Asked to identify the true meaning of Christmas, those of us who look to the Grinch and Ebenezer Scrooge for spiritual guidance and inspiration might come up with a list that included traffic jams, grumpy people lined up at cash registers, un-spiked eggnog, Christmas cards=writer’s cramp, Christmas presents=credit card bills, snow=slush/shovelling/chiropractor fees.

choral scene john rutter photo credit jennifer bauer.Confronted with Tiny Tim, Cindy Lou Who and a few sad puppies in Santa hats, we might grudgingly acknowledge that somewhere in the midst of the chaos there is a chance to connect with family and friends and maybe do the odd bit of singing as well.

Choral musicians would likely add favourite composers, songs, oratorios and operas to the Christmas mix. The name of English composer and arranger John Rutter would show up on a few top ten lists — or on a few “to be avoided whenever possible” lists, because Rutter can be a polarizing name, especially as pertains to Christmas music.

Rutter’s original Christmas carols and carol arrangements have been a regular part of choral concerts since at least the 1970s, when his composition and recording work at Cambridge began to attract attention. While his academic background has led to work as a fine editor of choral music, it is his compositions that have made him an instantly recognizable name in choral circles.

For many people, Rutter’s work is synonymous with Christmas singing, and works like “Candlelight Carol” and “Star Carol” are compositions fit to stand alongside other famous and familiar seasonal songs. Others deem his music saccharine and sentimental, relentlessly middle of the road like Dunstan Ramsey’s description of himself as a reliable dinner guest in Robertson Davies’ Fifth Business: classy, heavily varnished, and offensive to no one.

My own opinion of Rutter’s work probably leans closer to the latter category. I find that his over-busy arrangements of carols often obscure the strength and simplicity of the old tunes and his musical tropes and lyrical sentiments usually leave me unmoved. But any derision I might have felt for this composer disappeared after seeing his musical skills in action firsthand.

Some years ago I sang for a choir that was recording some of Rutter’s works and Rutter himself came to conduct. Towards the end of the sessions and after one particularly gruelling day of recording, we broke for dinner, the tired singers spilling out onto the street. As I was leaving, I noticed that Rutter was bent over the piano, scribbling intently on a piece of manuscript paper. As I left, I said a word to him about the day’s endeavours, and he muttered a distracted reply.

When we returned for the evening session, he presented the singers with copies of a hymn that he had written while everyone else had been on break. While its derivations were obvious — its melodic contour and structure echoed a couple of well-known English Anglican hymns — it was a solid composition, fully realized, arranged and ready to record, written in under an hour.

Since then, any time I’ve heard negative comments about Rutter I’ve remembered that example of professionalism, technique and inspiration. Whether one responds to his aesthetic or not, no one can deny the deep craft imbedded in his music. Any composer or arranger who denigrates it might set themselves the comparable challenge of writing an appealing melody, effective vocal arrangement and straightforward, heartfelt lyrics, even without a 60-minute time limit. It’s much more difficult to do well than it might appear.

Rutter: Here are some (but by no means all) upcoming concerts that include works by Rutter.

On December 1 the Guelph Youth Singers perform “Winter Song,” a concert that includesRutter’s Brother Heinrich’s Christmas. The Mississauga Festival Choir performs Rutter’s Magnificat on the same day.

On December 7 and 8 the Sound Investment Community Choir perform “A Christmas Gift,” a concert that includes Rutter’s Gloria. They are joined by the Trillium Brass Quintet. Markham’s Village Voices perform this piece on December 1, Toronto Beach Chorale performs it on December 9

On December 7 the Upper Canada Choristers’ “Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day”features Rutter’s The Reluctant Dragon, a Christmas fable based on a story by Kenneth Grahame (of The Wind in the Willows fame).

And other concerts that will provide you with a Rutter fix include:

Vivace Vox’s “Songs of Light” and the Guelph Chamber Choir’s “Carols for Christmas” (both on December 2.) On December 16, Toronto’s Church of Saint Simon-the-Apostle has their familiar “Nine Lessons and Carols”service. Other carol services and concerts are going on all over the region, so please look at the listings for the many available options.

Lyrica Chamber Choir of Barrie’s December 8 concert, “Let All Mortal Flesh,” features works by Rutter and Norwegian-American composer Ola Gjeilo, whose accessible work has become popular in the USA, but is relatively new to this part of the world.

