Beat Columns (Live Music)

Spring is here – and by association I think of people in the spring of life, who are well represented in The WholeNote’s listings this month.

International Touring Productions brings the Slovak Sinfonietta, conducted by Kerry Stratton, to Toronto and six other cities in Southern Ontario in late April and early May. With the orchestra will be two pianists: Haiou Zhang, who will perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.5 in E Flat (the “Emperor”); and Elaine Kwon, who will play Rubinstein’s Piano Concerto No. 4. Both pianists are young artists, still in their 20s.

There’s yet another orchestra visiting from Europe this month, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra, which according to its website “is comprised of the world’s finest young musicians under the age of 27, hand-picked through a rigorous auditioning process.” The young musicians are given an extraordinary opportunity to grow together as an orchestra under the direction of principal conductor Christoph Eschenbach, in a community setting based on “mutual understanding, respect, tolerance and awareness of the universality of music and life beyond it.”

The Toronto stop on their first North American tour will be at Roy Thomson Hall on April 6. On their programme will be Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.17 in G K453, performed by Lang Lang – who, speaking of youth, is only 27. I recently read on his website that when he was only two years old, he saw a Tom and Jerry cartoon on TV, in which Tom was attempting to play Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-Sharp Minor. This first contact with Western music at this incredibly young age is what motivated him to learn piano! I hope the creators of Tom and Jerry have come across this story!

The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra’s three concerts on April 23, 24 and 25 are called simply, “Zeitouni Conducts Brahms.” At a relatively young age, Jean-Marie Zeitouni, another product of the fertile musical soil of Quebec, was appointed associate conductor of Les Violons du Roy. With a long and impressive list of guest conducting appearances to his credit, including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, he has become a big enough name to draw audiences.

Sibelius at the TSO

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra has put together an ambitious Sibelius Festival, highlighting the orchestral music of Finland’s most famous composer. Over the course of five performances, taking place from April 14 to 22, all seven of Sibelius’ symphonies will be performed, as well as several lesser-known works for violin and orchestra. Guest conductor Thomas Dausgaard will be on the podium for the whole week – no stranger to the TSO or Toronto audiences. The featured violin soloist will be Pekka Kuusisto, the first Finn ever to win the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition. He’s no stranger, either: Kuusisto played with the TSO in September 2008, and he’s also appeared in recital at Hart House.

“Spring” Quartets

A frequent visitor to Toronto, thanks to Music Toronto, is the Tokyo String Quartet. While the quartet’s genesis was in the 1960s at the Toho School of Music in Tokyo, and it has been quartet-in-residence at Yale University since 1976, it also has a strong Toronto connection through Martin Beaver, its first violinist. When you hear the Tokyo String Quartet, you are hearing not only one of the best string quartets in the world, but also “The Paganini Quartet,” a set of Stradivarius instruments named after the legendary virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, who acquired and played them during his illustrious career. The Tokyo String Quartet will perform Beethoven’s Quartet in C Major Op. 59 (“Razumovsky”), the Quartet in E-flat Major Op. 74 (“The Harp”) and the Quartet Op. 95 (“Serioso”) in Music Toronto’s last concert of the season, on April 10

There are several more fine opportunities to hear string quartets. Also on April 10, the Lindsay Concert Foundation presents the Cecilia String Quartet, and the Oakville Chamber Ensemble will perform string quartets by Mozart and Mendelssohn. On April 19, a quartet composed of members of the string section of the TSO will play quartets by Schubert, Beethoven and Brahms as part of the Associates of the TSO’s “Five Small Concerts” series. On April 25, Mooredale Concerts will present the Afiara Quartet, which some people think will be the next great Canadian string quartet. Flutist Robert Aitken, who needs no introduction to WholeNote readers, joins the Quartet in a Boccherini quintet, Alberto Ginastera’s Impresiones de la Puna, and Donald Francis Tovey’s Variations on a Theme by Gluck. The quartet will complete the programme with the Lyric Suite by Alban Berg and Mendelssohn’s Quartet in F minor. On April 29, the Silver Birch String Quartet will give a concert for the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society.

