Dr. Colin Eatock, composer
  • Home
  • About Colin Eatock
  • Composing
  • Catalogue of works
  • Writing about music
  • Eatock Daily (blog)
  • New and upcoming
  • Contact me

The Knights Chamber Orchestra

2/17/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
Eric Jacobsen leads the Knights.
In recent years, there’s been a flowering of new chamber orchestras in the USA. Here’s an article I wrote about one of them – the Knights – from Saturday’s Houston Chronicle.

The Knights sounds like the name of a street gang from West Side Story.

But no, it’s a Brooklyn chamber orchestra, made up mostly of young hot-shot players – founded by two musical brothers, cellist Eric and violinist Colin Jacobsen.

As Eric Jacobsen tells it, the history of the orchestra dates to about 2000, when teenaged music students would get together in his Long Island home to play for the fun of it. They jokingly called themselves the Knights of the Many-Sided Table.



Read More
0 Comments

The COC's Clemenza di Tito

2/11/2013

2 Comments

 
Picture
McCausland as Tito (photo: Michael Cooper).
The gods have not been kind to the Canadian Opera Company’s cast of La clemenza di Tito. At the performance I heard on Saturday (February 9), it was announced that star tenor Michael Schade, in the title role, was unwell and would not appear. Furthermore, Keri Alkema, singing Vitellia, was also unwell but had consented to perform. And at the previous performance, it was Isabel Leonard, as Sesto, who was ill and had to be replaced – but Leonard returned on Saturday without caveats.

So by all rights this could have been a rough night at the Four Seasons Centre. But what transpired was astonishing, with everyone on stage giving a brilliant vocal performance. And with a tight, lively and theatrically committed effort from all, this Tito was a chain with no weak link.


Much credit for this is due to conductor Daniel Cohen, whose fluid and mercurial handling of the cast and the COC Orchestra made for a musically vivid evening. The pace was brisk yet the music was detailed. Even the recitatives were well shaped and engaging.



Read More
2 Comments

Tristan, Isolde – and Peter Sellars

2/9/2013

2 Comments

 
Picture
Would you buy an opera from this man?
Last night I braved a blast of wintry Toronto weather to take in the Canadian Opera Company’s Tristan und Isolde. The production opened on January 29 with what was, by all accounts a strong cast, with Ben Heppner and Melanie Diener in the title roles. (See here, here or here.) But I heard the “B cast,” featuring tenor Michael Baba and soprano Margaret Jane Wray.

This Tristan is the brainchild of the brilliantly inventive director Peter Sellars, and was originally staged at the Paris Opéra in 2005. (We haven’t had any T und I in Toronto since 1987, so it was certainly high time for some more!) Embracing and expanding Wagner’s concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk, Sellars added cinema to the operatic mix in a big way.



Read More
2 Comments

Music High and Low

2/7/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
Some take one road, some take the other.
Over at San Francisco Classical Voice, Michael Zweibach has argued that classical music fans may be harming the music they love by insisting on its unique status as “high art.” I think he’s right about that. And there’s much else in his clever editorial that I can support, as well. (You can read his essay here.)

I agree that placing art and entertainment in opposition to one another can lead to a false either/or dichotomy. And I share Zweibach’s interest in those performers who are leading the way to reinvent the classical concert experience. They are fighting the Good Fight, and I wish them well!



Read More
0 Comments

Esprit Plays the Rite

2/1/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
There were no riots for the Rite in Toronto.
Toronto’s Esprit Orchestra was back at Koerner Hall last night – with a program that was, for Esprit, a little unusual.

The first half of the concert was pretty much what you’d expect from Canada’s new-music orchestra: a world premiere (Paul Frehner’s Phantom Suns), and a “contemporary Canadian classic” (Claude Vivier’s Orion). But the second half of the program was given over to Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.


There were no riots at Koerner Hall last night – but Esprit’s choice to tackle the Rite was an eyebrow-raising decision. The piece turns 100 this year, making it surely one of the oldest works Esprit has ever performed. By music director Alex Pauk’s standards, it was a rare foray into “early music.”


Read More
0 Comments

    Eatock Daily

    I'm a composer based in Toronto – and this is my classical music blog, Eatock Daily.

    When I first started blogging, Eatock Daily was a place to re-post the articles I wrote for Toronto’s Globe and Mail and National Post newspapers, the Houston Chronicle, the Kansas City Star and other publications.

    But now I have stepped back from professional music journalism, and I'm spending more time composing.

    These days, my blog posts are infrequent, and are mostly concerned with my own music. However, I do still occasionally post comments on musical topics, including works I've discovered, enjoyed, and wish to share with others.


    – CE

    Archives

    March 2022
    July 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    June 2020
    September 2019
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011

    Index

    Click here for an alphabetical list of blog entries.

    RSS Feed

    Follow colineatock on Twitter
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.