20 joan-adult true-north-brassAnd not: I am happy to note concerts by two choral ensembles that had previously flown under my radar. The Kokoro Singers, founded in 2004, perform concerts in Ancaster and Guelph on December 8 and 9. The Volunge Lithuanian Choir, founded in 2006, performs a free concert on December 9.

On December 15, the Nine Sparrows Arts Foundation hosts “City Carol Sing” in support of food banks across Canada. The concert features several excellent ensembles — the Larkin Singers and the True North Brass among them — as well as a chance to hear renowned tenor Richard Margison and his daughter Lauren Margison, a notable singer in her own right.

2013 concerts to watch for: Conductor and keyboardist Philip Fournier is making a name for himself as a purveyor of early music in Toronto. A concert of music by Praetorius, Sweelinck, Couperin, Perotin (one of the earliest known composers of the European canon) and Palestrina takes place on January 12 at the elegant The Oratory of St. Philip Neri on King Street West.

The Elora Festival Singers perform the famous unfinished Mozart D Minor Requiem, K626, on January 20, for a concert and lunch event in Elora.

An opportunity to hear the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir takes place on January 26, at the Choral Conductors’ Symposium concert. This event is part of the TMC’s choral development program, in which upcoming conductors get a chance to work with a large professional ensemble. It is a terrific opportunity for young conductors who often find themselves bribing friends, family and viola players to muster enough of the requisite four sections to fill a living room. The event is free to the public, and takes place at Yorkminster Park Baptist Church in Toronto.

On February 3 the Shevchenko Musical Ensemble gives a concert that will include Serbian and Ukranian folk songs.

On the same evening, different choral ensembles from the University of Toronto join together to perform Beethoven’s Mass in C and Brahms’ haunting Nänie.

Ben Stein is a Toronto tenor and theorbist. He can be contacted at choralscene@thewholenote.com. Visit his website at benjaminstein.ca.

No doubt about it, it’s a supremely busy time of year. It means not only attending to seasonal family rituals, as many of us are, but also for a returning grad student like me it means essays, seminars presentations, assignments and yet more papers to complete — but enough about me.

worldview labottinesourianteThe year end is not only about completion, but also about reflection. Leafing through my back pages it seems that the past year has been a thematically ambitious one in this column. Beginning with ruminations on what World Music can be and who its performers and concertgoers are, I went on to examine the many ways Torontonians celebrate Black History Month. In turn the spotlight rested on the World Music recorded music category at the Juno awards, on the annual celebration in honour of South India’s greatest composer St. Tyagaraja, and on the Lula Lounge’s 10th anniversary shows. Billy Bryans’ untimely death led me to re-consider Toronto’s pioneer generation of world music performers, producers, venues and audiences, while the wealth of programing at Luminato and Harbourfront Centre stole the limelight in the summer issues. Fall colours ushered in a meditation on John Cage’s Toronto composition for a veteran actor on this city’s concert and world music scenes: the Evergreen Club Gamelan. In the last issue I horned in on the edgy electronic-centric “avant world” universe covered by the Music Gallery’s X Avant Festival. It’s been a musically packed, theme-filled year here.

As for my picks for this season’s concerts, December for me usually means re-dipping into the history, mystery and magic of Christmas rituals. The Canadian “high energy Celtic World Beat quartet” Rant Maggie Rantputs their fans into the holiday mood with their programtitled “Frost & Fire — A Celtic Christmas Celebration” staged at numerous southern Ontario halls. Best check the WholeNote listings for details. Also, the high-energy La Bottine Souriante, Quebec’s purveyor of French-Canadian music with pronounced salsa, jazz and folk influences, plays Koerner Hall on December 8.

If saudade puts you in the mood however, then perhaps Jessie Lloyd and Louis Simao’s show “Fado, the Soul of Portugal” at the Green Door Cabaret will do the trick on December 1. On the other hand Amanda Martinez, our own Latin-Canadian singer-songwriter, might be the ticket to lifting your spirits at Koerner Hall on the same night.

