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Cleveland Orchestra, Michael Sachs, trumpet. Photo By Roger Mastroianni.

Review: Cross-border trek to Cleveland proves picture perfect

By Paul E. Robinson on 13 November 2021 Concert Reviews, Orchestral, Piano, Romantic

CLEVELAND – On Nov. 8, the American authorities decided it was safe to let Canadians enter their country by car. The next day I drove down from Toronto and crossed the border at Lewiston, New York and continued on to Cleveland. A few days later I attended a memorable concert by the Cleveland Orchestra. For someone who had been driving to Cleveland regularly since his teenage years to hear the likes of George Szell, Robert Shaw, Lorin Maazel, Pierre Boulez and Christoph von Dohnanyi leading this great orchestra, it was a welcome and overdue return to normalcy. For the record,…

Photo: Ralph Mecke, Neda Navaee

Club musical de Québec opens its 130th season

By Justin Bernard on 13 November 2021 Chamber Music, Piano, Romantic

The appearance of oboist Albrecht Mayer and pianist Fabian Müller had to be rescheduled because of the pandemic. Now that health measures allow the public to attend events and make possible the return of international artists, this pair will open the concert society’s new season. “Pieces for piano solo and others specifically for oboe or wind instrument such as Schumann’s Fantasiestücke will be played in turn, and there will also be transcriptions,’ explains Marie Fortin, executive and artistic director of the Club musical de Québec since 2013. “Two sonatas for violin and piano, by Mozart and Beethoven, will be played…

Emanuel Ax: Just Call Him “Manny”

By Lucie Renaud on 12 November 2021 Baroque and Early, Piano

A version of this article appeared in 2011. An enthralling wealth of sound that serves Brahms beautifully, a crystalline touch that conveys Mozart as if improvising, a virtuosity that remains subservient to the intelligence of musical speech: Emanuel Ax enchants audiences and critics alike. Whether performing with an orchestra or his long-time chamber music companions, including Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman; or in tandem with his fellow pianist Yefim Bronfman; or solo, as he will on Dec. 7 for the Montreal Chamber Music Festival; he succeeds in surprising. Whether you hear him for the first time or discovered him years…

Photo: Anita Znovar

The Royal Conservatory Announces Pianist Stewart Goodyear as Inaugural Artist in Residence

By Newswire on 28 October 2021 Newswire, Piano

The acclaimed pianist, composer and RCM alumnus has been appointed to a three-year term TORONTO, October 28, 2021 – The Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) has appointed internationally acclaimed pianist, composer, and RCM alumnus, Stewart Goodyear to a three-year term as its inaugural Artist in Residence. “The search for the right person who could satisfy all aspects of the multi-faceted role of Artist in Residence was not an easy one,” said Dr. Peter Simon, President & CEO of The Royal Conservatory. “Stewart is not only an acclaimed performer and composer – he is also a gifted communicator and teacher with…

Montrealer Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu Takes Gold in Warsaw

By Arthur Kaptainis on 20 October 2021 Music Competition, Piano

The Paris-born and Montreal-bred Canadian pianist Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu has won the 40,000-euro first prize of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, one of the most prestigious contests in the world. The 24-year-old graduate of the Montreal Conservatoire prevailed in dramatic fashion Wednesday evening with an emotionally refined and technically burnished performance of Chopin’s Piano Concerto in E Minor Op. 11. Results came in later than expected, a little after 8 p.m. EST – 2 a.m. in Warsaw. Possibly the delay was caused by an abundance of ex-aequo finishes – ties – that expanded the roster of main…

Courtesy: Chopin Competition

Canadian Pianists J J Jun Li Bui and Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu Make the Finals in Warsaw

By Arthur Kaptainis on 17 October 2021 Music Competition, Piano

The winner of Gold is Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu. Read the full story here. Here are the videos of the Finals. Two Canadians, J J Jun Li Bui of Toronto and Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu of Montreal, have advanced to the finals of the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. Twelve hopefuls will perform one of the two Piano Concertos of Chopin in the final round, which takes place on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at the Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall. Sessions start at 6 p.m. Warsaw time (noon EST). Four contestants are heard each day. Liu’s performance of the Piano Concerto in…

CD Review: Chopin : 24 Préludes (Richard-Hamelin)

By Arthur Kaptainis on 23 September 2021 CD and Book Reviews, Piano

Chopin : Préludes Op. 28; Andante spianato et Grande polonaise brillante Op. 22 Charles Richard-Hamelin, piano Analekta AN 2 9146 ★★★✩✩ Several months after praising his Mozart concertos to the skies, I must register some disappointment with Charles Richard-Hamelin’s most recent outing on the Analekta label. Chopin’s Préludes Op. 28 – monumental in their entirety, fascinating in their fragmentary parts – require a more individual outlook than this. The opening C Major prelude (marked Agitato) sounds nondescript and several others are stripped of their “molto” and “assai” modifiers. The little ballet that is No. 7 in A Major seems to lurch to…

Photo: Pierre-Étienne Bergeron

Bourgie Hall: 10 years and counting

By Arthur Kaptainis on 10 September 2021 Chamber Music, Interviews, Piano

“I think 100 is a good number,” Isolde Lagacé said, referencing the tally of concerts presented by Bourgie Hall in 2021-2022, up from 53 in its inaugural season 10 years ago. “To have 100 concerts, in every style, and of good quality.” A good number? More like astonishing given the array of alternatives that exist in Montreal and the challenges still posed by the pandemic. Not many chamber rooms in Canada can claim such a sum, which rises to 141 when rentals are taken into account. Or perhaps the numbers are both surprising and predictable at once, given the steady…

All Tickets on Sale September 1 for 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition

By Newswire on 1 September 2021 Classical Music, Music Competition, Newswire, Piano

FORT WORTH, Texas, August 31, 2021—The Cliburn is pleased to announce that individual tickets will go on sale tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. CT, September 1, for the sixteenth edition of its flagship Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, to be held entirely in person on June 2–18, 2022, at Bass Performance Hall and Van Cliburn Concert Hall at TCU, in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. All individual tickets will be available online at Cliburn.org or by telephone at 817.212.4280 starting at 10:00 a.m. Subscription packages remain on sale including premium, complete, and individual round subscriptions at Cliburn.org/2022-tickets. Patrons must be 10 years or older to attend. TICKET INFORMATION INDIVIDUAL TICKETS Earlier than…

Alice Sara Ott; Echoes of Life (Deutsche Grammophon)

By Norman Lebrecht on 13 August 2021 CD and Book Reviews, Lebrecht Weekly, Piano

The German-Japanese pianist, a trophy artist on Deutsche Grammophon, is facing the onset of multiple sclerosis with courage, positivism and ingenuity. On her tenth album she seeks to give the preludes of Frederic Chopin a contemporary twist by interleaving them with some of her favourite modern composers. Her daring approach changes the colouring of some of the Chopin so that certain preludes sound like shards of Philip Glass that got left on the mixing desk – not that Glass is present in the mix. The composers she chooses are compellingly more eclectic. There is the Italian Francesco Tristano, who reimagines…

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