Student Talent

Last but not least, there’s plenty of student talent to be heard in April. The Toronto Secondary School Music Teachers’ Association “59th Annual Student Concert” on April 15 stands out. Others are the university choir visiting from East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania on April 9, the benefit concerts for the St. Simon’s and University Settlement music programmes on April 16 and 18 respectively, the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra on April 16, the Toronto Wind Orchestra on April 30 and the Toronto Children’s Chorus on May 1. On April 17 and May 2 respectively, the Canadian Sinfonietta and Arcady are presenting concerts showcasing young artists. The post-secondary music schools, of course, are hotbeds of music-making by young people – and even though many of the student ensemble concerts took place in March, there are still several in April. There are also student solo recitals at York University, the University of Toronto, Wilfrid Laurier, Waterloo, Guelph, Western, Queen’s and the Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School.

Allan Pulker is a flutist and a founder of The WholeNote who currently serves as Chairman of The WholeNote’s board of directors. He can be contacted at classicalbeyond@thewholenote.com.

The term “perfect storm” has been used this season to describe the whirlwind of top-tier international composers gracing our stages, as well as the sheer density of concert activity in Toronto and nearby. If we continue the analogy, April might conceivably be the “eye of the storm,” at least in the new-music world. This is not to say that the quality of work and calibre of creativity is on the wane – quite the contrary. There are many exceptionally excellent concerts to be heard. Rather, we may get a little more breathing space between events this month, before we’re hit by the tempest of May concerts that traditionally close the season.

 Continuing with the theme of celebrating leading composers, New Music Concerts hosts the Aventa Ensemble on April 10 at the Betty Oliphant Theatre in a Tremblay-heavy programme. The concert is part of the ensemble’s 2010 East Coast tour. Hailing from Victoria, Aventa is one of Canada’s younger yet larger new music ensembles, formed in 2003 from a regular roster of 15 players under artistic director Bill Linwood. Since that time, the musicians have completed almost 40 concerts, several tours (including to Europe and the USA), numerous commissions and at least 50 premieres.

For this tour, their second to land in Toronto, Aventa will connect to the season-long celebrations of Canadian composer Gilles Tremblay, initiated by the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec. Never one to keep things small, SMCQ artistic director Walter Boudreau has encouraged a nation-wide project to pay homage to one of our own musical heroes through a collaborative series of at least 30 different events. For their part, Aventa will perform two of Tremblay’s most distinctive works – Solstices for horn, flute, clarinet, double bass and percussion (which carries the subtitle “or how the days and the seasons turn”) and À quelle heure commence le temps? for baritone, piano and 15 musicians. Included in the programme are two recent Aventa commissions from BC composers, including the most recent addition to Dániel Péter Biró’s Mishpatim (Laws) series and Altus by the intriguing early-career composer Wolf Edwards. To learn more about Aventa, visit www.aventa.ca. To learn more about the Gilles Tremblay Homage series visit www.smcq.qc.ca. For tickets and venue information contact nmc@interlog.com or call 416-961-9594.

It’s a rare opportunity when an ensemble lets a composer curate a whole concert of works to frame a new commission. That’s why it’s remarkable that, when Arraymusic invited composer Linda Catlin Smith to compose a new work for them, she was also invited to set the entire programme for this April 18 concert at the Music Gallery. More specifically, she was asked to dig into Array’s score library, representing decades of commissioning and performing some of the world’s most adventurous composers, to create a programme from works already in the ensemble’s repertoire. Linda is one of the few people that Array could comfortably trust with such a project, given her history and familiarity with the ensemble: she is a past Array artistic director and co-creator of their Young Composers’ Workshop. As a result, the concert will feature works by two of Linda’s mentors: Canadian composer Rudolf Komorous (the short but haunting Sweet Queen for piano and percussion), and Japan’s Jo Kondo (his seminal work, Standing, for any three instruments of different families), alongside some new discoveries: Scott Godin’s internationally inspired Soccer (which can be heard on the Canadian Music Centre’s CentreStreams online audio service), Gerald Barry’s piano solo Sur les points and Italian composer Aldo Clementi’s Madrigale for piano four hands, glockenspiel and vibraphone. To learn more about Linda Catlin Smith and her music, visit the CMC website at www.musiccentre.ca or www.catlinsmith.com. To purchase tickets, visit www.musicgallery.org or call 416-204-1080.

