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The Black, White & Grey Of The February Blues

February sits in the musical calendar like a trailhead parking lot in a fine provincial park. From it you can set out on any one of a number of paths, depending on whether you are interested in explorations of the short, medium or long-term kind.

The most immediate of the outlooks February offers is what’s going on within the month itself. But be warned. For the shortest month of the year, this issue’s listings pack quite a punch! This may be because, as Jack MacQuarrie speculates in Bandstand on page 27, “all the behind-the-scenes efforts of winter rehearsals ... spring into a variety of programs well before Mother Nature takes her own leap into spring.” Or it may be that we, the audience, hardwired for frivolity during the silly season, have shown ourselves over the years to be good and ready for something more sustaining once the days begin to lengthen. Or that resigned to a month of daily grind, only music (and lots of it) will do to keep the February blues away.

Another interesting way to view this month is that it is the launchpad for the whole second half of the concert season – so if, fuelled by your own resolve, you set out this month to make some new musical acquaintance, it’s early enough in the new year that you will have other opportunities to seek out that artist or presenter or composer or venue again, before the end of the regular season.

Beyond these two paths of inquiry, February is also the starting point for two other longer-term inquiries: first, it’s never too early, it seems, to begin planning for summer; second, right now is when we start getting tantalizing glimpses of what the next full season (2015/16) will have to offer. In both cases, these early whispers will crescendo to a dull roar over the course of the spring, but even now they threaten to distract us from the task of living, mindfully, in the present musical moment.

Regarding thoughts of summer, as Sara Constant points out in her introduction to On The Road (page 53), planning for summer music education tends to fall into place the earliest, for educators and students alike. So we are starting On the Road a full month earlier this year, with a couple of early educator interviews to get the ball rolling.

Even more distracting than thoughts of summer in terms of staying in the musical moment, this is also the time when the town’s musical biggies make with their 2015/16 season announcements, an act akin to waving a Dufflet dessert menu in the face of diners still rewardingly ruminating over their mains.

The Canadian Opera Company was, as usual, the first out of the blocks with a mid-January launch. (Chris Hoile summarizes the essentials in On Opera on page 19.) Incidentally, this year’s COC launch set the bar very high for events of this kind; a 90-minute hosted event in the FSCPA main hall, with full orchestra and soloists onstage, providing musical emphasis for each reveal. (The audience was not your usual sprinkling of scribblers, corporate sponsors and board members either – more like 800 to 1000 subscribers and donors packed the lowers rings of the hall, many of whom were lining up close to an hour before the building opened.

The next big formal launch event, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra on January 29, will have come and gone in the very moment that this issue hits the street. But thanks to Wende Bartley’s extraordinary cover story interview with Barbara Hannigan (page 8) a few magic beans have already been spilled! The TSO has confirmed that Hannigan will be back in the fall not just to sing but to conduct! (Details in Bartley’s story.)

All potentially very distracting, but I should tell you I’ve particularly enjoyed just browsing the listings this month for all the quirky and random juxtapositions they throw up on the beach of the mind! What were the odds, for example, that two ensembles with names as eerily similar as Scaramella and Swamperella would show up side by side at the very end of the very last day in this month’s listings? (See March 7, GTA). And only two subway stops apart. Think of it: an early evening in Telemann’s Paris (bass viol, baroque violin and flute, harpsichord) followed by a short stroll to rock the Mardi Gras night away to the strains of Cajun and Zydeco dance music, as deeply rooted in the history of swampy Louisiana (named for Louis XVI) as Telemann’s Paris Quartets were in the Paris of Louis XV.

And if it’s history that we are speaking of, not least among February’s shape-shifting attributes is that, since 1979 in Toronto, and 1995 in Canada as a whole, February has been officially designated Black History Month.

Official Canadian recognition of Black History Month came, coincidentally I suspect, in the same year as the founding of this magazine, and it’s fair to say it’s been a bit of a headscratcher for us ever since. The easiest rationale is to resort to “colour-blindness”: “We write about the people involved in the music we cover – race doesn’t come into it.” Next would be to quote someone like Morgan Freeman (who after all has played Nelson Mandela in the movies and therefore must be right): “I don’t want a Black History Month. Black history is American history ... There’s no White History Month.”

But, truth be told we go through paroxysms here each year, not knowing whether it honours or dishonours the intent of Black History Month to call attention to it any more than the circumstances of any particular February dictate.

Colour bind vs colour blind? I went to a Toronto Rock lacrosse game at the Air Canada Centre a couple of nights ago. It had about the same racial mix among spectators as a typical night at the Canadian Opera Company. But these days it’s the Toronto Raptors’ fans, not the Rock or the Maple Leafs, who get to roar with conviction “We The North.”

