Volume 15 Issue 10 - July/August 2010

1-888-747-7550July 10, Todd Yaniw, Piano RecitalJuly 17, Les Violons du Roy, OrchestraJuly 18, David Trudgen, Counter-TenorJuly 24, I Furiosi, Baroque EnsembleFor all concert listings visit our websiteLes Violons du RoyDavid TrudgenThe Elephants areHidingc o l i n E a t o c kIn Ontario, there’s no better time to enjoy chamber music than thesummer. Throughout the months of July and August, the hills arealive with the sound of string quartets, piano trios, and every smallgrouping of instruments conceivable. Ottawa’s annual Chamber MusicFestival is often touted as the world’s largest event of its kind, andthere are many more to chose from. (See the Festival Listings sectionin this magazine.)To be sure, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with plenty of chambermusic. But what does the season offer to those with a taste forsomething grander? The symphony orchestra – the big musical institutionthat so conspicuously dominates the classical music scene duringthe rest of the year – seems to vanish during the summer months.Most of Ontario’s professional civic orchestras close up shop forthe summer. (The exception is Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra,which has concerts and also a public reading of works by youngcomposers from July 22-25.) And although it’s been talked about foryears, we still don’t have a major orchestra-based outdoor festival,like a Tanglewood or a Ravinia, in the province.Here in Toronto, the TSO is on vacation, and the summer’s orchestralpickings are especially slim. For the next two months thereare only three classical orchestralconcerts to be heard– and, unfortunately, two ofthem are on the same night!The National Youth Orchestracomes to town (August3), as part of its 50th-anniversarycross-Canada tour.Led by maestro Jacques Lacombe,the orchestra will playa demanding programme:Dukas’ Sorcerer’s Apprentice,Ravel’s La Valse, Stravinsky’sPetrouchka, and Sur les rivesdu Saint-Maurice by the lateCanadian composer JacquesHétu. This year they’ll forsaketheir traditional venueof Roy Thomson Hall for themore intimate Koerner Hallat the Royal Conservatory.On the evening of August7, music lovers will haveto choose between the KindredSpirits Orchestra at theGlenn Gould Studio and theToronto Summer Music FestivalEnsemble at the U of T’sMacmillan Theatre. UnderConductors Agnes Grossmannand Kristian Alexander.the baton of Kristian Alexander, Kindred Spirits, which just finishedits first year of operation, will perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4,and Mozart’s Piano Concert No. 23, with Hyuntak Lee as soloist. TorontoSummer Music offers Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and anew work by Canadian composer Glen Buhr. The vocal soloists in theMahler will be mezzo Roxana Constaninescu and tenor Gordon Geitz,and the performance will be conducted by Agnes Grossmann.That’s pretty much it for orchestra concerts in Toronto – but if wecast our gaze beyond Steeles Avenue, the picture brightens somewhat.There are orchestras out there – they’re just hiding. (Hiding an orchestramay sound as unlikely as hiding an elephant, but Ontario is a10 THEWHOLENOTE.COMJuly 1 - September 7, 2010