Bringing us back to the “perfect storm,” Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steve Reich returns to Toronto on April 29 for a concert featuring the Canadian premiere of his most recent work, Mallet Quartet for two marimba and two vibraphones. Mallet Quartet, which received its US premiere by So Percussion on January 9, is a co-commission of Soundstreams, the Nexus percussion ensemble and the Amadinda percussion group. The work will be a feature of Soundstreams’ “Cool Drummings” percussion festival, which kicks off mid-month.

This must-see concert at the Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall will also include Reich’s other newest work – the substantial 2 x 5 for five musicians and tape, or 10 live musicians – alongside Reich classics like Clapping Music and Music for Pieces of Wood as performed by talent like our local Nexus, whom the New York Times have hailed as “the high priests of the percussion world.”

As one of the instigators of the American minimalist style and a founder of New York City’s downtown music scene, Steve Reich is sometimes referred to as America’s greatest living composer and one of the greatest musical thinkers of our time. His musical creativity, which is credited with altering the path of music history, has embraced not only aspects of Western classical music, but the structures, harmonies, and rhythms of non-Western music, particularly African, and American vernacular music, particularly jazz. As a consequence, his work has been widely embraced by numerous artistic communities from high-art music to contemporary dance and DJ culture.

Leading up to this concert are a number of other performances and events that frame the Reich premiere and make up the bulk of “Cool Drummings.” On April 19, Soundstreams will extend its “Salon 21” series at the Gardiner Museum to celebrate Steven Reich with inspired dancers, DJs and musicians who recognize him as the “the father of DJ culture,” and “one of today’s most choreographed composers.” Then on April 27 and 28, the celebration will move over to the more laid-back Hugh’s Room for two marimba-heavy concerts titled “Virtuoso Vibrations.” On the programmes are commissioned world premieres from top-tier Canadian composers, including Andrew Staniland, Michael Oesterle, and Peter Hatch, performed by some of our best musical artists like percussionists Ryan Scott and Russell Hartenberger. The programme also features world-renowned koto virtuoso Kazue Sawai, who is coming from Japan for the occasion. Full “Cool Drummings” details, including venue and ticket information, can be found online at www.soundstreams.ca or by phone at 416-504-1282. 

Jason van Eyk is the Ontario Regional Director of the Canadian Music Centre. He can be contacted at: newmusic@thewholenote.com.

This month opens with the lively sounds of Klezmer music. April 1, the University of Toronto Klezmer Ensemble presents “Klezmer Trajectories: Old World Jewish Fusion meets New World Surprises!”, as part of the noon-hour free concert series at the Canadian Opera Company’s Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre. These concerts are always well attended, so it’s advisable to arrive early to get a good seat. There will be more Klezmer later in the month – Off Centre Music Salon presents “Klezmer...on the Roof!”, April 11 at the Glenn Gould Studio, featuring mezzo Annamaria Popescu, accordion virtuoso Joseph Macerollo and the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band.

Roy Thomson Hall presents a concert of Indian vocal music, April 3. Born in 1933, the legendary Asha Bhosle is best known as a singer for numerous Bollywood films, and is said to have recorded over 12,000 songs in her 65-year career. In addition to film music, she sings ghazals (poetic songs), bhajans (Hindu devotional songs) and folk songs, as well as traditional Indian classical music. More vocal music follows on April 6, this time from Senegal. Baaba Maal mixes the tradition of griot songs with rock, reggae and Afro-Cuban music. He’ll be performing with his nine-member band at the Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall.

Dubbed “Queen of the Toronto Cajun scene,” vocalist and fiddler Soozi Schlanger has been branching out on her own lately. Known primarily as the driving force in the band Swamperella (where, in addition to singing and fiddling, I’ve also witnessed her play a mean washboard!), this Canadian powerhouse of art and music first learned Cajun music at Ashokan, a fiddle camp in upstate New York. Out of that experience Swamperella was born, and the band has performed extensively, their dedication to authenticity garnering comments such as, “Now where all in Looziana y’all from?” Recently, she’s been going solo with “Soozimusic,” developing a repertoire of her own songs. Along with musicians Emilyn Stam and Victor Bateman, she’ll be performing at Slacks (562 Church St.) on April 4, the Tranzac Club on April 25 and the Moonshine Cafe in Oakville on May 2. You can check her out at www.myspace.com/soozischlanger.