Sometimes the most proactive thing one can do about an issue is simply and accurately to reflect the way things actually are.

So that is what we do, and if you flip the pages of this issue, rather than hyperfocussing on the cover, I think you will see that things are moving along.

As should you, if you are going to partake of February’s riches, in all their glorious shades of grey.

Barbara Hannigan - Being the Music

Being the music. This is how Canadian-born soprano and now conductor Barbara Hannigan describes her approach to performing. Two questions come to mind: How does one do this? And what are the ingredients needed to so completely embody the music as to become it? George Meredith’s words from his poem The Lark Ascending that inspired Ralph Vaughan Williams’ work of the same name suggest one answer: “The song seraphically free, Of taint of personality, So pure that it salutes the suns.” Hannigan herself gives a hint when she states: “I’m happy with my performance when I know I’ve made the connection between breath and sound, when the whole body is singing.”

Fourteen years ago the then Toronto-based Hannigan appeared on the cover of The WholeNote magazine. At the time she was performing the lead role in the operetta The Merry Widow and her European career was beginning to take off. Now living in Amsterdam, with bookings four to five years in advance, she is returning to Toronto as the featured performer at this years’ New Creations Festival presented by the Toronto Symphony. In three concerts scheduled between February 28 and March 7, Hannigan will be performing both Canadian and North American premieres of works by British composer George Benjamin and Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen.

Ax to Repin: What a Month

Russian-born Vadim Repin may just be the best violinist you’ve never heard of. Unless you happened to catch his TSO appearance in 2007 playing Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No.2 with guest conductor Thomas Dausgaard, his only exposure here has been through recordings (most recently with Deutsche Grammophon) and YouTube clips. The clips span almost 30 years of an acclaimed career that took international flight after he won the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels in 1989 when he was only 17.

In a recent telephone conversation the warm and gracious violinist described how he felt at that time: “The competition itself was really tough, very difficult psychologically and [physically]. It goes forever [one month]. For the next four years it put me in the spotlight of the music world but then there was a new winner, so forget about it. You have to do other things to get noticed and get the spotlight.”

This virtuoso, for whom technique is always a means to a musical end, never an end in itself, began violin lessons at five by “pure chance.” His mother, who had been encouraging her son to play with musical toys since he was three, took him to school intending to sign him up for accordion studies. Only violin places were available so he took up the violin. By age seven, chance took him under its wing again; his teacher advised studying with Zakhar Bron (who later taught Maxim Vengerov and Daniel Hope), a relationship which would continue for 13 years.

On The Road: Filling in the Summer Blanks

Looking at a forecast of dishearteningly subzero temperatures – and having only just left behind what was apparently one of the coldest winters on record – it’s admittedly a little hard to believe that summer is on the horizon. And yet, the summer months ahead are just where music presenters are beginning to focus their attention. Almost exactly midway through a busy concert season, it’s at this time of year that 2015/16 season announcements have started to surface and faculty positions for summer workshops are being finalized. At this point in the season, amidst their day-to-day workload, musicians are getting down to the business of filling in the blanks in their summer schedules.

HalfTones - Vol 2 #5 - January 8, 2015

IN THE WORKS: ORCHESTRAS

Happy new year, WholeNote readers! 2015 is upon us, and while most of us are still buying new calendars and proposing (and swiftly discarding) our annual resolutions, this city’s musical life doesn’t falter for a moment. Orchestral groups are especially industrious this month, with a TSO Mozart festival in the works, and musical offerings from Esprit and Tafelmusik, among others.

Tafelmusik

At this time, the people of Tafelmusik are just about halfway through their third Tafelmusik Winter Institute, an intensive period orchestra program for experienced early music performers. This year’s theme is “The String Orchestra in Baroque England,” focusing on suites by Locke and Purcell as well as concerti grossi by Handel, Avison and Geminiani. The program culminates in a pay-what-you-can concert on Saturday, January 10 at 7:30pm, where the week’s baroque string players, harpsichordists and lutenists will convene to showcase their newly-learnt skills. It will be an affordable chance to hear some excellent early music -- all the details at tafelmusik.org/concerts-tickets/free-concerts/free-pay-what-you-can-concerts-events.

Later in the month, Tafelmusik also welcomes guest conductor Kent Nagano, in 4 performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 at Koerner Hall January 22 to 25. The program also features Beethoven’s Mass in C Major, performed with the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir and soloists. The WholeNote has a pair of tickets to this show up for grabs to an interested reader! For a chance to win, check out our contest page here.

Esprit

Esprit Orchestra also promises an interesting show this month, with “the world’s turning” on Thursday, January 29 at Koerner Hall. Click here for a recent conversation with Esprit artistic director and conductor Alex Pauk in which, among other topics, he discusses this upcoming concert -- and check out our contest page here for a chance to win tickets to the January 29 event.

