Blog Archives

Oundjian and Perlman at the TSO

4/30/2012

Teacher and student, together in Toronto.

The music was by Mozart, Bach and Tchaikovsky – but the TSO’s concert on Saturday night was really all about two living musicians.

The two musicians were Peter Oundjian and Itzhak Perlman, sharing the stage at Roy Thomson Hall. However, their usual roles were reversed: Oundjian, the TSO’s music director for the last eight years, appeared as a “guest” violinist; and for most of the concert, virtuoso-violinist Perlman served as the TSO’s conductor.

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Shakespeare as a Music Critic

4/23/2012

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"Thou droning full gorged infection!"

I’ve just learned that the mayor of Chicago has declared April 23 to be “Talk Like Shakespeare Day.” (See here.)

The date is aptly chosen, as it’s Shakespeare’s birthday. However, it’s not clear by what authority Chicago’s mayor has made this proclamation. And, having visited the Windy City once or twice, I find it hard to imagine any place where people generally speak less like the Bard of Avon.

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Tokyo Quartet to Retire

4/20/2012

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The Tokyo String Quartet.

This just in: the Tokyo String Quartet will disband at the end of the 2012-13 season.

The news comes as a bit of a shock. Only a few months ago the quartet announced it would be replacing retiring violist Kazuhide Isomura and second violinist Kikuei Ikeda with new players.

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Opera Atelier's Armide

4/19/2012

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A scene from Opera Atelier's Armide.

Here’s my review from today’s Globe and Mail newspaper.

When Toronto’s Opera Atelier announced that its production of Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Armide would be touring to Paris this spring, it sounded like a big step.

But, as anyone who attends Armide will learn, the big step looks to be a surefooted one. Toronto’s “period” baroque opera company has drawn on resources it’s built up over the years to remount a 2005 production that’s firing on all cylinders.

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Interview with Jon Kimura Parker

4/13/2012

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Pianist Jon Kimura Parker

Here is an interview with Jon Kimura Parker that I wrote for today’s Houston Chronicle.

Like most concert pianists, Houston’s Jon Kimura Parker gives performances all over the world. This season alone, his engagements take him from England to Hawaii.

Yet Friday-Sunday he’ll be commuting between Jones Hall and his home in Southampton to play Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1, with the Houston Symphony and guest conductor Pablo Heras-Casado.

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Operatic Fathers and Sons

4/12/2012

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John Relyea, son of Gary Relyea.

Here’s something that I wrote for today’s Globe and Mail newspaper. And here’s a trivia challenge: John and Gary Relyea have only once appeared in the same opera production. Can anyone name it?

Samuel Johnson famously called opera “an exotic and irrational entertainment,” but there are a few people in the world who can also justifiably call it something else: the family business.

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Advertising on CBC Radio 2

4/10/2012

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Where are Radio 2's friends now?

A few days ago, buried within the news that the federal government is slashing the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s budget, the CBC announced it intends to ask the CRTC to permit paid advertising on its Radio 2 network. (See here.)

This sounds like a lose-lose situation, if ever there was one. It also sounds like proof of the existence of karma.

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Oundjian and Perlman at the TSO

Shakespeare as a Music Critic

Tokyo Quartet to Retire

Opera Atelier's Armide

Interview with Jon Kimura Parker

Operatic Fathers and Sons

Advertising on CBC Radio 2

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