Recently back from performing at the Olympic Games, Juno award-winning Cuban musician Alex Cuba has a busy touring schedule this month. In Ontario, he’ll be performing at London’s Aeolian Hall on April 6, the Brock Centre for the Arts in St. Catharines on April 7, Mississauga’s Living Arts Centre on April 9, the Mod Club in Toronto on April 10 and the Neat School Stage in Burnstown (an hour northwest of Ottawa) on the 11th. After several performances in Quebec later in the month, he’ll be heading to Europe in May. His newest CD will be released on June 8.

On April 24, the Music Gallery presents two artists visiting from Berlin: Amelia Cuni and Werner Durand in “Ancient Trends & New Traditions in Indo-European Music.” Cuni is a vocalist trained in the traditions of Indian classical music, while Durand is a multi instrumentalist who also explores digital sound. Together they blend the old and the new, ranging from traditional music to microtonality. The concert is preceded on April 23 by an artist talk featuring Amelia Cuni, who shares experiences of her 30-year journey between European and Indian cultures. Visit www.musicgallery.org for more details.

Also on April 24, Music on the Donway presents “Journey to Andalusia,” a blend of Jewish, jazz, Indian and Arabic music featuring Toronto’s own Jaffa Road, headed by lead vocalist Aviva Chernick. Jaffa Road will also perform at Hugh’s Room on April 25, where they’ll be joined by Iraqi-Israeli oud/violin master Yair Dalal. This is one of Toronto’s most exciting up-and-coming fusion bands – not to be misssed!

Karen Ages can be reached at worldmusic@thewholenote.com.

I’m going to start this month’s column with four only somewhat related anecdotes, then, with luck, connect the dots between them.

In December 1877, a young man walked in to the office of the Scientific American magazine, and placed before the editors a small, simple machine about which very few preliminary remarks were offered. The visitor, without any ceremony whatever, turned the crank and, to the astonishment of all present, the machine said: “Good morning. How do you do? How do you like the phonograph?” The young man was Thomas Edison.

One of my prized possessions is an old Edison cylinder phonograph with a few cylinders. One of those cylinders contains a conversation between Edison and Johannes Brahms where Brahms asks Edison about how his new invention might influence music.(Little could either have known that in just a few years, as recording technology advanced, performer and listener could be separated by time and distance, and a single performance could be heard many times at many different locations.)

Twenty-nine years after Edison introduced his phonograph, in December 1906, a Canadian, Reginald Fessenden, was the first to transmit sound by radio. In the world’s very first radio broadcast, Fessenden played his violin to the astonishment of the crews aboard ships in the Atlantic and Caribbean. The age of broadcasting had begun.

In a recent broadcast of the CBC Radio programme “The Sunday Edition,” host Michael Enright had as his guest music guru Robert Harris, who was there to “teach us how to listen to music without straining ourselves.” The Enright programme was interesting in many ways. One idea, though, made me stop in my tracks: it was when Harris suggested that we consider all of the elements making up the “infrastructure” of a modern concert performance.

Some are obvious: performers, conductor, composers; repertoire; presenter; venue. But what of all the other less obvious factors? How did each of the composers on the programme come to be a composer, for instance? Childhood ambition to compose? Experience as a performer? How did their first musical thoughts gel, evolve and end up on a printed page? And speaking of the printed page, how many people, over a period of several centuries were involved in the development of the notation system for Western Music that is now universally used? For that matter, where would music performance be today if the art of printing had never been invented?

And what about the instruments? The trombone was certainly the first fully chromatic member of the brass family of instruments, and is generally considered to be the oldest instrument, in unchanged form, of the modern symphony orchestra. All of the other instruments in a modern symphony orchestra, including the strings, have undergone varying degrees of change over the past two centuries.

In short, once we start, we can’t possibly count the number of individuals who have directly or indirectly had an influence on any given performance we hear or play in.