Mozart@259

The Toronto Symphony’s annual Mozart festival starts next week, featuring a number of soloists across three different concert programs. A special ticket sale for this festival has been extended until tomorrow (Friday) at 5pm: save 20% on your ticket price with the promo code MOZARTFEST. Details on the shows and how to buy tickets are available at tso.ca.

MADE TO ORDER!

The December 26 announcement of new recipients of the Order of Canada included more than half a dozen appointments of musical interest to readers of The WholeNote, including two, the Canadian Brass’s Chuck Daellenbach and singer Suzie LeBlanc, who recently chatted with The WholeNote’s editor-in-chief.

For the transcript of the conversation with Chuck Daellenbach click here. http ://www .thewholenote .com /index .php /newsroom /feature -stories /24833-behind -the -scenes -chuck -dallenbach

Click here to listen to the video conversation with Suzie LeBlanc. http ://www .youtube .com /watch ?v =uvTLB 3 DiYGw

Other December 2014 Order of Canada recipients include: Montreal cellist/pedagogue Denis Brott; Montreal organist John Grew; Quebec Opera’s Gregoire Legendre; indefatigable Toronto organizational mentor and volunteer John Barker Lawson; trumpeter Jens Lindemann; and Montreal conductor, pianist and new music specialist Lorraine Vaillancourt.

Contests

WIN tickets to the Hot Docs Mozart feature this Saturday; tickets to Tafelmusik’s “Beethoven Symphony No. 5” concert with Kent Nagano; tickets to see Esprit Orchestra’s “the world’s turning” featuring two world premieres and Robert Aitken in a soloist role; and a chance to see jazz fusion quartet Yellowjackets at Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts! Just take a look below and follow the instructions to enter in the contests of your choice. Feel free to enter all four!

Hot Docs “Searching for Mozart”: Saturday, January 10

WIN a pair of tickets to the first screening in Bloor Hot Docs Cinema’s brand-new series, Composers on Screen: “In Search of Mozart” at 1pm on January 10.

This series, brand-new at the Bloor Cinema and co-presented with The Royal Conservatory, takes a new look at celebrated composers. Phil Grabsky’s “In Search of Mozart”, this Saturday at 1pm, showcases more than 80 of Mozart’s compositions, performed by some of the world’s leading ensembles and musicians--and features a 25,000-mile journey along every route that Mozart travelled.

Want free tickets to the show? We have a small number of tickets available -- just email editorial@thewholenote.com with the subject line HOT DOCS to confirm your availability for your chance to win! Tickets are FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED. May the speediest emailer win!

(For those who can’t make it on Saturday, the next film, “In Search of Chopin,” will be shown on Sunday, March 1. Details about the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema can be found at bloorcinema.com.)

For our other contests, please click the links below:

Tafelmusik “Beethoven Symphony No. 5” with Kent Nagano: Thursday, January 22

Esprit “the world’s turning”: Thursday, January 29

Yellowjackets at Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts: Thursday, January 29

JUST IN: CORRECTED AND NEW LISTINGS

With Dec/Jan being a combined issue of the print magazine, listings information continues to stream in in early January. Jazz aficionados should click here for a complete update to the club listings. http ://www .thewholenote .com /index .php /listings /intheclubsjazz

And speaking of clubs, reviewer Ken Waxman zeroed in on an upcoming show by Ken Aldcroft’s latest group on January 16:

THREADS (Quintet)
10/09/11
Trio Records TRP-019

By Ken Waxman

Every since he arrived in Toronto from his native Vancouver in 2001, guitarist Ken Aldcroft has been a constant presence on this city’s improvised music scene. Whether helping to organize concerts, teaching, playing solo gigs or as part of ensembles of varied sizes, he’s constantly exceeding expectations of what jazz involves. Also exceeding expectations is the first CD by his newest ensemble, which presents this music in concert at Jazz at Oscar’s this month.

Having recorded six CDs with his regular Convergence combo, Aldcroft changes gears on 10/09/11 by supplanting its free-bop orientation for one that offers more space and an almost unmetered beat. Besides Aldcroft, the only Convergence holdover is alto saxophonist Karen Ng, with the band filled out by drummer Germaine Liu plus the characteristic grooves of Josh Cole’s electric bass and Jonathan Adjemian’s analog synthesizer. With each of Aldcroft’s three originals entitled Threads plus a numeral and the disc recorded in 2013, it’s likely the CD title refers to a time of inspiration and composition.

