Strings - my/maSCENA

Lebrecht Weekly – Glazunov, Khachaturian: Violin Concertos (Avanti)

By Norman Lebrecht on 1 July 2016 Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly, Romantic, Violin

The archetype Russian violin concerto – Tchaikovsky’s – looms so large over the musical landscape that all others seem no more than sidebars. Two concertos (each) by Prokofiev and Shostakovich are rooted in political circumstances, inseparable from their history. Miaskovsky’s concerto never took off, despite the advocacy of David Oistrakh, Weinberg’s is emerging too slowly to be counted and the rest barely make up a respectable quorum. Apart from the present pair. Alexander Glazunov wrote his concerto in 1905 for the violin professor Leopold Auer, a formidable authority who once refused to premiere Tchaikosky’s concerto unless he made extensive changes.…

CD Review: James Ehnes & Andrew Armstrong

By Jeanne Hourez on 1 June 2016 CD and Book Reviews, Romantic, Violin

James Ehnes and Andrew Armstrong Violin Sonatas: Debussy, Elgar, Respighi, Sibelius Onyx 2016. ONYX4159. 68 min 56 s. James Ehnes and Andrew Armstrong deliver a rich, luminous CD with an original choice of works. In symbiosis from start to finish, they transport us to the different atmospheres of the pieces with refinement and poise. It was a judicious choice to combine these four composers and in particular these three sonatas, which are relatively unknown but no less interesting for that. The sonata by Debussy, one of his last works, displays his multiple colours and shadings as well as his delicate sensibility.…

Lebrecht Weekly – Joseph Haydn: Violin concertos (Panclassics)

By Norman Lebrecht on 13 May 2016 Classical, Lebrecht Weekly, Violin

It must be a seasonal thing. When fresh mushrooms simmer and asparagus gently steams, it starts raining …Haydn. Sure enough, four Haydn releases have landed this month. Decca has a positively frisky set of four symphonies, 78-81, from Ottavio Dantone and the Accademia Bizantina. The period-instrument precision is awe-inspiring, a worthy counterpoint to that epochal Decca set (1969-73) of Haydn symphonies from Antal Dorati and the Philharmonia Hungarica. Dorati changed the weather for Haydn while, with 104 symphonies, confirming the prejudice that the composer wrote too much. Other conductors gave up midway. I like Dantone’s note-perfect approach very much and…

Isabelle Faust, photo Molina Visuals

This Week in Montreal (May 2–8)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 2 May 2016 Dance, Orchestral, This Week in Montreal, Violin

End of Season at the Chapelle Historique The last concert of the series Beethoven: The Sonatas for Piano and Violin with violinist Olivier Thouin and pianist François Zeitouni will take place on May 8 at 3 pm. www.ville.montreal.qc.ca/chapellebonpasteur The MSO MSO and Danse Danse present Anatomy of a Sigh, an evening of dance and music to the sound of the Grand Orgue Pierre-Béique. With organist Jean Willy Kunz and Le Carré des Lombes dance company, in a choreography by Danièle Desnoyers to music by John Rea, Frescobaldi, Alain, and Messiaen. Maison symphonique, May 6 and 7 at 8 pm. www.osm.ca…

Christiane LeBlanc

Concours musical international de Montréal: A Growing Reputation

By Caroline Rodgers on 1 April 2016 Violin

The Concours musical international de Montréal (Montreal International Music Competition, CMIM) will take place from May 22 to June 6. The violin will take pride of place and 24 competitors will fight it out for an $86,500 prize. Christiane LeBlanc, general and artistic director of the competition, delights in stating that the CMIM’s popularity is growing from one year to another. “The most exciting piece of news for us this year has been the 70% increase in applications. We’ve managed to reach out to more people and more countries. We’re happy as this increases the competition’s international presence. It’s a…

This Week in Montreal (March 28–April 3)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 28 March 2016 Baroque and Early, Theatre, This Week in Montreal, Violin

Emerging Musicians with Pro Musica Young violinist Kerson Leong has taken the music world by storm. He won first junior prize at Oslo’s Menhuin Competition and the Tremplin in Quebec. He was named Radio-Canada Révélation winner in 2014-2015. He will play works by Ravel, Poulenc, Debussy, Fauré, Gershwin, and Dompierre. March 30, 3:30 pm. www.promusica.qc.ca/en Camerata Relives the First Viennese School When Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven experimented with the Viennese Classical Style, keyboard instruments changed forever. With Pure Classics, horn players John Zirbel and Catherine Turner will join Musica Camerata Montréal to perform a Haydn Divertimento, Mozart’s arrangement of his…

Lebrecht Weekly – Debussy, Elgar &c: violin sonatas (Onyx)

By Norman Lebrecht on 21 March 2016 Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly, Violin

After two years of creative trauma that silenced almost every leading composer, the latter half of the First World War yielded works of extraordinary intimacy. Claude Debussy, responding to a terminal diagnosis of rectal cancer, wrote three intense sonatas for varied instruments and piano. In the last concert of his life, in September 1917, Debussy accompanied Gaston Poulet in the violin sonata, a work of fizzing energy, utterly lacking lament or regret. Gone is Debussy’s distancing feline detachment. The sonata closes on a ‘very animated’ springlike dance, a smiling might-have-been. Debussy died in March 1918, within sound of German gunfire,…

This Week in Montreal (March 7–13)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 7 March 2016 Baroque and Early, Orchestral, This Week in Montreal, Violin

Return to the Violons du Roy In March Bernard Labadie will conduct the St. Matthew Passion, a major work of the Baroque and a pinnacle in western music. The score is monumental and will take 2 hours 45 minutes to perform. Soloists: John Mark Ainsley, tenor, Neal Davies, baritone, Karina Gauvin, soprano, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, contralto, Andrew Staples, tenor and Andrew Foster-Williams, bass-baritone. With the Chapelle de Québec. Maison symphonique, March 12, 7:30 pm. www.violonsduroy.com Masterpieces at Maison Symphonique In March, Montréalers have the opportunity to hear Kent Nagano and the OSM play Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring: not only one of the most…

This Week in Montreal (February 29–March 6)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 29 February 2016 Classical Music, This Week in Montreal, Violin

Series at the Chapelle Historique Cellist Yegor Dyachkov and pianist Jean Saulnier will play a mix of folk and “serious” music from the Romantic era. Works by Brahms, Dvořák and Janáček. March 3, 7:30 pm. www.ville.montreal.qc.ca/chapellebonpasteur OSM Musicians at the Maison de la Culture Frontenac Here’s an opportunity to hear OSM musicians in small ensemble formation. Andrew Wan and Olivier Thouin, violins; Neal Gripp, viola; Brian Manker, cello; and Todd Cope, clarinet. On the program: Trio in C minor, Op. 9, No. 3 by Beethoven and Clarinet Quintet in A major by Mozart. Edgar Fruitier will host the concert.…

Lebrecht Weekly – Rudi Stephan, Albéric Magnard (accentus)

By Norman Lebrecht on 29 February 2016 Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly, Violin

These two composers are joined by tragic deaths on opposite sides of the First World War. Stephan, a Munich avant-gardist, was the only soldier in his German unit to die in a September 1915 battle with Russian troops for the Galician town of Stryi. Magnard, a French traditionalist, was either shot or burned to death defending his home from German troops in September 1914. Only 28 at the time of his death, Stephan was little known outside German new music circles and not well liked within them. A young man of strong opinions and no tolerance for sycophancy, he…

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