{"id":9250,"date":"2013-01-27T08:42:12","date_gmt":"2013-01-27T13:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=9250"},"modified":"2013-01-27T08:42:12","modified_gmt":"2013-01-27T13:42:12","slug":"concert-appreciation-angela-meade-shows-off-powerhouse-artistry-at-ontario-philharmonics-oshawa-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2013\/01\/27\/concert-appreciation-angela-meade-shows-off-powerhouse-artistry-at-ontario-philharmonics-oshawa-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Concert appreciation: Angela Meade shows off powerhouse artistry at Ontario Philharmonic’s Oshawa home"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Conductor
Conductor Marco Parisotto and the Ontario Philharmonic perform Bruckner at Oshawa’s Regent Theatre on Jan. 27 (John Terauds iPhone photo).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Oh, big city folk, let’s count our blessings, not the least of them being our fine concert spaces. Oshawa may only be 54 km from my front door, but it’s a world away in terms of what it can offer a fine young soprano and a great symphony orchestra.<\/p>\n

I made the trek on Saturday night to hear American soprano Angela Meade make her Toronto-area d\u00e9but in Richard Strauss’s gorgeous Four Last Songs<\/em>. Also on the programme was Anton Bruckner’s “Romantic” Symphony<\/em> — the Fourth<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It’s a programme that repeats at Toronto’s Koerner Hall on Tuesday night — and is well worth checking out for anyone not going to the Toronto premiere of Peter Sellars’ Tristan und Isolde<\/em> at the Four Seasons Centre.<\/p>\n

The Ontario Philharmonic and their music director Marco Parisotto are celebrating the fact that they now have a permanent home in Oshawa’s historic Regent Theatre. It is an unprepossessing Edwardian box right downtown that is primarily used by Durham Region’s University of Ontario Institute of Technology.<\/p>\n

Even a quick glance around the room reveals several significant acoustic impediments to a fine unamplified concert: thick velvet drapes along the back wall, recording studio-style acoustic panels glued over top the original plaster side walls, and a narrow, deep proscenium stage bedecked with thick curtains to hide the flies and wings.<\/p>\n

Predictably, the resulting sound is as dry and brittle as unbuttered Melba toast, akin to the last, best, monaural sound recordings from the late-1940s.<\/p>\n

An array of microphones amplifies various sections of the orchestra so that the audience can hear a proper balance. Although I don’t go to a lot of amplified concerts, this was the best use of the technology I had ever heard. It was only in the Bruckner, when I heard flute sounds patently not coming from where the flutes were sitting that I clearly knew the sound was doctored.<\/p>\n

(I had asked at intermission if the sound was amplified, so it’s not like I was guessing. Apparently it took days of fussing with the audio technician to get the sound right — time clearly well spent.)<\/p>\n

The concert revealed what was already amply clear at the Ontario Philharmonic’s season-opener at Koerner Hall in October: This is a fantastic orchestra being led by a first-rate conductor who needs to be far better known in his home metropolitan area.<\/p>\n

Parisotto has a wonderful command of whatever music he tackles. He is a confident, expressive conductor who doesn’t use any more movement than is absolutely necessary.<\/p>\n

To his credit, he has also assembled a best-of ensemble, featuring musicians who normally play with the Toronto Symphony, Canadian Opera Company and National Ballet orchestras, among others.<\/p>\n

Bruckner’s long, long musical developments need a steady hand that also can take a long view of where the music is going. Silences are as important as the loud swells. And Parisotto revealed himself to be the master of all he surveyed.<\/p>\n

He also didn’t hold back with the Strauss Lieder, pushing Meade to blow our hair backwards with her great, big voice.<\/p>\n

It took Meade one song to truly get warmed up and comfortable with her surroundings. But once there, she displayed all the ingredients of a great operatic singer, including a solid grasp of the dramatic arc of each piece.<\/p>\n

Although the Strauss songs are operatic in their sweep, the audience was given the opportunity to jump roaring to its feet with a Verdi encore: “Pace, pace…” from La forza del destino<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Set loose in the generous acoustics of Koerner Hall, this should make for a rousing, memorable night of music.<\/p>\n

John Terauds<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh, big city folk, let’s count our blessings, not the least of them being our fine concert spaces. Oshawa may only be 54 km from my front door, but it’s a world away in terms of what it can offer a fine young soprano and a great symphony orchestra.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,76,19,36,52,60,63,70],"tags":[6451,287,584,857,2484,2540,2789,6471,3151],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/01\/regent.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-2pc","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9250"}],"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=9250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9250"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}