Essentially each of the longish tunes, clocking in at between 18 and almost 25 minutes, showcases varied facets of the quintet. With percussion pulses that slide from parade band whacks to (Canadian) Indian-like rattling and back again, Threads III is the gentlest of the three, with slowly evaporating sax slurs matched with echoing guitar timbres. Threads I has more energy. Here Aldcroft’s crescendo of arpeggiated string licks faces tough, angled reed bites and buzzing synth interjections. Underneath, Adjemian’s staccato blurts plus Liu’s bass drum pops replicate an Upper Canadian version of a Second Line rhythm. Lengthiest of all, the introductory Threads II defines the quintet’s distinct parameters. Harmonized bass and guitar strums steady the beat, leaving enough openings for Ng’s blazing staccato cries, Liu’s irregular thumps and ruffs plus synthesizer fills that at points resemble Morse code, at others what an electric piano would sound like with a cold. Aldcroft’s twangs plus Ng’s volatile tone nudge the narrative towards a satisfying climax.

A notable achievement from an ensemble that offers sonic maturity, even as it’s in the process of being created.

Concert note: The THREADS (Quintet) is in concert at Jazz at Oscar’s, Hart House University of Toronto January 16.

CORRECTIONS

*Saturday, January 31

3:00: Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. Community Concert. Toronto Mendelssohn Choir; Elora Festival Singers; Noel Edison, conductor. Yorkminster Park Baptist Church, 1585 Yonge St. 416-598-0422 x223. Free.

New listings in January include the following:

Tuesday January 13

1:30: Oakville Opera Guild. Tea with Opera: Don Giovanni. Guest: Howard Dyck, choral conductor. Oakville Central Library Auditiorium, 120 Navy St., Oakville. 905-827-5678. $10 minimum donation. Proceeds towards scholarship awarded annually to a young Canadian singer studying at the U of T Opera Division.

Friday January 16

8:00: The Jeffery Concerts. Latin Journey. Songs and melodies of Spain and Latin America. Works by Rodrigo, Granados, de Falla, Villa-Lobos, and others (all arr. David Jacques). Marie-Josee Lord, soprano; David Jacques, guitar; Ian Simpson, double bass. Wolf Performance Hall, 251 Dundas St., London. 519-672-8800. $35; $30(sr); $15(st).

Sunday January 18

2:00: Canzona Chamber Players. In Concert. Brahms Quintet Op. 34. Vadim Serebryany, piano; Csaba Koczó & Sonia Shklarov, violins; Yunior Lopez, viola; Peter Cosbey, cello. St. Andrew by-the-Lake Church, Cibola Avenue, Toronto Island. 416-822-0613. $20. Also 7:30pm, Music Gallery.

Monday January 19

7:30: Canzona Chamber Players. In Concert. Brahms Quintet Op. 34. Vadim Serebryany, piano; Csaba Koczó & Sonia Shklarov, violins; Yunior Lopez, viola; Peter Cosbey, cello. Music Gallery, 197 John St. 416-822-0613. $20. Also 2pm, St. Andrew by-the-Lake Church.

Saturday January 24

7:30: Pocket Concerts. Pocket Concerts: Family Edition. Mozart Flute Quartet in D Major; and others. Les Allt, flute; Cordelia Paw, violin; Rory McLeod, viola; Rachel Desoer, cello. 647-896-8295. $40; $25(age 35 and under); $12(age 18 and under). Please phone 647-896-8295 if you have questions about accessibility.

Sunday January 25

2:00: Richard Valdez. Concert Valdez - Benefit WarAmps. Benefit concert in aid of the WarAmps Child Amputees. Broadway classics and popular songs. Richard Valdez, tenor. North York Central Library Auditorium, 5120 Yonge St. 416-395-5535. Freewill donation.

2:00: Trio Bravo. Concert 2. Brahms; Piazolla, Selleck; Fauré. Trio Bravo: Terry Storr, clarinet; Baird Knechtel, viola; John Selleck, piano; Guest: John Trembath, cello. All Saints Kingsway Anglican Church, 2850 Bloor St. W. 416-242-2131. $20; $15(sr/st).

Tuesday January 27

12:30: McMaster School of the Arts. David Gerry & Michael Schutz. David Gerry, flute; Michael Schutz, percussion. Convocation Hall (UH213), McMaster University, 1280 Main St W., Hamilton. 905-525-9140 x24246. Free.

7:00: North York Central Library. Canadian Opera Company Talk: Die Walküre. An examination of Wagner's opera Die Walküre, with special attention given to the winter 2015 revival of Atom Egoyan's COC production. Guest: Wayne Gooding, editor of Opera Canada magazine. North York Central Library Auditorium, 5120 Yonge St. 416-395-5639. Free. Please call to register in advance.

Thursday January 29

8:00: Oakville Infiniti World Artists series. An evening with the Yellowjackets. Russell Ferrante, keys; Bob Mintzer, sax; William Kennedy, drums; Felix Pastorius, bass. Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts, 130 Navy St., Oakville. 905-815-2021. $60; $53(Big Ticket Member); $49(Big Ticket Plus).

