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CD Review | Bruce Liu/Bach: French Suite No. 5 (Deutsche Grammophon, 2023)

By Pietro Freiburger on 29 May 2023 Baroque and Early, CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Piano

Bruce Liu/Bach: French Suite No. 5, BWV 816 Bruce Liu, piano Deutsche Grammophon, 2023 The new album by Bruce Liu, winner of the last Chopin Competition in Warsaw and former student of the Université de Montréal, revolves around Bach. Specifically, French Suite No. 5 in G major. In general, the interpretation is balanced and expressive; the listener will appreciate Liu’s best quality: his sound, always rich and warm. Nevertheless, what is sometimes missing is greater sharpness, both in touch and in the choice of tempi. The Allemande, which opens the Suite, showcases Liu’s cantabile, touching and intimate, as well as…

CD Review | Clara & Robert Schumann Piano Concertos (Warner Classics, 2023)

By Paul E. Robinson on 29 May 2023 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Piano

Clara & Robert Schumann Piano Concertos Robert Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54; Clara Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 7. Beatrice Rana, piano; Chamber Orchestra of Europe; Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor Warner Classics 5054197296284 Total Time: 57:20 Beatrice Rana won the Montreal International Competition in 2011 at the age of 18. Now 30 years old, this fine Italian pianist is in demand all over the world. Clara Schumann wrote her only piano concerto when she was just 14 and gave it its first performance with Mendelssohn conducting. Because she was “only a woman” her concerto has languished…

Isidore String Quartet

Festival Picks

By Eva Stone-Barney on 26 May 2023 Baroque and Early, Canadian Music, Chamber Music, Choral, Classical, Classical Music, Contemporary, Opera, Orchestral, Piano, Strings, Vocal

Author : (Eva Stone-Barney)

MONTREAL/QUEBEC Centre Culturel de Pointe-Claire In an effort to make cultural programming accessible to its residents, and breathe life into public park spaces, the Centre Culturel de Pointe-Claire will present a series of free concerts as part of their Summer Evenings in the Parks / Summer Beats in the Parks Festival. Running from June 28 to Aug. 16, the festival will consist of 10 concerts in parks across the city. Starting at Stewart Park on June 28, audiences are invited to a concert of world music titled Paul Kunigis: Yallah. Performances of blues, Latin jazz, world jazz, and Brazilian percussion…

Seong-Jin-Cho (Credit: Chistoph Kostlin)

Seong-Jin Cho: Beyond Chopin

By Catherine Kustanczy on 26 May 2023 Classical, Orchestral, Piano

Seong-Jin Cho shot to fame after winning first prize at the 17th Chopin International Piano Competition in 2015. Since then, Cho has played the Chopin concertos many times, but he is beginning to shine in other repertoire. Cho is keen to find new details in music, especially in the Chopin Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11, which he performed in the finals of the Chopin Competition. “I always try to discover new timing, different nuances,” Cho explains. “Chopin wrote this concerto when he was 20 years old, so it’s a different kind of romanticism than that of Mahler,…

Newswire | The Shean Competition for Strings and Piano: 6 Finalists Compete for $8,000 Top Prize

By Newswire on 12 April 2023 Classical Music, Music Competition, Newswire, Piano, Strings

Edmonton, AB – On Friday, May 19 and Saturday, May 20, 2023, six string players from across Canada will take to the stage of Muttart Hall at the Alberta College Campus of MacEwan University (10050 MacDonald Drive, Edmonton) as they vie for the $8,000 top prize in The Shean Strings Competition and the opportunity to play with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra at a later date. The competition will see the competitors perform their String Recital Programs on Friday, May 19 from 1:00 – 4:00 PM and 6:30 – 9:30 PM, and perform their String Concertos on Saturday, May 20 from…

CD Review | Durme, Durme: Four Ladino Folk Songs (Leaf music, 2023)

By Zenith Wolfe on 29 March 2023 Art Song, Canadian Music, CD and Book Reviews, Piano

Durme, Durme: Four Ladino Folk Songs Maureen Batt, soprano; Tara Scott, piano Leaf Music, 2023 With only four short compositions inspired by prayers, poems, and lullabies, composer Elisha Denburg doesn’t have much room to establish the themes of the Judeo-Spanish folk songs. Luckily, he uses time to its fullest, enlisting soprano Maureen Batt and pianist Tara Scott to convey a wide range of raw emotions by reducing vocals and piano to their bare essentials. Batt demonstrates extreme flexibility through her limited performances, switching from solemn to jolly to confident without a second thought. She accommodates this wide range of feelings…

CD Review | Fauré: Après un rêve / Lalo: Espérance (Deutsche Grammophon, 2022/3)

By Andrea Rush on 28 March 2023 CD and Book Reviews, Chamber Music, Piano, Violin

Fauré: Après un rêve / Lalo: Espérance María Dueñas, violin; Itamar Golan, piano Deutsche Grammophon (2022-23) No stranger to Canada, María Dueñas made her mark in Montreal at the age of 16, as a contestant in the 2019 CMIM Violin edition. Not long thereafter, she performed a prize-winning interpretation of Edouard Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole at the Menuhin Competition and landed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. She continues to receive invitations to play with leading orchestras, including the TSO. To the sheer delight of audiences in Toronto, Ottawa, New York and Chicago, her fiery performances of the Symphonie Espagnole this…

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…

CD Review | Valentin Silvestrov: Silent Songs (Deutsche Grammophon, 2023)

By Pietro Freiburger on 27 March 2023 Art Song, CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Piano

Valentin Silvestrov: Silent Songs Hélène Grimaud, piano; Konstantin Krimmel, baritone Deutsche Grammophon, 2023 This new CD from Deutsche Grammophon features the Five Songs and some of the Eleven Songs by Valentin Silvestrov, one of Ukraine’s leading composers. Initially an exponent of the so-called Kiev Avant-Garde, which developed around the 1960s, Silvestrov has known greater success in the style he himself refers to as “meta-music”—metaphorical music. In Silvestrov’s writing, a touching lyricism of Mahlerian inspiration and contemporary colours coexist: the language of this style is universal and precisely meant as an instrument from which the listener can give his own meaning…

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