Dr. Colin Eatock, composer
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The TSO plays Miller, Bjarnason and Lizée

3/16/2017

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PictureLizée embraces gently used technology.
The last concert in the 2017 New Creations Festival – the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s annual series of new-music programs – was the only one I was able to attend this year. Yet judging from what I saw at Saturday night’s concert at Roy Thomson Hall, it’s safe to say that NCF is continuing to attract a large and youthful audience. And judging by what I heard, it seems that this year’s guest curator, Owen Pallett, brought a very specific aesthetic leaning to his selection of the program.
 
I mention this because new music concerts are often eclectic things – as though programmers are constantly striving to underscore the great variety of styles and trends at large in the musical world (or are simply trying to hedge their bets) by presenting a little of this and a little of that. Yes, there are an awful lot of styles of new music these days – but not every contemporary program has to hammer the point home.



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Boston Symphony plays in Toronto

3/10/2017

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PicturePlaying under "Beethoven" keeps the BSO on their toes.
Sunday afternoon’s concert at Roy Thomson Hall was all about the three Bs: Beethoven, Berlioz and the Boston Symphony. And, for their first Toronto engagement in 21 years, the BSO brought along the American pianist Emanuel Ax.
 
I have no idea how many times Ax has played Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2, as he did on this occasion. But after half-a-century on the concert stage, I expect that even he has lost count. And, at the end of Sunday’s performance, I found myself hoping that he will continue to play Beethoven concertos for at least another half century.



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Soundstreams' "Odditorium"

3/10/2017

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PictureSoprano Carla Huhtanen loses her head in Odditorium.
This review was originally written for the Classical Voice North America website.
 
The Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer has never much liked opera, and he has taken pen in hand to explain exactly why:
 
“The waste of capital is more conspicuous in opera than in any of the other arts. It is also the art form most seriously hampered by the Hollywood star system. And it has taken upon itself the task of perpetuating a good many works for their musical values alone, regardless of the fact that dramatically, and in other ways, they no longer excite. Yet there it stands in the midst of society with the appetite of a dinosaur, fed by blowzy socialites.”



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    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

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