Volume 29 Issue 2 | October & November 2023
With this issue we start a new rhythm of publication -- bimonthly, October, December, February April, June, and August. October/November is a chock-a-block two months for live music, new recordings, and news (not all of it bad). Inside: Christina Petrowska Quilico, collaborative artist honoured; Kate Hennig as Mama Rose; Global Toronto 2023 reviewed; Musical weavings from TaPIR to Xenakis at Esprit; Fidelio headlines an operatic fall; and our 24th annual Blue Pages directory of presenters. This and more.
With this issue we start a new rhythm of publication -- bimonthly, October, December, February April, June, and August. October/November is a chock-a-block two months for live music, new recordings, and news (not all of it bad). Inside: Christina Petrowska Quilico, collaborative artist honoured; Kate Hennig as Mama Rose; Global Toronto 2023 reviewed; Musical weavings from TaPIR to Xenakis at Esprit; Fidelio headlines an operatic fall; and our 24th annual Blue Pages directory of presenters. This and more.
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
DISCOVERIES | RECORDINGS REVIEWED<br />
DAVID OLDS<br />
Enigmatic Variations consists of Canadian<br />
works performed by Calgary-based violist<br />
Margaret Carey and pianist Roger Admiral<br />
(Centrediscs CMCCD 32723 cmccanada.org/<br />
product-category/recordings/Centrediscs),<br />
opening with a piece by Malcolm Forsyth<br />
(1936-2011), Steps for Viola and Piano<br />
(1978). Traditionally melodic and idiomatically<br />
well-suited to the viola, the five<br />
movements are self-explanatory: Buoyant,<br />
Strange Light, Violent, Colours and Jocular, all played adeptly by<br />
Carey and Admiral. Milton Barnes (1931-2001) is featured on three<br />
tracks, Ballade for Solo Viola (1978) and Lament and Hymn Tune<br />
Pavane for Viola and Piano (1976). Barnes was a traditionalist by<br />
nature who was schooled in the 12-tone tradition but chose to avoid<br />
avant-garde idioms in favour of tonally based expression. The pieces<br />
included here, especially Ballade, are playfully rhythmic and melodic,<br />
at times reminiscent of childhood chants and songs.<br />
The title of the disc is taken from a 2021 work commissioned<br />
from Sean Clarke (b.1983). Clarke and Carey both studied at Mount<br />
Royal University Conservatory and the variations are inspired by the<br />
“virtuosity, playing and teaching style” of several of their teachers<br />
and colleagues, as well as a landscape drawing by Carey featuring<br />
Canadian flora and fauna imbedded in a Peruvian Inca Cross. Apart<br />
from occasional sharp outbursts, the variations remain as dark and<br />
enigmatic as the opening theme.<br />
The most substantial work on this disc is the Viola Concerto Op.75<br />
by one of the most prolific composers from Quebec, Jacques Hétu<br />
(1938-2010). Hétu composed 16 concerted works for most of the<br />
instruments usually found in an orchestra and several that are not,<br />
such as ondes Martinon, amplified guitars and marimba, plus a Rondo<br />
for cello and string orchestra and a Symphonie concertante for flute,<br />
oboe, clarinet, French horn, bassoon and strings. Not to mention four<br />
full symphonies. I don’t believe any Canadian composer has come<br />
close to this orchestral output. The Viola Concerto (performed here<br />
in a piano reduction) is in four contrasting movements. Although<br />
Admiral does a fine job with the piano accompaniment, the lush<br />
colours of Hétu’s original orchestration are a bit lost in the translation.<br />
Carey’s solo viola is however, here as throughout the disc, full and<br />
present with all the nuance we would expect.<br />
In response to Carey’s request for a solo viola work, Stewart<br />
Grant (b.1948) transcribed his Two Poems – Breath of Life and The<br />
Rear View Mirror – originally composed for cello (2004). The disc<br />
concludes with a second 2021 commission, A Three Dog Night by<br />
the youngest composer represented here, Benjamin Sajo (b.1988). It’s<br />
another contemplative work, with the piano and dark-hued viola line<br />
perfectly balanced.<br />
Another Canadian disc that has been in frequent rotation here this<br />
past month is Kevin Lau: Under a Veil of Stars featuring the St. John<br />
| Mercer | Park Trio (Leaf Music LM273 leaf-music.ca). Born in 1988,<br />
Lau is on track to give Jacques Hétu a run<br />
for the money in orchestral output. An<br />
almost ubiquitous figure on the GTHA<br />
music scene, Lau has served as composerin-residence<br />
or affiliate composer with the<br />
Toronto, Mississauga and Niagara Symphony<br />
Orchestras, the Banff Centre and currently,<br />
the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra. In addition,<br />
his works have been performed by the National Arts Centre,<br />
Winnipeg Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Hamilton Philharmonic<br />
and Tampa Bay Symphony Orchestras and the National Ballet of<br />
Canada, for which he has composed two major works. This release<br />
is devoted to his chamber music, including works for piano trio and<br />
subsets thereof.<br />
The extended title work is in three movements that are evocatively<br />
brought to life in the music: The Stars are Never Still; Land of<br />
Poison Trees and In that Shoreless Ocean. In his intimate program<br />
note Lau describes the impetus for the work, and how it changed<br />
with the death of the dedicatee, violinist Yehonatan Berick. Berick,<br />
along with his life partner cellist Rachel Mercer and pianist Angela<br />
Park comprised the AYR Trio who commissioned the work. Lau says<br />
the three movements depict a life cycle chronicling childhood, adulthood<br />
and old age. Renowned soloist and chamber musician Scott<br />
St. John has taken on the emotionally difficult task of replacing<br />
Berick in this trio’s configuration, not only in the trio works but<br />
also in Intuitions No.2, a violin and cello duo written for Berick and<br />
Mercer, and If Life Were a Mirror for violin and piano. This latter work<br />
comprises reflections on Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror in the<br />
Mirror), in which we hear numerous echoes of familiar tunes from<br />
Bach and other icons, “musical artifacts that reflect one another like<br />
a hall of mirrors.” The former was composed as part of a set of pieces<br />
designed to be played by partners living in the same bubble during<br />
the pandemic lockdowns, and the latter was completed just before the<br />
COVID-19 outbreak.<br />
The other trio works include two from 2007, Piano Trio No.1 and<br />
Timescape Variations, and A Simple Secret from 2019. The Dreamer<br />
for solo piano fills out the disc. Mercer and Park have worked together<br />
in various combinations over many years, including the piano quartet<br />
Ensemble Made in Canada, and their compatibility and intuitive partnership<br />
are on fine display here. St. John’s playing fits with these two<br />
like a glove, partly I’m sure due to Lau’s idiomatic and skilfully crafted<br />
music. A very satisfying release.<br />
Gerald Cohen – Voyagers presents chamber<br />
music by this American composer<br />
performed by the Cassatt String Quartet<br />
with guest soloists Narek Arutyunian (clarinets)<br />
and trombonist Colin Williams (innova<br />
090 innova.mu). Cohen (b.1960) is a Jewish<br />
cantor and professional baritone as well as<br />
a composer and his music often reflects his<br />
54 | <strong>October</strong> & <strong>November</strong> <strong>2023</strong> thewholenote.com