Baroque and Early - my/maSCENA

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Newswire | World Premiere of The Queen of Carthage at Early Music Vancouver Summer Festival

By Newswire on 28 March 2023 Baroque and Early, Classical Music, Newswire

Vancouver, 28 mars 2023 – Early Music Vancouver (EMV) announced today the dates for this year’s summer festival along with a new name. The 2023 Early Music Vancouver Summer Festival (previously named Vancouver Bach Festival) will take place July 27 to August 5 at various venues including SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, Christ Church Cathedral, Pyatt Hall, The Orpheum Annex, West Vancouver United Church, and St. James Community Square. The theme of the 2023 Early Music Vancouver Summer Festival is WOMENinSIGHT – celebrating women composers, librettists, and performers of the past and present. Inspired by Christine de Pizan (1364-ca.1430)…

CD Review | Theme: Variation (Leaf music, 2023)

By Zenith Wolfe on 28 March 2023 Baroque and Early, Canadian Music, CD and Book Reviews, Classical, Piano

Theme: Variation David Rogosin, piano Leaf Music, 2023 Theme: Variation shouldn’t be taken casually—the solo piano album is a thought-provoking, conceptual experiment that deserves many rounds of active listening. David Rogosin begins Orlando Gibbons’s The Italian Ground, followed by Mein Junges Leben Hat Ein End and Est-ce Mars, both composed by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. These compositions start slow and quiet before developing into fast, loud performances, demonstrating how variation in tempo and volume impact tone. This is a grace period that eases the listener into Rogosin’s concept of “variation.” He soon introduces Chopin’s Berceuse, Op. 57 to illustrate how a…

CD Review | The Handel Project (Deutsche Grammophon, 2023)

By Pietro Freiburger on 28 March 2023 Baroque and Early, CD and Book Reviews, Piano, Romantic

The Handel Project / Handel: 3 Suites; Brahms: Handel Variations Seong-Jin Cho, piano Deutsche Grammophon, 2023 The new CD by pianist Seong-Jin Cho, winner of the 2015 Warsaw Chopin Competition, revolves around Handel. The disc contains three Suites by the composer; the Variations on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24, by Johannes Brahms; the Sarabande from the Suite in B-flat major, HWV 440; and the arrangement by Wilhelm Kempff of the Minuet from the Suite in B-flat major, HWV 434. The CD opens with the Adagio from the Suite in F major, HWV 427, which Cho interprets with balance in…

Boston Early Music Festival: A Celebration of Women

By An Ven on 27 March 2023 Baroque and Early, Classical Music

The Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF) has taken place every other year since 1981. This year’s festivities will be devoted to women in early music, from the Middle Ages to the present day. The primary BEMF mission is to highlight lesser-known operas from the early-music era—historically informed vocal/choral and instrumental interpretations are further enriched by period set designs, costumes, dance, and staging. These have been redesigned by stage director, opera designer, and baroque French opera and theatre specialist Gilbert Blin. The BEMF has become one of the world’s major early-music events since its inception, offering multiple programs and activities, especially…

Bernard Labadie: Music Fit for Kings

By Justin Bernard on 26 March 2023 Baroque and Early, Orchestral

When Bernard Labadie builds his repertoire, Handel’s music is a contender. In December 2021, he directed the Messiah as guest conductor of the NAC symphony orchestra in a program of works from composers influenced by that baroque master. In early April, he will be at the rostrum for an MSO performance of The Creation by Haydn, an oratorio Labadie considers to be closer to Handel than Bach. A month later, on May 10 and 12, the conductor returns to his beloved ensemble, Les Violons du Roy, for an all-Handel program comprised of the Four Coronation Anthems and other works of…

CD Review | Multiple Voices for One (Leaf Music, 2023)

By Andrea Rush on 18 February 2023 Baroque and Early, CD and Book Reviews, Strings

Multiple Voices for One David Greenberg, baroque & octave violins Leaf Music, 2023 Fascination with the Baroque era is as current as ever. David Greenberg, arranger, composer and violinist, continues to showcase his eclectic talents in his latest project, Multiple Voices for One, which is like Greenberg Variations in the style of Bach. The tapestry is threaded with folk-cultural motifs reminiscent of Cape Breton fiddling, Scottish jigs and Klezmer music. Dance-like contours demonstrate the depth of having studied early music at Indiana University and performance with the celebrated Tafelmusik ensemble. Recorded at Bauman Auditorium in Newberg, Ore., each “mashup” mysteriously exudes one…

Tam Photography

Mendelssohn Choir – Journey through Bach’s B Minor Mass

By Denise Lai on 3 February 2023 Baroque and Early, Choral, Classical Music

Conductor Jean-Sébastien Vallée programmed his second season at the helm of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir (TMC) under the theme of journeys. On March 18, TMC performs David Lang’s Little Match Girl Passion, inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s famous tale about a poverty-stricken youngster sent out into the cold by her father to sell matches. The journey of this young girl serves as a stark reminder of the problems of hunger and homelessness in our world, where hope and memories meet the harsh reality of the snowy streets. This modern work is strongly inspired by the music of J.S. Bach, and…

Dorothéa Ventura

La Nef presents: Tout tourne and Red Sky at Night

By Arnaud G. Veydarier on 3 February 2023 Baroque and Early, Chamber Music

Duly recognized for its quality concert presentations, La Nef is equally known for bold programming choices that feature centuries-old music, folk traditions, and contemporary stylings. Tout tourne, the first of its New Year offerings, pairs two figureheads of the local baroque musical scene, flutist Vincent Lauzer and harpsichordist Dorothéa Ventura, with dancer François Richard. This music and dance encounter is all the more unusual and unique as it weds baroque virtuosity to the tune of modern American minimalism. The second event on tap, Red Sky at Night, will feature vocalist and cittern specialist Seán Dagher in a program of traditional…

Bourgie Hall: First Gesualdo Six Concert on Quebec Soil

By Justin Bernard on 31 January 2023 Baroque and Early, Choral

Bourgie Hall has kick-started the year with a plethora of concerts. Local musicians and ensembles—such as SMAM (Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal) on Feb. 12, Les Violons du Roy on Feb. 24, Nicolas Ellis and Cameron Crozman on March 10, and Orchestre Métropolitain, directed by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, on March 26—and international musicians are front and centre. The Gesualdo Six will make their debut in Quebec. Renowned for their Renaissancerepertoire performances, the United Kingdom-based Gesualdo Six will give a one-of-a-kind concert in Montreal on Feb. 21. Montreal will be the final stop of the singers’North American tour that took them…

Sylvain Bergeron. Photo: Guillaume D. Cyr

La Nef presents Per violino e liuto and Long Way Home

By Arnaud G. Veydarier on 1 October 2022 Baroque and Early, Canadian Music, Folk, Violin, World Music

After two years of pandemic, La Nef is taking to the sea again this fall with a very eclectic program, between world and early music. Their 2022-23 season opens in October with Per violino e liuto, an intimate evening of baroque and popular repertoire from the 17th century, followed in November with a program inspired by Nordic and Middle Eastern musical traditions. For violin and lute Presented on Oct. 16 at the Maison de la culture Maisonneuve, Per violino e liuto will feature two of the city’s finest baroque music performers, multi-instrumentalist Sylvain Bergeron and rising violin star Marie Nadeau-Tremblay.…

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