Blog Archives

Mr. Lang Comes to Town

11/9/2011

The stylish Lang Lang.

Lang Lang is in Toronto for the next two weeks, with Beethoven on his mind. Here’s my official welcome, from yesterday’s Globe and Mail.

Chinese pianist Lang Lang is no stranger to Canada. Over the years he’s played with orchestras in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa. And this month he’s back, with all five Beethoven piano concertos in his suitcase. They’re the perfect vehicle for a young pianist with something to prove – or disprove, as the case may be.

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Angela Hewitt in Toronto

11/8/2011

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Hewitt and her Fazioli.

Here’s my review from today’s Globe and Mail newspaper of Angela Hewitt’s recital in Toronto on the weekend.

Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt has lived in Britain for many years – but she’s just finished up a visit to her homeland, with performances in Toronto and Ottawa. In Toronto, she played a recital on Sunday afternoon to a packed house at the Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall – an intriguingly mixed program of Bach and French repertoire.

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The “Artistic Agony” of Jennifer Koh

11/7/2011

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Violinist Jennifer Koh.

Here’s an interview with violinist Jennifer Koh I published in the Houston Chronicle a few days ago. She’ll play a solo violin recital in Houston tomorrow – replacing pianist Simone Dinnerstein. Recently, Ms. Koh gave a marathon recital in New York – and her comments here reveal what an overwhelming experience it was for her.

No doubt, Da Camera Houston subscribers were looking forward to Simone Dinnerstein’s all-Bach program this week. But when the acclaimed pianist canceled, citing ill health, the Da Camera folks were left scrambling for a replacement.

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Happy Tiger Mother’s Day!

11/6/2011

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Lots of "grapes of wrath" here!

Throughout North America, today is the last day of daylight saving time. All across the continent, people have set their clocks back an hour.

It occurs to me that such an unusual day in the calendar ought to be acknowledged with some kind of special name. Because on this day, it’s possible for all those aspiring hot-shot musicians out there – the whiz-kids who practice 24 hours a day – to practice for 25 hours.

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Grimaud vs. Abbado: the Winner is Music

11/5/2011

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Grimaud at the keys.

On the surface, this looks like a sad tale of artistic disaster, driven by pride and fussiness. But upon closer inspection, it is, I think, a good-news story.

I’m referring to the “divorce” between pianist Claudio Abbado and Hélène Grimaud, over which cadenza would be included in their recording of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 with Orchestra Mozart. (You can read about it here, or here.) Abbado favoured the one Mozart wrote; Grimaud wanted to play a cadenza written by Busoni.

To make a long story short, their disagreement on this point derailed the recording of the piece they had made together.

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Stefan Jackiw and the TSO

11/4/2011

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Violinist Stefan Jackiw.

Here’s my review of violinist Stefan Jackiw, with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, from today’s Globe and Mail newspaper. (It was the first time I’d heard him – and I certainly hope it won’t be the last.)

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s program on Wednesday evening was an “Afterworks” program, so it contained just two works: Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 7.

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How Cool is This?

11/3/2011

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Snoopy says it all.

Last week, I published an article on the website 3 Quarks Daily. It’s called How Cool Conquered the Western World, and it's one of the few things I’ve written that isn’t directly about music.

However, it started out as a musical essay: I was going to examine the question of whether classical music is or isn’t cool. Pretty soon, I came to the conclusion that it isn’t, so I shifted my topic of discussion to the question of what, exactly, “cool” means. This was something of a stretch for me, but I consulted several experts, who were kind enough to point me in the right directions.

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When is the Tokyo Quartet not the Tokyo Quartet?

11/1/2011

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The Tokyos: Isomura (front centre) is the last founding member.

According to Norman Lebrecht’s blog, Slipped Disc, the Tokyo String Quartet’s two Japanese members – violist Kazuhide Isomura and second violinist Kikuei Ikeda – will be retiring in 2013 This will leave the Canadian first violinist Martin Beaver and the English cellist Clive Greensmith to rebuild the group.

A year and a half is plenty of advance notice, and I’m hopeful that Beaver and Greensmith will come up with two more fine string players to “fill in the middle” (so to speak) of the quartet.

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Forward>>

Mr. Lang Comes to Town

Angela Hewitt in Toronto

The “Artistic Agony” of Jennifer Koh

Happy Tiger Mother’s Day!

Grimaud vs. Abbado: the Winner is Music

Stefan Jackiw and the TSO

How Cool is This?

When is the Tokyo Quartet not the Tokyo Quartet?

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