At noon on December 5 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, four of Toronto’s finest gigging world musicians troll the season’s more whimsical global side in an all-ages concert titled “GrimmFest: Fairy Tales from Faraway Lands.” The musicians are vocalist Maryem Tollar, Roula Said, vocals/dance/percussion, percussionist Naghmeh Farahmand, and Waleed Abdulhamid on bass/percussion/vocals. Also at the Four Seasons Centre on December 13 the Jeng Yi Korean Drum and Dance Ensemble, featuring Joo Hyung Kim on Korean zither, perform a program with the enticing label “Drums, Strings and Ribbons.” If West Africa is where you’d rather be mid-December, then be there in spirit at the Dande Music Showcase’s CD release concert of Bongozozo, an Afro-Jazz band with Zimbabwean roots, at the May Café on the 15th.

worldview buika1stchoiceAs much as December is about reflection, January and the New Year means new beginnings for many of us. The month starts slowly, but by January 18 it is in full swing with the concert by the groups Soledad Barrio, Noche Flamenca and the Jorge Miguel Flamenco Ensemble at the Royal Conservatory of Music. More flamenco, this time with a decidedly jazz-infused flavour served up by Buika, graces Koerner Hall on January 25. Ending the month on the afternoon of the 27th is Soundstreams’ adventurous production of “The Three Faces of Jerusalem,” including music and poetry exploring the shared heritages of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Torontonian composer James Rolfe’s as yet unnamed new work will be unveiled. On the traditional side of the program: Sephardic songs, Arabic instrumental and vocal works, as well as Lauda Jerusalem, by the great Italian renaissance composer Monteverdi. I think it’s a fittingly optimistic way to greet the New Year. May yours be peaceful and filled with music. 

Andrew Timar is a Toronto musician and music writer. He can be contacted at worldmusic@thewholenote.com.

christina petrowska quilico - 30 - by marco grazziniOur cover story bypasses all of December to focus on a January 21 event. So I thought I’d push the envelope a day further and start by calling your attention to an event happening on January 22! On that day, at Glenn Gould Studio, pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico launches a two-CD Centrediscs recording, Visions: Rhapsodies & Fantasias, consisting of composer Constantin Caravassilis’ books of rhapsodies and fantasias for solo piano. “Visions in sound, transcending lyricism to become a dramatic opera for the keyboard,” is how Petrowska Quilico describes the works, a description which sounds considerably less flowery and vague when one notes that composer Caravassilis, like Sibelius, Rimsky-Korsakov and, some would say, Mozart before him is a “synaesthete,” someone whose perception of sound is inextricably linked to colour and movement.

Petrowska Quilico, a visual artist in her own right, entered into the world of Caravassilis’ sound palette so completely that she rendered the works into nearly 100 paintings before committing them to disc. Some of these paintings will be projected at the concert, and displayed at a Canadian Music Centre-hosted reception in the lobby afterwards.

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Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise thy God, O Zion!

—Psalm 147

Allah, May He Be Praised, said of Jerusalem: You are my Garden of Eden, my hallowed and chosen land.

—Ka’ab al-Ahbar

I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant land.

—William Blake

And come forth from the cloud of unknowing
And kiss the cheek of the moon
The New Jerusalem glowing

—Leonard Cohen

artofsong kiya tabassianJerusalem is sacred to three faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. On January 27 at 3pm, in Koerner Hall, Soundstreams will explore music and poetry centering on the city of Jerusalem. The singer will be Françoise Atlan, who was born in a Sephardic family in France but now lives in Morocco. She has performed and recorded several kinds of medieval music: Sephardic, Arabic and Spanish. In the Soundstreams concert she will perform Sephardic songs as well as a new work by James Rolfe. Persian music will be represented by the setar playing of Kiya Tabassian, a musician born in Iran, who now lives in Montreal. As for the Christian tradition, there will be a performance of Claudio Monteverdi’s motet Lauda Jerusalem, Dominum, a setting of Psalm 147. There will also be poetry readings from Blake, Cohen and John Asfour as well as new poetry by André Alexis. The musical direction will be in the hands of David Fallis, well known to Toronto readers as the artistic director of the Toronto Consort and the musical director of Opera Atelier.

artofsong francoise-atlan-070-alan-keohaneAround the venues: The Aldeburgh Connection will present its season’s second concert, “Madame Bizet,” December 2. The performers are Nathalie Paulin, soprano, and Brett Polegato, baritone, with readings by Fiona Reid and Mike Shara. The music is by Bizet, Debussy, Ravel and Hahn. The third concert in the series will take place January 27. Its title, “Valse des Fleurs,” is an allusion to Sacheverell Sitwell’s evocation of Imperial Russia. In this concert the singers are Leslie Ann Bradley, soprano, Anita Krause, mezzo, and Andrew Haji, tenor (with readings by Ben Carlson). The music is by Glinka, Borodin, Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky. Both concerts are at Walter Hall at 2:30pm.