Now, let’s look back over the past one hundred plus years since Edison and Fessenden. Since those early days, sound recording devices and media have become more compact and much more portable. The media have evolved from cylinders through 78 rpm records, LPs, reel-to-reel tapes, cassette tapes, eight-track tapes to CDs, and now to various forms of solid state gadgets like MP3 players and iPods. Similarly, broadcasting has changed considerably. Compare the Metropolitan Opera’s “revolutionary” Texaco live radio broadcasts to their current HD “Live from the Met” telecasts, and you’ll see what I mean.

Another example: look at the evolving major role of electronics in music in recent years. Some years ago MIDI appeared on the scene to harness the power of digital computers. This was closely followed by various music notation programmes to minimized the drudgery of writing out parts by hand. Then, of course, the ubiquitous internet is having a profound influence on many aspects of music. Whether it be downloading actual music, looking for publisher’s catalogues, purchasing instruments, researching composers and their works, reviewing performances, or visiting band or orchestra websites, the internet has become an essential part of our musical toolbox.

The point? Rather than trying to experience music as something distinct from the social forces shaping and reshaping it – what Harris might call “straining ourselves” – we should enjoy the way music performance reects our changing world.

Which brings us to requesting your comments. How is technology impacting on the bands or orchestras you are interested in? What can (and should) band and orchestra websites set out to do, beyond such obvious things as giving you the name of the group, the conductor, their concert schedule, rehearsal time and location? From the perspective of the music you love to play or listen to, what are the history-making changes now getting under way?

Coming Events

The Etobicoke Community Concert Band, John Edward Liddle, Music Director, present “That’s Entertain ment” featuring special guest, Juno-nominated jazz pianist Chris Donnelly. Etobicoke Collegiate Auditorium, 86 Montgomery Road.

The City of Brampton Concert Band with music director, Darryl Eaton, will close its 125th Anniversary Concert Series with “2010: A Space Odyssey” at the Rose Theatre.

The Hannaford Street Silver Band pre sents: “Trumpet Spectacular” with trumpet soloist Allen Vizzutti.

The Plumbing Factory Brass Band, Henry Meredith, Conductor present “Heroes – ordinary and extra ordinary.” Byron United Church, 420 Boler Rd., London, Ontario.

Jack MacQuarrie plays several brass instruments, and has performed in many community ensembles. He can be contacted at: bandstand@thewholenote.com.

This March, two opera companies celebrate anniversaries: Opera By Request celebrates its third, and Tapestry New Opera Works its 30th. Tapestry was part of the boom in opera in the 1980s that also saw the birth of Opera Hamilton and Opera Atelier. The more recent rise of Opera by Request (OBR) shows that the audience for opera in Toronto is still increasing.

OBR Artistic Director William Shookhoff shared the company’s impressive statistics: “By June 2010 when we will break for the summer, OBR will, in its short history, have performed 32 different operas in a total of 45 performances. I haven’t totalled up the number of singers, but let us conservatively estimate 150. We have also enjoyed the co-operative services of four area choirs, who have enhanced a number of performances. Can anyone else come close?”

If we emphasize that these have all been full-length or one-act operas, the answer is “No.” This month OBR will present Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera on March 5, Handel’s Giulio Cesare on March 12 and Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame on March 19. All operas are presented in concert with Shookhoff at the piano.

OBR presented its first performance on March 3, 2007. The idea came when two singers whom Shookhoff had accompanied in a recital of opera excerpts from La Traviata mentioned that they wished they could perform the entire opera. Shookhoff, a noted vocal coach, had always maintained that “singers study roles all the time but they never really learn them properly unless they perform them fully with the other cast members.”

What make OBR unusual is that all its repertoire is chosen by the singers themselves. All the box office returns go to the singers. Two or more singers will come forward with a proposal for an opera and will then seek out other singers to fill the remaining roles. What has developed is a form of co-operative, which Shookhoff likes, “because the people are there supporting one another; they’re not doing it for me.” In some cases, though, when a singer is new to Toronto or to the country and has few connections, Shookhoff will step in to take a more active part in the casting – but otherwise Shookhoff views himself primarily as a facilitator.

