Volume 25 Issue 4 - December 2019 / January 2020

they’ve effectively performed a different piece. “A lot of the times when
singers work with pianists,” says Rallo, “they work out every little
moment, and the performance becomes replicating this meticulous
process. Whereas this performance, I think, is more about the event of
it happening. Yes, certain things have been worked out in advance, but
every time it happens, it happens in the way that it happens.” The change
of location affects the performance: staging is slightly different each time,
and whether the musicians do a particular action (as we can see in some
of the clips that the group posted on YouTube) it’s to be decided in the
moment. “The show always begins with the first song that Phil doesn’t
sing,” says Rallo. “He basically does an action during that while they’re
playing off stage. And that action, to me, informs the entire evening. And
the way he does that action is never the same. It was never staged; it was
only given as an idea. Never said how it should be done. And it is a kind
of the seed of the evening which informs how the rest of the evening
unfolds.” Adds Sly: “I’m not the only performer, let’s keep that in mind.
All these people have their own agency and they’re making their decisions
that will be different. We’re forced to engage in the moment.”
Which is, for Sly, what performing lieder is all about. Unlike
many singers his age, the young baritone takes the art song, especially
of the German kind, extremely seriously. He eagerly performs
and records Lieder and continues to study the poetry. “It’s meeting
Dr. Deen Larsen, the founder of the Franz Schubert Institute, that
opened a whole new world for me,” he says. “There is deep satisfaction
in making those works intelligible. I am in search of a state of
flow when I’m performing lieder. That flow when it arrives is just
fantastic. Lieder – “little gems that contain the whole universe,” as
he describes them – let you say things about poetry and music that
you can’t say in opera. “In opera, you are not vulnerable continuously
for that amount of time. So there’s an almost masochistic quality to
performing lieder that I enjoy. Just getting through it is something. As
a singer, you’re part of a lineage of interpretation: I am interpreting
Schubert, Schubert is interpreting the poetry – but the only way to
truth is through my experience. In lieder, the mask is off.”
ART OF SONG QUICK PICKS
!!
DEC 5, 8PM: Music Toronto presents bass Robert Pomakov with the Gryphon Trio,
in a program of Beethoven, Mussorgsky (arr. Kulesha) and Dvořák. Never miss a
Robert Pomakov recital, is my advice. Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for
the Arts.
!!
JAN 7, 12:10PM: An onstage conversation with one of the most in-demand
lyric mezzos today, Emily D’Angelo. University of Toronto Faculty of Music. Voice
Performance Class. Walter Hall. Free and open to all.
!!
JAN 10, 8PM: Described as an “outrageous
double bill of vocal pyrotechnics,”
The Mouths That Roared concert will
feature Montreal composer/performer
Gabriel Dharmoo’s piece Anthropologies
imaginaires and soprano Janice Jackson
in a program of solo vocal compositions,
many written especially for her. The Music
Gallery, 918 Bathurst St.
!!
JAN 26, 2PM: Royal Conservatory of
Music presents mezzo Allyson McHardy
and soprano Leslie Ann Bradley in a
siren-themed program that will include
Elizabeth Raum’s Sirens: A Song Cycle for
Two Sopranos. (2003). Mazzoleni Concert
Hall.
!!
FEB 3, 7:30PM: Danika Lorèn curates
Emily D’Angelo
master’s and doctoral-level students from
the U of T Faculty of Music in a program
titled “Vocalis: A Few Figs from Thistles.” Heliconian Hall, 35 Hazelton Ave. Free and
open to the public.
Lydia Perović is an arts journalist in Toronto. Send her your
art-of-song news to artofsong@thewholenote.com.
2019-2020: The Fellowship of Early Music
“...graciously sophisticated yet subtly mischievous
[with] exquisite intonation and refinement.”
– Los Angeles Times
“The Search for
SALAMONE ROSSI”
A documentary film screening and Q&A
TUESDAY, JANUARY 21 at 7pm
INNIS TOWN HALL, U of T, 2 SUSSEX AVE.
COUNTRYSIDE
and COURT
OCTOBER 25 & 26 at 8pm
Artistic Direction by Katherine Hill, with Emilyn Stam
Whether enjoyed in refined 16th-century courts or in
today’s
Hebreo:
traditional music scene, the undeniable appeal
of French
ROSSI’S
music has endured
MANTUA
through the centuries! We
kick off Live the season concert whirling by Profeti and twirling della through Quintathe
popular “voix de ville” songs and exquisite courtly music
of Claude
JANUARY
Le Jeune and
31
his
& FEBRUARY
contemporaries,
1
combined
at 8pm
TRINITY-ST. PAUL’S CENTRE, 427 BLOOR ST. W.
with the magic of guest traditional fiddler and dancer
Emilyn Stam.
Tickets start at only $20! | 416-964-6337 | TorontoConsort.org
thewholenote.com December 2019 – January 2020 | 29