Volume 28 Issue 5 | April & May 2023

SIMON FRYER, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
OCTOBER 5, 2023 | 1.30 PM
FAURÉ QUARTETT
Dirk Mommertz, piano; Erika Geldsetzer,
violin; Sascha Frömbling, viola
Konstantin Heidrich, cello
NOVEMBER 16, 2023 | 1.30 PM
TESLA QUARTET
Ross Snyder, violin; Michelle Lie, violin
Edwin Kaplan, viola; Austin Fisher, cello
MARCH 7, 2024 | 1.30 PM
DOMINIC DESAUTELS
AND
JEAN-PHILIPPE
SYLVESTRE
Dominic Desautels, clarinet
Jean-Philippe Sylvestre, piano
with Zsófia Stefán, bassoon
APRIL 4, 2024 | 1.30 PM
FRANCINE KAY
Francine Kay, piano
INITIAL WINNER OF THE WMCT’S CAREER
DEVELOPMENT AWARD
MAY 2, 2024 | 1.30 PM
JOYCE EL-KHOURY
AND
SEROUJ KRADJIAN
Joyce El-Khoury, soprano
Serouj Kradjian, piano
Ticket Orders
By phone: 416-923-7052 x.1
Online: www.wmct.on.ca/tickets
Subscriptions: $200 | Single tickets: $50
Students Free with ID
Walter Hall, University of Toronto, Faculty of Music
80 Queen's Park (Museum Subway)
2023
2024
Dominic Desautels
Joyce El-Khoury
CLASSICAL & BEYOND | QUICKPICKS
APR 18, 8PM: The Royal Conservatory
presents the remarkable 30-year-old
Beatrice Rana in a solo piano recital.
It’s been almost nine years since the
acclaimed, Italian-born pianist made
her GTA debut during Toronto Summer
Music’s 2014 season – the pandemic
postponed a couple of bookings – but
her upcoming Koerner Hall appearance
promises to make the wait worthwhile. Bach’s elegant French
Beatrice Rana
Suite No.2 in C Minor, BWV 813 and Debussy’s challenging Pour
le piano make a delightful pairing leading to Beethoven’s postintermission
colossus, his Piano Sonata No.29 in B-flat Major,
Op.106 (“Hammerklavier”). MAY 7, 3PM: The Royal Conservatory
presents Bruce (Xiaoly) Liu in his Koerner Hall debut. In 2021, Liu
became the first Canadian to win the Chopin Piano Competition
and interest is high for his first Toronto solo appearance. Only a
handful of stage seats remain unsold at this writing for Liu’s recital
of five works by Chopin and one by Liszt. He turns 26 the next day.
APR 20, 7:30PM: Beethoven’s
Op.59 String Quartets were dedicated
to Count Andrey Razumovsky
and, like most of the composer’s
quartets, were first performed by
the Ignaz Schuppanzigh quartet.
Franz Weiss was the violist in the
ensemble that for more than 20
years acted as Beethoven’s house
band and he was also a composer;
curiously enough, Weiss dedicated
his two quartets, written
in 1813, to the music-loving
Razumovsky, in whose sumptuous
palace the quartet worked. Weiss’
astonishingly fresh and inventive
Eybler Quartet
Op.8 Nos.1&2 Quartets are by turns
hilarious, heartbreaking, profound, and, for their time, quite
daring and experimental. The Gallery Players of Niagara present
the period instrument Eybler Quartet playing these Weiss quartets
– at Heliconian Hall. APR 22, 3PM: Hammer Baroque presents the
Eyblers, who specialize in chamber music written up to the time of
Beethoven’s death, playing these “other Razumovsky quartets” in
St. John the Evangelist Church, Hamilton.
APR 21, 8PM: The Chamber Music
Society of Mississauga presents a
sparkling program, all inspired by
dance and topped by Stravinsky’s
dance with the devil, L’Histoire du
Soldat. Commissioned in 1938 by
clarinetist Benny Goodman and
violinist Joseph Szigeti, Bartók’s
Contrasts exploited the full range of
possibilities for both the clarinet and
violin. Up to this point, Bartók had
James Campbell
never composed chamber music that
included a wind instrument, so instead of blending the diverse
sounds of the three instruments, he focused on their differences.
Works by Ravel and Piazzola will also showcase the talented musicians:
James Campbell, clarinet; Sarah Fraser Raff, violin; and
Angela Park, piano; in the Erin Mills United Church, Mississauga.
WARNER CLASSICS
DAHLIA KATZ
wmct@wmct.on.ca
www.wmct.on.ca
416-923-7052
MAY 4, 8PM & MAY 5, 7:30: Highlights of a packed Toronto
Symphony Orchestra lineup as the TSO’s 100th anniversary year
nears its end. Messiaen’s massive Turangalila Symphony is the
18 | April & May, 2023 thewholenote.com