Friday January 30

8:00: McMaster School of the Arts. Andreas Klein. Andreas Klein, piano. Convocation Hall (UH213), McMaster University, 1280 Main St W., Hamilton. 905-525-9140 x24246. $20; $5(st); $15(sr).

8:00: Oakville Opera Guild. Tea with Opera: Die Walküre. Guest: Iain Scott, opera educator. Location TBA, , Oakville. 905-827-5678. $10 minimum donation. Proceeds towards scholarship awarded annually to a young Canadian singer studying at the U of T Opera Division.

Saturday January 31

12:00 noon: Flautas del Fuego. Danzas del Fuego. W. F. Bach: Sonata in F Major for Two Flutes; Villa-Lobos: "Aria" from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 6; Piazzolla: "Tango Etudes" Nos. 4, 5, and 6 (arr. Exequiel Mantega); Caravassilis "Danzas del Fuego" for two flutes and percussion (World Premiere). Flautas del Fuego: Alhelí Pimienta and Izabella Budai, flutes; David Burns, percussion. Yorkminster Park Baptist Church, 1585 Yonge St. 416-922-1167. Free.

8:00: Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society. Duo Concertante. Complete music for violin/piano by Schubert; second of two concerts. Schubert: Sonatina in D, Rondo, Fantasy in C; Chan Ka Nin: Incantation. Nancy Dahn, violin; Timothy Steeves, piano. KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo. 519-886-1673. $30; $25(sr); $20(st).

Sunday February 1

4:00: Georgetown Bach Chorale. Pas de deux. Violin and piano concert. Brahms: Sonata No. 1 in G Major; Prokofiev: Sonata No. 1 in F Minor. Edwin Huizinga, violin; Ronald Greidanus, piano. House Concert (Georgetown), 157 Main St., Georgetown. $45 advance only; no tickets available at the door.

REMEMBERING JIM GALLOWAY

Jim Galloway was The WholeNote's longest standing columnist, tenacious to the last. We greet the news of his passing, on December 30 2014, with sadness. We have lost a blithe spirit, a true champion of live music. On our homepage is the last column he wrote for us, just four weeks ago, followed by links, in reverse order, to his other columns.

-David Perlman, publisher

THANKS FOR SUBSCRIBING

Our next issue of HalfTones, Vol 2 No 6, is out on February 11! The next print issue of The WholeNote, covering Feb 1 to March 7, will be published on January 29.

Please contact halftones @thewholenote .com with any HalfTones inquiries.

The More It Changes ...

Jim Galloway was The WholeNote's longest standing columnist, tenacious to the last. We greet the news of his passing, yesterday, December 30 2014, with sadness. We have lost a blithe spirit, a true champion of live music. Here are the last words he wrote for us, just four weeks ago.
David Perlman, publisher

This being the 15th or 16th December/January edition of these Jazz Notes for The WholeNote, I thought that rather than essaying something completely new, I’d dip back through my little stack of back issues for things that, still being appropriate, I might appropriate. Take this, for one example:

This month’s column is a departure from the familiar concert listings of previous issues, reason being that the above mentioned departure was mine - for a month-long trip to Europe! As a result this article is coming to you from the waltz capital of the world, Vienna.

First of all, for the record, the Danube is not blue, but an industrial brown which would not inspire Johann were he to see it today. Also the Viennese waltz does not make up 3/4 of the music heard in Vienna, even though it is in 3/4, and since being here I have not heard a single zither play the theme from The Third Man.

Is there jazz in this stronghold of Strauss? – this fatherland of Freud? – this Mecca of Mozart? – this city where you can have your Vienna Phil? Yes there is and quite a lot of it at that, although, as anywhere else it is music for a small minority – and a minority that is broken into at least two camps. There are the obvious ones traditional and modern, and it would seem that never – or very seldom – the twain shall meet. (No, not you, Mark!)

HalfTones - Vol 2 #4 - December 12, 2014

Music for the New Year

Welcome Vol 2, No 4 of HalfTones -- our update on extra December musical news, and the last issue before we hit 2015! While for some concert presenters, the onset of the New Year is a welcome break and mid-way point in their busy 2014/15 seasons, there are some brave performers who are taking up the challenge of bringing the city some New Year’s musical cheer.

As usual, Attila Glatz Concert Productions is the big New Year’s presenter this year, with concerts at Roy Thomson Hall both on New Year’s Eve and January 1. They’ve been at this since 1995, and this year’s shows represent their 20th round of New Year’s celebrations. Their big production, beginning at 2:30pm on January 1, is a “Salute to Vienna” gala concert that includes everything from operetta excerpts to Strauss waltzes to polkas. Billed as “North America’s Finest New Year’s Concert,” this show promises a New Year’s Day to remember. The day before this New Year’s Day extravaganza, Attila Glatz also presents “Bravissimo! Opera’s Greatest Hits” on December 31, featuring a star-studded cast and excerpts from works by Puccini, Verdi Rossini, Offenbach and others; all this, and out by 10pm so as to still be able to party the New Year in! For details on both concerts, visit glatzconcerts.com.