The Canadian Opera Company announces three free concerts in its Vocal Series: “GrimmFest,” arias and duets inspired by the Brothers Grimm, December 4; music by Mozart and Salieri, January 8; songs on the theme of travel and homeland, January 24. All three concerts are in the Richard Bradshaw Auditorium in the Four Seasons Centre at 12 noon.

Opera Five presents “Waking up the Senses,” with works by Hindemith, Rachmaninoff, and Granger at Gallery 345, December 4, 5 and 6 at 7:30pm.

There will be a recital of French carols and other Christmas music with singers Aurélie Cormier, mezzo, and Bruno Cormier, baritone, a freewill offering at the Newman Centre on December 7 at 7:30pm.

At the Heliconian Hall on December 8 at 7:00pm, Carla Huhtanen, soprano, and Heidi Saario, piano, will perform Finnish songs from Sibelius to Saariaho.

Also at the Heliconian Hall, on December 16 at 2:00pm Jacqueline Gélineau, contralto, and Brahm Goldhamer, piano, with John Holland, baritone, and Darlene Shura, soprano, will perform works by Brahms, Reichenauer and Handel.

Bravissimo: On December 31 at 7:00pm at Roy Thomson Hall you can hear “Bravissimo,” an anthology of opera’s greatest hits ranging from Don Giovanni to La Bohème. Two of the soloists are Canadian, the tenor Gordon Gietz and the baritone Gregory Dahl. The others are the Spanish soprano Davinia Rodriguez, the Italian mezzo Annalisa Stroppa and the Korean tenor Ho-Yoon Chung. I remember Dahl from a fine performance in Britten’s Paul Bunyan when he was still a student at the University of Toronto Opera School; Gietz made his debut at the Met in the role of the Nose in Shostakovitch’s opera of that name (I suppose we can call it the title role). On New Year’s Day at 2:30pm, also at Roy Thomson Hall, there will be a performance of “A Salute to Vienna,” with soprano Elena Dediu and tenor Alexandru Badia as soloists.

artofsongoption laylaclaire credit lisamariemazzuccoLayla Claire: Every January at Roy Thomson Hall the TSO presents a mini-Mozart Festival. This year the series is titled “Mozart At 257” and will include two concerts with the soprano Layla Claire. On January 9 at 6:30pm, Claire will sing Susanna’s recitative from The Marriage of Figaro,“Giunse alfin il momento,” but she will then not go on to the aria “Deh vieni non tardar,” but will substitute the aria which Mozart wrote for the 1789 revival of the opera: “Al desio di chi t’adora.” In the January 10 concert at 2pm, she will also sing an aria from La Finta Giardiniera. The “Alleluia” from “Exsultate Jubilate” will be part of both concerts. Claire is a Canadian singer (she was born in Penticton, B.C.), who studied in Montreal and now lives in New York City.

Mad Dogs and more: On January 13 at 3pm the Talisker Players will present “Mad Dogs and Englishmen: the Noel Coward Songbook” at Trinity St. Paul’s Centre. Also on January 13, at 6:30pm, Ariel Harwood-Jones will give a recital as a Prelude to Evensong, a freewill offering at St. Thomas’s Church.

There will be a free recital by voice students at York University January 18 at 1:30pm in the Martin Family Lounge, Room 219 Accolade East Building.

Monica Whicher, soprano, Liz Upchurch, piano, and Marie Bérard, violin, will perform a program of English-language songs by British, American and Canadian composers at 8pm on January 27 in the Mazzoleni Concert Hall.

The soprano Angela Meade will be the soloist in a performance of Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs with the Ontario Philharmonic, conducted by Marco Parisotto. The concert, in Koerner Hall at 8pm on January 20, will also include Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony. And Adrienne Pieczonka performs the same work with the Hamilton Philharmonic led by James Sommerville on December 15 at 7:30pm in Hamilton Place.

On February 2 at 7:30pm in the Mazzoleni Concert Hall, the Glenn Gould School presents a concert in which voice students at the school perform art songs and arias.

And beyond the GTA: Anne Morrone, soprano, Marianne Sasso, mezzo, Anthony Macri, tenor, and Ian Amirthanathan, baritone, will be the soloists in a Christmas Concert December 14 at 7:30pm at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, Nobleton.

