Volume 24 Issue 3 - November 2018

MARCO BORGGREVE
diverse selections.
Music Toronto stalwarts, the Gryphon Trio, celebrate their 25th
anniversary season on December 6, with a variety of works – Mozart,
Silvestrov, Pärt and others – before moving into Paul Frehner’s
Bytown Waters (commissioned to celebrate the Trio’s milestone), and
Brahms’ fully packed Piano Trio in C Major, Op.87.
John Storgårds conducts the TSO in November.
CLASSICAL & BEYOND QUICK PICKS
!!
NOV 2 AND 3, 8PM: Pianist Charles-Richard Hamelin (recently named piano
mentor at TSM 2019), is the soloist in Brahms’ dramatic Piano Concerto No.1 with the
Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony led by Andrei Feher.
!!
NOV 4, 6:30PM: Sheila Jaffé, violist in the COC Orchestra, puts on her violinist
hat as she joins violinist Jeffrey Dyrda (who recently concluded three seasons as
second violin of the Rolston String Quartet), Emmanuelle Beaulieu Bergeron (TSO
associate principal cello) and Pocket Concerts co-director, violist Rory McLeod, in
Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No.2, Op.13 and Garth Knox’s Satellites, one of the
Kronos’ Quartet’s 50 for the Future commissions.
!!
NOV 12, 8PM: The Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society presents two
former members of the fondly remembered Cypress String Quartet, Cecily Ward,
violin, and Ethan Filner, viola, and Aaron Schwebel (concertmaster of the National
Ballet of Canada Orchestra and associate concertmaster of the COC Orchestra),
performing works for two violins and viola by Dvořák, Prokofiev, Kodály and more.
!!
NOV 15, 7:30PM: York University Faculty of Music presents Duo Forte – Christina
Petrowska Quilico and Shoshana Tellner – in a program of danceable four-handed
piano repertoire that includes Barber’s Souvenirs, Gershwin’s Cuban Overture, Arthur
Benjamin’s Jamaican Rhumba, Kapustin’s jazzy Slow Waltz, Ravel’s brilliant La Valse
and Piazzolla’s urgent Libertango.
!!
NOV 16, 7:30PM: U of T Faculty of Music presents the New Orford String Quartet
and guests performing two cornerstones of the chamber music repertoire: Brahms’
masterful Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op.34 and Mendelssohn’s dazzling Octet Op.20.
!!
NOV 21, 8PM; NOV 23, 7:30PM; NOV 24, 8PM: Pianist Kirill Gerstein brings his
improvisatory sensibility to Beethoven’s free-flowing Piano Concerto No.4 in G Major,
Op.58 while John Storgårds conducts the TSO; the not-to-be-missed program also
includes Ravel’s kinetic Boléro.
!!
NOV 25, 2:30PM: Violinist Aisslinn Nosky returns to conduct the Niagara Symphony
Orchestra in Beethoven’s essential Symphony No.3 “Eroica,” as well as taking the solo
part in Haydn’s Violin Concerto in G Major.
!!
NOV 30 AND DEC 1, 8PM: Stewart Goodyear, piano, Bénédicte Lauzière, violin, and
John Helmers, cello, join conductor David Danzmayr and the Kitchener-Waterloo
Symphony in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in C Major, Op.56, a rare opportunity to hear
this underrated work for an unusual combination of soloists.
!!
DEC 2, 3:15PM: Mooredale Concerts presents the aptly named Artistic Directors
Trio in works by Schumann, Handel and more. Pianist Wonny Song is the artistic and
executive director of Orford Music (Quebec) and Mooredale Concerts. Violinist Tien-
Hsin Cindy Wu is artistic partner of the Da Camera Society (Los Angeles) and assistant
director of the New Asia Chamber Music Society (New York City). Violist Wei-Yang Lin
is artistic director of the New Asia Chamber Music Society. Intriguing.
Paul Ennis is the managing editor of The WholeNote.
Beat by Beat | Choral Scene
Aural Remembrance
for a New Generation
BRIAN CHANG
One hundred years ago, World War I raged on the battlefields of
Europe, across the Middle East, in Southeast Asia and in proxy
battles the world over. This year, the generation coming of age
has lived entirely in the new millennium. Their experience of war is
drastically different from the textbooks and grainy history videos in
Grade 9 and 10 classes. Their experience of war is that of insurgency
in Afghanistan, invasion of Iraq, annexation of Crimea, the global war
on terrorism, and irregular migration. The terms they hear are drones,
airstrikes, cyberterrorism, IEDs and asymmetrical warfare. Long past
are the stories of trenches, machine guns, Spitfires, barbed wire, tanks
and mustard gas.
As new generations of musicians explore works of commemoration,
the older histories and stories don’t fade, they evolve. This
month, the Choral Scene explores how children’s choirs are marking
Remembrance Day.
The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month…
In 2014, Paul Cummins and Tom Piper’s Blood Swept Lands and
Seas of Red was a public arts installation entailing the placement of
888,246 poppies in the moat of the Tower of London; one handmade
ceramic poppy for each of the British fallen in WWI. Elise Bradley,
artistic director of the Toronto Children’s Chorus (TCC), remembers
this particular exhibit well. Four years on, we are approaching
the centenary of the Armistice – 11am, November 11, 1918. “As a
teacher and as a musician, I felt it was important to commemorate
the 100th anniversary of the Armistice that led to the end of World
War I,” Bradley shares. “In 2014, I had witnessed many stirring events
which honoured the start of the War…but to me, it seemed even more
important to mark the end of the War.”
Bradley was born in New Zealand. On November 11 at 7:30, she will
be joined by a host of Canadian guests, including Lydia Adams and
the Elmer Iseler Singers, along with Australian-born accompanist
Lara Dodds-Eden, and Bob Chilcott from England. Bradley highlights
the four Commonwealth nations represented: Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, and the UK – all allies during WWI. “It is vitally important
that we know about our history – but sharing it through music adds
a very personal and emotional dimension to our understanding.” The
concert will present works from all four countries.
From her New Zealand home, Bradley brings a particular history
based on her long experience with Maori peoples and culture. “A
Maori battalion fought on the fields of Gallipoli,” she says. “Part of
the concert will be performing a full kapa haka piece of welcome and
dedication to those who have passed.” Bradley holds a unique honour,
being bestowed by the Wehi whānau (Wehi family), to act as guardian
of the musical legacy and tradition of Ngapo and Pimia Wehi. Only
two people outside of the family have this honour, which Bradley
holds dearly, having worked with the family for over 25 years. “Where
I go, the music can go, but I cannot leave it behind,” she shares. “Part
of the guardianship is to honour and respect the music including the
performance aspect of the art and dance.”
From the UK, Bob Chilcott is prominently featured, conducting
smaller works and his larger sacred works: Peace Mass and Canticles
of Light. Canadian Andrew Balfour, of Cree descent, wrote the work
Ambe, based on an Ojibway song gifted by Cory Campbell. Local
Toronto Ismaili composer Hussein Janmohamed’s Rest for a Soul is
also on the set list. The concert features the world premiere of three
WWI popular songs in arrangements commissioned by the TCC from
Stuart Calvert: It’s a Long Way to Tipperary, Keep the Home Fires
Burning, and Keep Right on till the End of the Road. The Elmer Iseler
20 | November 2018 thewholenote.com