The Musicians in Ordinary are also working hard over New Year’s, ringing in 2015 in true Baroque style. Their New Year’s Day matinée concert features works by Scarlatti, Corelli, Vivaldi, Pez and others at Heliconian Hall, and promises to be a beautiful show. And if trekking through town on the first day of the new year doesn’t appeal to you, the group reprises their concert on January 2 at 8pm. All the details are in our listings and at musiciansinordinary.ca.

Finally, if you’re on the hunt for a New Year’s party of a jazzier nature, there are a number of upcoming shows that will be of interest. The Home Smith Bar, Palais Royale and the Toronto Don Valley Hotel are all host this year to shows featuring some excellent musicians (and great food). The Home Smith Bar’s New Year’s Eve Jazz Party features Alex Pangman and her Alleycats; the Toronto All-Star Big Band hosts the gala evening at the Toronto Don Valley Hotel; and Palais Royale presents Aura Rully, world-renowned jazz vocalist and Duke Ellington’s own protégée. A ticket to any of these shows includes dinner and dessert, as well as, of course, some champagne to ring in what we hope will be an excellent year ahead.

Vocal Smorgasbord

Shout-outs to some of Southern Ontario’s innovative choral and vocal programming in the coming days.

There are a number of vocal and choral shows coming this month, in addition to the usual carols and holiday tunes, that look like promising options for December concertgoers. The first couple of shows, two Messiah concerts coming up this weekend, may not seem at first glance like original programming but in fact represent some special variations on a holiday classic. The Cellar Singers perform the Messiah this Friday in Bracebridge and Sunday afternoon in Orillia -- the only performances of the work in Central Ontario with professional orchestra and soloists. They also just might have in their midst a Messiah record-holder in Orillia’s Sue Newman, who between performances, workshops and rehearsals has sung Handel’s classic masterpiece over 450 times. All the info at thecellarsingers.com.

Pax Christi Chorale’s Children’s Messiah also promises something a little different, especially for those who know some younger Handel fans. The show features favourite choruses and arias in a more casual setting that is free for kids and PWYC for adults. The show is 4pm this Saturday December 13 in the beautiful acopustic of Church of St. Mary Magdalene; details at paxchristichorale.org/childrens-messiah/.

For something celebratory but a little less holiday-themed, George Koller’s “International Divas” series presents its final concert in a three-part series on Dec 21 at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre. The show features a number of female performers in an entirely acoustic setting. For this “season finale,” Koller presents vocalists Rita Chiarelli, Lara Solnicki, The Ault Sisters, Sharlene Wallace, Maryem Hassan Tollar and Hisaka. Find out more at http://internationaldivas.net/.

EXCLUSIVE SPECIAL CONTEST:

TICKETS FROM THE TORONTO CONSORT

The Toronto Consort presents “Yuletide Revels from the Renaissance” with their concert, “The Little Barley-Corne,” this weekend! Joining forces with superstar folk-fiddler David Greenberg, this program of holiday festivities features English ballads, French noëls, country dances and more -- celebrating both the holiday season and the re-release of the Consort’s “Little Barley-Corne” CD.

In a special contest with The WholeNote, the Toronto Consort is offering PAIRS OF FREE TICKETS to their December 14 Sunday matinee show (3:30pm) to the first 10 WholeNote readers who respond correctly to their skill-testing question! Just email editorial@thewholenote.com with your full name and answer the following question for your chance to win:

When was the Toronto Consort album The Little Barley-Corne originally released? (hint: check the Toronto Consort website, torontoconsort.org!)

First 10 correct responses receive a pair of tickets for Sunday! On your marks, get set...email!

JUST IN: NEW LISTINGS

New or corrected (*) listings in December and January include the following:

Monday December 29

8:30: Hugh's Room. A Jazzy Holiday Party to benefit St. Francis Table @ Hugh's Room. The Music of Thelonius Monk. The Westend All Star Jazz Musicians: Jane Bunnett; Adrean Farrugia; Sophia Perlman; Daniel Barnes; Larry Cramer; Chris Butcher. 2261 Dundas St. W. 416-531-6604. $20(adv); $22.50(door).

Wednesday December 31

7:30: Jazzy Events/Palais Royale. Aura & Friends: A Jazzy 2015 New Year's Eve. Dinner, dance and live entertainment. Aura Rully; and others. Palais Royale, 1601 Lake Shore Blvd. W. 1-888-222-6608 or 416-606-9402. $175. Doors open at 7pm; event runs until 3am. Black tie welcome/jacket required.