The concept has been so successful that Shookhoff now has to restrict how many OBR shows there will be in a given year. In future he foresees creating a network of music directors who can take on a greater number of operas. While the majority of singers are recent graduates of opera programmes around the country, there are also veteran singers who have desire to perform certain roles. The singers benefit simply by being heard – which in some cases has led to contracts – and by adding roles to their repertoire, which makes them more attractive as understudies or short-notice replacements. As Shookhoff notes, “Good luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” For more information about OBR visit www.operabyrequest.ca.

Meanwhile, Tapestry New Opera Works is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a special edition of its popular Opera to Go series. All five short works will be remounts from past seasons. The programme consists of The Laurels (2002) by Jeffrey Ryan to a libretto by Michael Lewis MacLennan; The Colony (2008) by Kevin Morse to a libretto by Lisa Codrington; Ashlike on the Cradle of the Wind (2006) by Andrew Staniland to a libretto by Jill Battison; Rosa (2004) by James Rolfe to a libretto by Camyar Chai; and Ice Time by Chan Ka Nin to a libretto by Mark Brownell. As usual, all five will be directed by Tom Diamond, with artistic director Wayne Strongman at the podium. The quartet of singers are Tapestry favourites: soprano Xin Wang, mezzo Krisztina Szabó, tenor Keith Klassen and baritone Peter McGillivray. The performances take place March 24-26 in the Fermenting Cellar in the Distillery District. For more information visit www.tapestrynewopera.com.

According to Strongman, many considerations went into choosing which works to include. First was the desire to reflect both the range of styles of opera, and the history of the series (which has led to similar programmes in Scotland and South Africa). Second was to provide showcases for the Opera to Go ensemble. Strongman is still glowing from having been named to the Order of Canada last December, cited for “his innovative contributions as the founding artistic director of Tapestry New Opera Works; as the long-time volunteer choral director for the Regent Park School of Music; and as a champion of Canadian composers.” Congratulations for such a well-deserved honour!

Christopher Hoile is a Toronto-based writer on opera. He can be contacted at: opera@thewholenote.com.

Mooredale Concerts, under artistic director Anton Kuerti, is second to none in bringing artists of the highest standard from Canada and beyond to its main concert series. As well, it’s a nurturing force for young musicians through its Mooredale Youth Orchestras and Music and Truffles concerts. The next programme well illustrates the series’ various facets: on March 7, Mooredale will bring Les Violons du Roy to town.

Now in its 25th-anniversary season, this chamber orchestra was founded by music director Bernard Labadie and is based in Quebec City. Through its many concerts, broadcasts, recordings and much touring the orchestra has developed an international reputation for the energy and vitality of its performances. Its repertoire is wide ranging – from baroque to present day – and always performed in the stylistic manner most appropriate to each era. When playing music from the baroque and classical periods, the musicians use modern instruments, but also copies of period bows to conform with the performance practice of the era.

Their March 7 concerts are dedicated to the vibrant string concertos of Vivaldi. You’ll hear why this group is so renowned: each of its members is a soloist in his or her own right, and almost all of them will be featured as such in these concerts.

Yes, I do mean the plural – “concerts.” A unique and charming feature of Mooredale Concerts is Music and Truffles: a one-hour, interactive version of the 3:15pm concert, taking place at 1:15pm and designed for children. But you don’t have to be a child to attend; all you need is the curiosity to learn more about the great music and artists being presented that day.

Please note, too, that there’s yet another chance to hear Les Violons du Roy in the southern Ontario area this month, as they’ll be presenting the same programme in London on March 6. You’ll find the details in our Beyond GTA listings.

… and more!

It’s hard to know how to continue describing the early music scene this month, as March is turning out to be such a treasure trove of riches. Some of this has to do with the approaching Christian holy days of Easter weekend, which have inspired an enormous wealth of musical creativity throughout the ages. You’ll discover music (most often involving voices) that is not heard at any other time of year. Several other concerts this month have to do with Bach, as his devotees have a penchant for celebrating his birthday (March 21) by performing his music.

