201d Cherney says. The list of pianists and percussionists includes Russell Hartenberger, Greg Oh, Stephanie Chua, Ryan Scott, and Midori Koga.<\/p>\n

Steve Reich\u2019s Different Trains<\/em>, a piece for string quartet and tape, serves as the keystone in a program of the same name in February 2019, as performed by the Rolston String Quartet. \u201cThey\u2019re rising stars,\u201d says Cherney. The young ensemble was recently awarded the Cleveland Quartet Award for the 2018\u201319 and 2019\u201320 seasons, and is currently the Yale School of Music’s fellowship quartet-in-residence. Different Trains<\/em> will be performed alongside the Toronto premiere of a video by Spanish filmmaker Beatriz Caravaggio. Works by Canadians Zosha Di Castri and R. Murray Schafer will complete the program.<\/p>\n

Over its history, Soundstreams has brought many of the world\u2019s prominent chamber choirs to Toronto, and next season marks the return of The Latvian Radio Choir in November. Noted for their precise choral technique, the choir will perform Rachmaninov and other Russian works, along with new repertoire. As with any of the choral groups Soundstreams has presented in the past, Cherney had a stipulation. \u201cI invite them on the condition that they premiere or sing a new Canadian work,\u201d he says. \u201cNo one has ever said no.\u201d In fact, he reports that some of the international choral conductors have taken Canadian works back home with them to tour. This year, the Choir will perform new compositions by Canadians Omar Daniel and Gabriel Dharmoo.<\/p>\n

Seven Deadly Sins,<\/em> in April 2019, is an eclectic project Cherney says was inspired by the many musical meditations on the theme, including that of Kurt Weill. But, while the concept of deadly sins certainly comes from a Judeo-Christian philosophy, Cherney wanted to expand the definition to look at the idea of sin or taboo from the perspective of various cultures. Each of the sins will be explored in song and music by a different artist in a variety of genres from new classical to jazz to traditional folk music. As Cherney describes it, Greed<\/em> is examined in an art song by Christopher Mayo that references Doukhobor culture as it was transplanted to Western Canada. The music incorporates Russian musical elements, with lyrics that revolve around the propensity of certain radical sects of Doukhobors during the mid-20th century. They would react to a neighbour’s show of ostentation in their homes and properties by burning them down. It was, as the proud radicals would declare in court, a reaction against materialism. It’s also a unique piece of Canadiana. Other performers include Argentinian-Canadian composer Analia Llugdar, whose work is inspired by traditional folk music, and singer-songwriters Elizabeth Shepherd, Aviva Chernick, and Robin Dann<\/p>\n

Hell\u2019s Fury, The Hollywood Songbook<\/em>, an opera featuring baritone Russell Braun and pianist Serouj Kradjian, has its world premiere in June 2019. It\u2019s a Soundstreams production that took nearly a decade to formulate, based on art songs by Hanns Eisler, an Austrian composer best known for his work with Bertolt Brecht. Finding his work, along with Brecht’s, banned by the Nazis, Eisler fled Austria in 1933, eventually finding himself in Los Angeles. That’s where he wrote the Hollywood Songbook<\/em> between 1938 and 1942, a song cycle that includes lyrics by Brecht and Goethe, among others.<\/p>\n

As Cherney tells the story, English director Tim Albery approached him with the idea about eight or nine years ago. Both knew they wanted to Russell Braun and Canadian designer Michael Levine. It all came together in a co-production with Luminato and Opera North of Leeds, UK. Eisler led a life of tragic irony, welcomed by the United States at first, only to be tossed out again as a victim of the McCarthy era as a Communist in 1948. He died impoverished in what was then East Germany, after having penned its national anthem. His Hollywood Songbook<\/em> aches with melancholic longing, with themes of immigration and exile as the perpetual Other that resonate today in the 21st century.<\/p>\n

Touring, as Cherney puts it, \u201cis closing the circle.\u201d After bringing so many international artists to Canada, Soundstreams\u2019 future plans include taking at least some of their productions on the road. Current and future productions are designed with touring potential in mind, which means keeping an eye on issues like size and scope.\u00a0 There are already plans in place to tour the production of Musik f\u00fcr das Ende<\/em> by Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois composer Claude Vivier that Soundstreams first staged in full in 2017 by 2020. In 2020, Soundstreams has two Indigenous operas in the works by director and longtime collaborator Michael Greyeyes, another production that he plans to tour.<\/p>\n

In part, it\u2019s within the organization\u2019s mandate to promote new Canadian music. \u201cOutside our country, unfortunately, Canadian music is still not well known,\u201d Cherney notes. In September, Soundstreams extends their reach to the far east, sending Ensemble Soundstreams as artists-in-residence to the Shanghai New Music Week, bringing new Canadian music and composers to the festival for the very first time. \u201cIt\u2019s a fantastic opportunity,\u201d Cherney says.<\/p>\n

LUDWIG VAN TORONTO<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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