A postscript: I always have an eye (and two ears) open for newly emerging singers and it gave me great pleasure to attend the double bill offered by the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory on November 16. The works were the modernist Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters by Ned Rorem (libretto by Gertrude Stein) and the romantic Le Lauréat by Joseph Vézina. The latter work was written in 1906 (it is an opéra comique with spoken dialogue but with arias and duets which reminded me of Puccini); the production was updated to the 1960s. The casts in both works were accomplished and there were especially fine performances by the soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon and the mezzo Ekaterina Utochkina. In February the Glenn Gould School will mount its annual production of a full-length opera. This year it will be Mozart’s Don Giovanni and that will be something to look forward to. 

Hans de Groot taught English Literature at the University of Toronto from 1965 until the spring of 2012, and has been a concert-goer and active listener since the early 1950s; he also sings and plays recorder. He can be contacted at artofsong@thewholenote.com.

We go to concerts to hear music, sometimes not aware of the interesting backgrounds of the artists there on stage, playing or singing their hearts out. In conjunction with two upcoming concerts, here are two performers with fascinating stories to tell.

earlymusic randall rosenfeldRandall Rosenfeld has been a mainstay of Sine Nomine Ensemble for Medieval Music since its founding in 1991. He’s often heard playing vielle, gittern, recorder and early flute in this group which performs vocal and instrumental music of Europe from around the tenth to the 15th centuries. But did you know that he’s received a major award from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada for excellence in astronomical writing and has been honoured by having a minor planet named after him? It’s all in his work as national archivist of the RASC; he’s received high praise for creating a first-class archive that provides an insight on the development of Canadian astronomy in the last century. I asked him to talk about the co-existence of music and astronomy in his life; here, distilled, is a little of what he told me:

“My formal training wasn’t as a scientist, but rather as a medievalist. One can’t go very far in the exploration of the intellectual world of say, 1,200 or 600 years ago without encountering the very close connections between music and astronomy. They were sister mathematical disciplines through which an understanding of the world could be apprehended. Those connections could be found directly in music surviving from the 11th to the 15th centuries. There’s a surprising amount of medieval music with texts unmistakably using the technical vocabulary of astronomy, or describing types of celestial events. Very convenient for someone with an interest in the history of both music and astronomy.

“I can’t say that my work in the history of post-medieval astronomy influences what I do musically, or vice versa, with one notable exception. The problems associated with restaging historical observations and those involved with recreating past musical practices are in many respects quite similar — it is as difficult to fully recover or comprehend how an experiment may have been done in the past or how the results were perceived at the time as it is to recreate a past musical performance and hear it with the ears of the past (some aspects and perceptions will never be recoverable). Much can be learned by endeavouring to do both, and each may provide an illuminating analogue to the other.”

On December 21 at St. Thomas’s Anglican Church, Sine Nomine Ensemble performs “A Christmas Court Entertainment: The Romance of Erec and Enide,” one of the most popular Arthurian romances, with music by Machaut, Binchois, Dufay and other late medieval French composers. While the concert is not directly structured around an astrological theme, there’s astrological imagery: “Some of the repertoire mentions celestial objects and is concerned with aspects of the construction of the world, and touches on questions of time and eternity.”

Katherine Hill is well known as a soprano in the early music world, here and in Europe — no doubt you’ve heard her in ensembles such as the Toronto Consort, Sine Nomine and Scaramella. You may have seen her playing the medieval fiddle or the gamba too. But lately, another fascinating instrument has entered her life: The nyckelharpa is a bowed stringed instrument with keys that can be traced back to 14th-century northern Europe and is still widely used in Swedish traditional music. It got Hill’s attention when she heard it on recordings many years ago. She says: “The sound reminded me of my medieval fiddle, but I also loved the sound of the keys clicking away. And Swedish music, with its mix of major and minor modes, crazy rhythms and haunting songs also captivated me.”

Having the good fortune to borrow one for a summer and then to buy it, she seized opportunities to do summer courses in Sweden in nyckelharpa and Swedish music. “The more I learned, the more I wanted to learn! So last year I got a Canada Council grant to study technique, repertoire and Swedish traditional dance in Sweden for nine months, which was a very rich experience. Now that I’m home, I want to keep exploring the Swedish music side of things, but also the medieval fiddle side.”

