I first heard the New Orford Quartet last winter, under less-than-ideal conditions: in a pre-concert performance at a Toronto Symphony concert, in the lobby of Roy Thomson Hall. With the inevitable background noise, it was hard to hear every nuance of their performance – but I heard enough to want to hear them again. So when I learned that the New Orfords would be playing a concert at Gallery 345, a warehouse space in Toronto’s West End, I made plans to attend. Unfortunately, very few other people made similar plans. ...

► Read the entire post

As a non-driver, I don’t often venture into suburban realms beyond the northern border of Toronto. But I was up that way on March 28, to hear the Juilliard Quartet at the Markham Theatre play works by Hadyn, Martino and Beethoven. This hall is a nice size for chamber music, but the acoustic is dry. In this unforgiving  environment all is laid bare, and it’s possible to hear everything that’s going on inside a string quartet. But first let’s take a look at the quartet itself. The Juilliard Quartet ...

► Read the entire post

Here's a review I wrote for Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper. There’s a new trend catching on and bringing change to the tradition-bound classical music world. Orchestras and other classical performers have started to realize that audiences are increasingly drawn to a mix of artistic experiences. While there may be nothing wrong with a standard-format concert, it’s a bonus if there’s something to look at as well. Three years ago, Toronto’s Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra staged The Galileo Project, ...

► Read the entire post

Opera Atelier is a Toronto-based company that specializes in baroque and classical opera. Mozart’s Don Giovanni, which opened on Saturday, is about as “modern” as they get. Here’s my review, from The Globe and Mail of October 31. Opera Atelier’s co-artistic director Marshall Pynkoski stepped on stage just before the curtain rose on Saturday night. The opera was Don Giovanni – and Pynkoski, who served as stage director for the new production, had a few words to say. First, he wanted everyone to ...

► Read the entire post

The Manitoba Chamber Orchestra paid Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio a visit last night, at the end of a mini-tour of Ontario, organized by the Numus concert society. And for the occasion, the MCO brought the music of just one composer. The program was billed as “The Film Music of Philip Glass” – and although it wasn’t quite all film music, it was certainly all Glass. The composer himself wasn’t present, but pianist and longtime Glass collaborator Michael Riesman was. He played in the Suite from Dracula ...

► Read the entire post

Jan Liesecki is a tall, gaunt, 16-year-old with a mop of Bieber-esque blonde hair who’s poised to become a piano phenomenon. From Calgary, Alberta, he’s already made about 100 concerto appearances – and in the coming months will debut with the Orchestre de Paris, the BBC Symphony, the Cologne Philharmonic and Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Orchestra, among others. And last year he signed a recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon. He hasn’t yet played with the big American orchestras, but surely it’s just a ...

► Read the entire post

I recently interviewed a group of music competition judges, just as they were on their way to Houston for the annual Ima Hogg Competition. (That’s a name that never loses its charm!) You can read my interview here. All this made me reflect, as I do from time to time, on the pros and cons of music competitions. And in a sudden epiphany, an entirely new way of running a music competition occurred to me. Permit me to share it with you. My competition would be open to any musician in the world under the age of 30, who has already ...

► Read the entire post

On Friday April 22, I attended "the first period production of Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito in North America." It was presented by Toronto’s Opera Atelier, and it was excellent. (You can read my review, for Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper, here.) Do you know the company? Opera Atelier has been around for 25 years, presenting historically informed productions of operas from Monteverdi to Mozart. This makes them one of the first – and still one of the few – opera companies in the ...

► Read the entire post

Last night (March 17), I counted myself fortunate to be among the 100-or-so people who attended Christina Petrowska-Quilico’s piano recital at Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio. Petrowska-Quilico is a fixture on Toronto’s new-music scene, who has played works by many Canadian composers over the years. But the composer she’s most closely connected with is a relatively obscure figure (even by Canadian standards): Ann Southam, who passed away last year at the age of 73. Petrowska-Quilico’s all-Southam recital was, ...

► Read the entire post

It all began almost 50 years ago, when Joseph Shabalala had a dream – literally. In his sleep, the young South African farm hand and factory worker imagined a new a-cappella male vocal ensemble. Soon the group was a reality, and chose a name: "Ladysmith" was the town the singers came from, "Black" was a reference to black oxen, and "Mambazo" is Zulu for axe. Today, Shabalala still leads Ladysmith Black Mambazo – and from the stage of Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall on February 25, he proudly ...

► Read the entire post

I recently wrote something for the Houston Chronicle about Amy Chua's views on the value of classical music. She's the author whose memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother has been, to say the least, controversial. You can read my article here. She seems to view classical music as a means to an end, rather than an end in itself. It’s for instilling discipline and a perfectionist mindset. It’s for the cultivation of a competitive spirit. It’s for achieving social status. The music itself ...