Here are some concerts you might not want to miss:

The music of the early German Baroque is replete with magnificent sacred works for massed forces of voices and instruments. The Toronto Consort presents heartfelt works of anguish and redemption from this era in their programme “From Praetorius to Bach: Visions of Darkness and Light.” You will revel in the sounds of a large ensemble of rarely heard instruments including sackbuts and cornetti, as well as singers (even in works for double choir), strings, lutes and keyboards, in music by Praetorius, Schütz, Schein, Bach and others.

The Tallis Choir with its conductor Peter Mahon take us to the Royal Convent of Madrid during Holy Week, 1611, to hear some of the most glorious polyphonic music ever written for voices. Tomás Luis de Victoria’s “Tenebrae for Good Friday” is from a magnificent collection of music he wrote for this portion of the Christian liturgical year – choral music of unparalleled dramatic expressiveness. It will be performed in the enveloping acoustical setting of St. Patrick’s Church.

If you seek drama as well as poignant music in the re-telling of the Easter story, there’s no better place to find them than in Bach’s St. John Passion. Chorus Niagara with conductor Robert Cooper presents this trenchant work twice, in Grimsby and in St. Catharines.

Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir present Bach in Leipzig, an imaginative journey to 18th-century Leipzig where Bach lived and worked from 1723 till his death. This is the latest of several acclaimed presentations designed by Tafelmusik’s own Alison Mackay, and one that is sure to bring to life a colourful array of characters and a vigorous community, as well as highlighting the variety and breadth of the music Bach composed during his long tenure in that city.

Toronto Early Music Centre’s Musically Speaking presentation is entitled “The Grand Tour.” This tradition Flourished in the 1660s as the customary English gentleman’s post-Oxbridge cultural education, serving as a rite of passage. You’ll hear music that such a traveller might have heard during Purcell’s lifetime, taking the Grand Tour from England through France to Italy.

In Port Dover, Arcady and its artistic director Ronald Beckett present “A Baroque Miscellany,” with works by Bach, Sammartini, Handel, Corelli, Telemann and Beckett played on violin, recorder and keyboard.

Aradia Ensemble presents “The English Orpheus.” In Greek mythology, the god Orpheus is credited with being the inspiration for literature, poetry, drama and music. Who might be his counterpart in later times but Purcell, who set poetry to music so brilliantly and wrote so much wonderful incidental music to plays? Aradia Ensemble under its artistic director Kevin Mallon explores some of this, presenting the original text alongside the music for plays such as Don Quixote (with excerpts from Thomas D’ Urfey’s play) and for Bonduca, or The British Heroine (with excerpts from John Fletcher’s play).

An enchantress she is, and a passionate explorer of all kinds of repertoire. In Tafelmusik’s programme entitled “Enchantress,” soprano Karina Gauvin displays her lovely virtuosity in music by Vivaldi and Handel; the orchestra does the same in complementary pieces by Vivaldi and Locatelli.

If you go to Kingston you can have a crash course in baroque music everyone should know, as the Kingston Symphony Orchestra presents “Classics 101.” You’ll hear such beloved pieces as Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Handel’s Water Music Suite, Pachelbel’s Canon and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No.3. Gisèle Dalbec, the orchestra’s concertmaster, is the featured soloist.

Buxtehude’s Passion oratorio Membra Jesu Nostri is an amazingly daring outpouring of grief, seven cantatas each based on a medieval hymn, that meditate on the feet, knees, hands, side, breast, heart and face of the crucified Christ. Scored generally for five soloists, choir, two solo violins and continuo, the emotion is softened by the appearance of a quintet of viols in the sixth cantata, “To His Heart.” Composed for Passion Week of 1680, it will be presented by the Toronto Chamber Choir with its conductor Mark Vuorinen.

If you go to Kitchener you can hear Bach’s monumental B Minor Mass, performed by the Grand Philharmonic Choir and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony – a performance especially notable as it will be one of the last conducted by the Choir’s director of 38 seasons, Howard Dyck. The featured soloists are an impressive quartet of Canadians: soprano Suzie Leblanc, mezzo Laura Pudwell, tenor Michael Schade and baritone Russell Braun.

Simone Desilets is a long-time contributor to The WholeNote in several capacities, who plays the viola da gamba. She can be contacted at: earlymusic@thewholenote.com.