There’s a good opportunity to hear her and this instrument, in the first concert of the Toronto Early Music Centre (TEMC) 2013 season. Hill says: “I will be playing nyckelharpa in this show. The general uniting element in the repertoire is the nyckelharpa, first as a medieval fiddle (pictured in Siena in 1408 in the chapel of the town hall). So we’ll be playing some music from that time and place. And second, the nyckelharpa as a Swedish traditional instrument; so there will be some Swedish songs and dance tunes. My partner will be Julia Seager-Scott, who will play a gothic harp for the medieval material and a folk (or a baroque) harp for the Swedish music. There’s a nice connection too, with the word harp also being in the name nyckelharpa (in Swedish ‘harpa’ can mean harp or fiddle).”

The performance takes place on Sunday afternoon, January 27 in TEMC’s intimate venue, St. David’s Anglican Church.

earlymusiccollegiumvocalegent credit michel garnierCollegium Vocale Gent/Schola Cantorum

We’re lucky that the RCM’s Performing Arts director, Mervon Mehta, is passionate about bringing internationally renowned artists to our parts of the world — for example, the wonderful ensemble Collegium Vocale Gent who appear in Koerner Hall on December 14 to perform four cantatas from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. Specialists in historically authentic performances of vocal renaissance and baroque music, they’re led by the acclaimed conductor Philippe Herreweghe who founded this group in 1970. Their work has been described as “breathtaking,” “eloquent,” “unusually finely blended.”

A week earlier on December 7, the U of T’s newly formed early music vocal ensemble Schola Cantorum performs in the beautiful, acoustically rich and relatively intimate setting of Trinity College Chapel. Featured are Handel’s Coronation Anthems, the four joyful and celebratory pieces that he composed for the coronations of King George II and Queen Caroline. The concert is directed by countertenor Daniel Taylor, whose ensemble, the Theatre of Early Music, also participates in this performance.

A few others in brief

December 14 to 16: The Toronto Consort and guests, the Toronto Chamber Choir, present “Praetorius Mass for Christmas Morning.” This production recreates the music that might have been heard at a Lutheran mass on Christmas morning under Michael Praetorius and features the sounds of early brass, strings, lutes, keyboards and voices from their positions around the balconies at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre.

December 19: At Saint Stephen-in-the-Fields Church, the Elixir Ensemble — harpsichordist Sara-Anne Churchill, gambist Justin Haynes, violinists Elyssa Lefurgey-Smith and Valerie Gordon — performs music from the Baroque on historical instruments.

January 1 and 2: Don’t forget the Musicians In Ordinary’s annual New Year’s Day Baroque Concerts. Soprano Hallie Fishel and lutenist/theorbist John Edwards are joined by violinists Christopher Verrette and Edwin Huizinga.

January 12: The Oratory, Holy Family Church presents “O Beata Infantia: Baroque Music for the Christ Child.” Organist Philip Fournier and a fine vocal and string ensemble perform works by Praetorius, Sweelinck, François and Louis Couperin, Perotin and Palestrina.

January 17 to 20, 22: Tafelmusik’s “Baroque London” explores the music of the King’s Theatre Haymarket under the guidance of retired oboist, Mr. Richard Neale. Music by Handel, Galliard, Sammartini, Bononcini and Pepusch illustrates the remembrances of this forgotten oboist, as imagined by actor R.H. Thomson.

January 31, February 1 to 3: Again the formidable Tafelmusik, whose show “Vivaldi, Handel & Sandrine Piau” features this French soprano in baroque arias, also orchestral suites and concertos. 

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.

There were so many opera performances crammed into November that it may come as a relief to opera fans that the pace lets up a bit for the last month of 2012 and the first of 2013. The period takes on a distinctly Germanic flavour with the COC’s GrimmFest (a tribute to the 200th anniversary of the Grimm brothers’ collection of fairy tales), Toronto Operetta Theatre’s production of The Merry Widow and the COC’s production in January of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. The key, though, is that there is opera available to appeal to a wide range of tastes.

onopera coc-grimm-7520GrimmFest: December begins with the COC’s GrimmFest (coc.ca/GrimmFest) running from December 4 to December 8. The occasion is the 200th anniversary of the publication in 1812 of Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children’s and Household Tales) by linguists, cultural researchers and brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. One of the effects of the rise of Romanticism was research into folk traditions in an effort to uncover the strands of national identity. Besides that, people were aware that with the rise of industrialization, the traditions of an oral culture were gradually dying out and many scholars set out to record oral poetry and stories before they were lost. There is some dispute about the sources that the Grimm brothers used, but the result of their work gave us such famous stories as “Rapunzel,” “Hansel and Gretel,” “The Fisherman and His Wife,” “Cinderella,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “The Bremen Town Musicians,” “Tom Thumb,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Snow White” and “Rumpelstiltskin” among the two hundred tales collected.