Saturday January 3

12:00 noon: Northumberland Learning Connection. Opera Brown-bag Lunch Talks: Le Nozze di Figaro. Half-hour talk and Metropolitan Opera HD broadcast. Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro. Elizabeth Wilson, speaker. Capitol Theatre, 20 Queen Street, Port Hope. 905-885-1071. $5. Coffee and tea included.

Friday January 16

Sunday January 18

Monday January 19

Saturday January 24

7:30: Pocket Concerts. Pocket Concerts: Family Edition. Mozart Flute Quartet in D Major; and others. Les Allt, flute; Cordelia Paw, violin; Rory McLeod, viola; Rachel Desoer, cello. , . 647-896-8295. $40; $25(age 35 and under); $12(age 18 and under). Please phone 647-896-8295 if you have questions about accessibility.

NEW ON OUR WEBSITE

For those of you who now finally have the time to do some stress-free internet surfing, our latest “Conversation <at> The WholeNote,” with renowned pianist (and the star of this month’s magazine cover) Angela Hewitt, is up on our website! Check out this and other video interviews with local performers and music professionals on our video page at http://www.thewholenote.com/index.php/newsroom/our-videos

THANKS FOR SUBSCRIBING

Our next issue of HalfTones, Vol 2 No 5, is out on January 8! The next print issue of The WholeNote, covering Feb 1 to March 7, will be published on January 29.

Please contact halftones@thewholenote.com with any HalfTones inquiries.

If This Were A Concert ...

If this were a concert then, right now, I would be the gent who walks out onto the stage just when you think the show is about to start, to a smattering of applause from those of you who thought I might be the artistic director, until you realized my suit was too expensive for that.

I would have a creased, handwritten piece of paper in one hand and would sidle over to the lectern downstage right; I would tap the microphone until someone came and turned it on for me; I would introduce myself as [INSERT NAME OF IMPORTANT NONPERFORMER] in the organization; I would say say that before I can get to the prepared remarks carefully folded in the pocket of my suit jacket, there are three items of housekeeping to take care of.

One, to remind everyone that this is our COMBINED ISSUE, covering December AND January so do NOT call the office on January 2 except to leave a message after the tone wishing us a Happy New Year.

Two, to point out the revised structure AND ORDER of our listing sections as explained right here on this page (to your left);

Three, to thank the readers whose suggestions have helped us take this step forward in making the new Section C: Music Theatre listings a permanent feature of our coverage, and we welcome further input moving ahead.

If this were a concert I would then crumple up the aforementioned handwritten housekeeping notes and put them in my suit pants pocket; I would take out the carefully prepared, neatly folded, printed notes from my suit jacket pocket; I would put my glasses on, introduce myself again from my printed notes; and I would say that it is my great pleasure to welcome you to this 20th annual COMBINED DECEMBER/JANUARY issue of The WholeNote.

“Before going any further,” I would say, “I wish to thank all those who have not only made this issue possible but have in fact enabled us to reach this memorable 20th December. But that rather than delaying the proceedings any further I simply direct your attention to the staffers, contributors and funders in the masthead at the foot of this page, and to all the advertisers in the index of advertisers adjacent to it. Without their help, their loyalty and their love, none of this would be possible.”

I would then remember to take the microphone with me and would leave the stage to the performers, and you, dear readers, to your pleasure, after reminding you to turn off all pagers, cellphones and electronic devices.

Since it is not a concert, however I urge you all to turn ON your cellphones, etcetera, and tweet to the world that the Dec/Jan issue is out.

If this were your concert, on the other hand, I would be in the audience hoping that among your resolutions for the New Year would be a couple of things relating to how you address us, the audience from the stage.

Think about this: we all have the goal of attracting new audiences, or to put it another way, audiences to whom what we do is new. If they were guests in our house we would take it as a given that the first thing we could do to set them at ease would be to acquaint them with the rules of the house, by which I mean all the ways we do things that are particular to us rather than generally known.

If applause for example is a natural spontaneous human reflex at witnessing something spectacularly well done, or deep emotion revealed, it makes only slightly more sense to ask people to hold their applause than it does to ask them to hold back their tears.

So if our house rule is that in fact such withholding is required, it is more and more incumbent on us to make that fact known to audiences who are new to our house.

It doesn’t cut it, in my book, to put little asterisks in a program next to sections where one wishes the audience to withhold applause and think that by so doing the job has been done, unless someone, [INSERT NAME OF IMPORTANT PERFORMER], has also called the audience’s attention, from somewhere in the vicinity of the lectern, stage right, to what the artists on stage are hoping the houserules will be.