► Read the entire post

I saw Nixon in China last week (not the Met’s production, but the Canadian Opera Company’s impressive presentation, which is currently on stage in Toronto), and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. It’s the kind of piece that stays with you for a while. One thing that strikes me about this opera is that it puts the music first. Adams’ musical style (love it or hate it) is so strong, confident and in-your-face, that Nixon feels like an opera, not a play set to music. In this way, it ...

► Read the entire post

On Sunday night, I had the delightful (and all too rare) experience of hearing an excellent composition by a composer who was new to me: Giya Kancheli. The piece was his Styx, for orchestra, chorus and solo viola; and the performers were Toronto’s Esprit Orchestra, the Elmer Iseler Singers, and violist Teng Li (principal viola of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra). In my review for Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper, I wrote: "Kancheli’s broad yet sparse musical landscape, marked by sharp ...

► Read the entire post

Last year, in my essay "What’s Wrong with Classical Music," I discussed the causes of the marginalization of classical music in the Western world today. That essay approached the topic from the outside, examining the reasons why people who don’t like classical music are put off by it. In this "sequel," classical music is approached from the inside. To do this, I’ll take a more subjective approach, addressing those aspects of the classical music world that I personally find troubling. To read this ...

► Read the entire post

I wasn’t at the Canadian Opera Company’s annual season announcement yesterday, to hear General Director Alexander Neef pitch the COC ‘s upcoming season. But music critic Robert Everett-Green of Toronto’s Globe and Mail was there. In addition to reporting on the COC’s slate of operas for 2011-12 (see here) he reported on something else. The German-born general director seemed somewhat exasperated by the suggestion that the Canadian Opera Company might want to make it a priority to perform some ...

► Read the entire post

It’s that time of year again – when orchestras proudly truck out their offerings for the next season. The ritual of the annual press conference marks the culmination of a lengthy planning process, involving many considerations and priorities. Here’s a list of the various factors that must be carefully weighed when building a successful orchestral season.   What the conductor wants A big Beethoven cycle, a bigger Mahler cycle, and also lots of guest-conducting spots for his conductor-cronies so that ...

► Read the entire post

Talking about music has been famously compared to dancing about architecture – the point being that the two media have nothing in common. But of course musicians talk about music with each other all the time. And for this purpose they have developed their own specialized vocabulary. That’s fine for the musicians. But pity the poor music critic who must address a broad readership that may or may not have much musical training. A critic must consider whether it’s effectively communicative to pepper a review with terms ...

► Read the entire post

Toronto’s classical music scene has a lot going for it. But one thing that’s never been established here is an ongoing international piano competition. Back in 1985, the Bach International Piano Competition was launched with great fanfare. Unfortunately, it proved to be a one-off event. However, its first-prize winner, Angela Hewitt, achieved a distinguished international career – thereby endowing the ephemeral event with a 100 percent success rate, in terms of selecting laureates who go places. In the first week of ...

► Read the entire post

On October 9 I attended the Canadian Opera Company’s new production of Verdi’s Aida. Indeed, it was a very new production, directed by Tim Albery, with sets and costumes by Hildegard Bechtler and Jon Morrell, respectively. In their hands, Verdi’s ancient Egypt was transplanted to the later 20th century. Was it the 1960s? The 1980s? It was hard to tell. Call it Regietheater or call it Eurotrash – the "updating" of operas has been around for a while now, and it looks like the fashion will ...

► Read the entire post

Every day I pass through Toronto’s Bathurst Street Subway Station, on the way to work. And sometimes, on days when I’m not running late, I pause to listen to the classical music that the Toronto Transit Commission pipes into the station. But as much as I enjoy being gently eased into my working day with a Mozart symphony or a Vivaldi concerto, I’m well aware that the TTC isn’t really trying to gratify my particular musical tastes. There are other motives at work here... This essay continues on the very cool ...

► Read the entire post

By now, it’s well known among those who write about music that Donald Rosenberg, a critic for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, lost his lawsuit against his employer and the Cleveland Orchestra. (To make a long story very short, Rosenberg alleged that the Plain Dealer "reassigned" him because he was writing too many unfavorable reviews of the orchestra. More details may be found here.) I mention the lawsuit here because it’s a problem that may benefit from a "Torontonian" perspective. ...

► Read the entire post

Evidently, summer has caught me napping. It wasn’t until last weekend (July 24-25) that I learned that the joint venture of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra for a summer festival in the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake (near Niagara Falls, Ontario) had been quietly shelved. This was news to me – but I can’t help thinking that the mid-July announcement was intended to go pretty much unnoticed. However, a little online research brought me up to date: a press release, dated July ...

► Read the entire post