If I were now to practise what I have just preached, this is what I would say to you, if you were a new reader of this magazine:

I’d say welcome, and thanks for giving us a try; I’d say if you want to get an idea of what makes us tick, flip quickly through the five listings sections of the magazine – from page 36 to page 68. Everything else around those 33 pages (over 800 individual live events) is also in some way about those 33 pages. We exist to support the work of the people whose serious love of live music is there for you to see and hear on these days and dates.

If you are reading this in print, you should know that we do 30,000 of these, nine times a year, of which all but a couple of hundred are distributed free of charge at around 800 distribution points in Southern and Southwestern Ontario. And there is a handy map on our website (under the “About Us” tab) which will show you where you can find us.

You should also know that the listings you have just flipped through are also free of charge, so if you feel as though the music you make belongs here, all you have to do to get the dialogue under way is to contact listings@thewholenote.com.

To all of you, regular readers and new our best wishes for a happy, hearty and hopeful year end and thank you for your kind attention! You won’t see us in print again until the end of January, so if you haven’t already, sign up for our between-issue e-letter HalfTones. (For details, see the house ad on page 18.)

publisher@thewholenote.com

Angela Hewitt’s 2020 vision

The following story is based on a videotaped conversation at The WholeNote between Angela Hewitt and David Perlman on November 12, 2014 . Click the image below to view/hear the entire conversation.

As Pamela Margles notes in her review of of Angela Hewitt’s newly released Bach: Art of the Fugue in this issue of The WholeNote (page 77 of the print edition) “it was four years ago that Hyperion released all of Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt’s recordings of Bach’s solo keyboard works as a 15-disc boxed set. It was a huge project, but it didn’t include Bach’s monumental late work, The Art of the Fugue.”

“That is when everyone started writing to me of course,” says Hewitt. “You know, why haven’t you done The Art of the Fugue.” She hadn’t even performed it before then, she says, let alone contemplated recording it. “Growing up, it wasn’t even really considered a keyboard piece, or even anything you performed much. For one thing it had long been considered something of an academic work – Bach seeing what he could do with fugues, double fugues, triple fugues, mirror fugues. And there was the fact that in the first edition it was written as an open score, one voice per stave, like a string quartet.”

Read more: Angela Hewitt’s 2020 vision

Your Survival Guide to the Season’s Messiahs

When it comes to our December issue, no topic it seems has the power to set the pigeon among the cats more effectively than the perennial popularity of Handel’s Messiah. Our choral columnist Ben Stein simply states that he is going to assume that the readers of this column need no urging from him to find a Messiah performance (and then goes on to talk about an admittedly interesting array of other choral events over the holidays and beyond. Our early music columnist Dave Podgorski is slightly less categorical proffering that from his vantage point, Tafelmusik’s sing-along Messiah and Aradia’s Dublin Messiah are the only two Messiahs in Toronto he thinks you need to see. (And like Stein goes on to talk about an equally interesting array of other musical options.) Even CD reviewer Hans De Groot, after singing the praises of a new CD of Messiah from the Boston Handel and Haydn Society (liberally laced with Canadian vocal and instrumental talent, I might add) feels it necessary to add the remark that when asked to review the recording, his first thought was: Another Messiah – who needs it? (Before going on to say that in this case, he couldn’t have been more wrong.)

Our experts notwithstanding, there’s something about Herr Handel’s 24-day opus that continues to captivate, year after year. This year we have scoured the listings and come up with 32 performances by 20 organizations. Five period-instrument groups account for ten performances. Nine modern instrument organizations offer a further 14. Two organizations serve up four performances accompanied by organ. And a further four give single performances that include excerpts from the work.

The World in Christmas Music: Aaron Davis at Work

It was a dark and snowy afternoon Wednesday, November 19, 2014. The first significant snowfall of the year blanketed the city sidewalks and the air was decidedly crisp. I subwayed to Hugh’s Room on Dundas West for the launch of Toronto diva Measha Brueggergosman’s new album Christmas (Warner Music Canada) and its 19-date Canadian tour. It was a treat to witness the New Brunswick native, so at home in concert recitals and opera, in such an intimate dinner club concert setting. Though only in her 30s, she is that rare breed today: Canadian classical music royalty. Brueggergosman is a glittering diva combining superb vocal and acting chops, a bona fide classical celebrity in a country where the two words don’t usually crop up in the same sentence.

As thrilling as it was to witness the Grammy-nominated, JUNO-winning star deftly working the music – and her fans in the room – I was primarily there to see the singer’s musical director, arranger and pianist Aaron Davis at work. But first, full disclosure: my path crossed Davis’ at York University’s Music Department back in the mid-1970s. He was deeply immersed in jazz then and I in everything but. We did however share some common ground in the study of the music of several West African, Caribbean, and South Asian cultures.