The centrepiece of GrimmFest will be the 500th performance of the children’s opera The Brothers Grimm by Dean Burry. The anniversary performance by the COC Ensemble Studio takes place on December 7 at Daniels Spectrum in Regent Park with two more performances on December 8. The opera was commissioned by the COC in 1999 and has since become the most performed Canadian opera of all time. Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm are characters and the 45-minute opera shows how they were inspired to write “Rapunzel,” “Rumpelstiltskin” and “Little Red Riding Hood.” It has been a staple of the COC’s annual school tour since it premiered in 2001. In March 2012 it had its European premiere in Cardiff, Wales.

According to Burry, “When The Brothers Grimm premiered in 2001, I never expected that we would be celebrating its 500th performance 11 years later. It means so much to have been a part of this incredible journey and to have introduced so many young people to opera through the magic of these incredible fairy tales.”

Toronto Operetta Theatre (torontooperetta.com) will, as usual, present an operetta during the immediate pre- and post-New Year’s Eve period with a gala performance on New Year’s Eve itself. This year the work will be that ever-popular evocation of turn-of-the-century Paris, The Merry Widow (1905) by Franz Lehár. This will be the TOT’s fourth staging of the piece after productions in 1995, 2000 and 2007, bringing it equal with Johann Strauss, Jr.’s Die Fledermaus as the company’s most performed operetta.

Anyone who found the COC’s recent production of Die Fledermaus rather too concept-heavy should know that the TOT has always placed its emphasis on a work’s musical values above all else. The story involves the plan of the ambassador of Pontevedro, a bankrupt Balkan country, to find a Pontevedrian husband for Hannah Glawari, the country’s richest citizen, so that her money will remain in the country. With the current monetary crisis in the European Union, this amusing plot has acquired a strange new relevance. For the TOT production Leslie Ann Bradley sings the title role; former COC Ensemble member Adam Luther is Count Danilo, the man sent to woo her; David Ludwig is the ambassador Baron Zeta; Elizabeth Beeler, a former Hannah Glawari herself, is his wife Valencienne; and Keith Klassen is Camille de Rossillon, Valencienne’s admirer. Derek Bate, assistant conductor at the COC, conducts and Guillermo Silva-Marin directs. The operetta runs from December 28, 2012, to January 6, 2013.

onopera tristanbillviola-videoparis2005Tristan: One of the most anticipated offerings of the COC’s 2012-13 season is its production of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, the company’s first production of the masterpiece since 1987. This staging is also notable as the COC debut of renowned American director Peter Sellars. Sellars first created this vision of Tristan in 2005 for Opéra Bastille in Paris. Its most notable aspect is the use of a film by video artist Bill Viola that is projected on a colossal screen above the singers’ heads throughout the entire length of the work. The film can be justified on the grounds of Wagner’s goal of creating a Gesamtkunstwerk or “total work of art” in the theatre that would combine the various artistic disciplines. Wagner’s own view of the role of the visual arts in opera was rather conventional as can be seen in sketches of the first production of the Ring Cycle, where stagehands push the Rhinemaidens mounted on trolleys back and forth behind painted waves. Sellars’ notion is that Viola’s film will serve not just as the set but will provide an ongoing visual commentary on the action as a parallel to Wagner’s concept of the orchestra as chorus.

Using extreme slow motion, Viola’s video uses actors to portray the metaphorical action behind Wagner’s story. He views the first act as an extended ritual of purification for the two lovers, while on stage the two characters maintain a strained stance of indifference to each other. As one can see from the examples on the COC website, Viola makes much use of fire and water imagery. Viola’s video has accompanied concert performances of Tristan in Los Angeles in 2004 and in New York, Los Angeles and Rotterdam in 2007. Only at the Bastille Opera in Paris — and now recreated for the COC — has the video been used for staged performances.

Ben Heppner, who sang Tristan for the premiere of Sellars’ production in 2005, sings the role January 29, February 2, 14, 17 and 20, with German tenor Burkhard Fritz of the Staatsoper Berlin taking over on February 8 and 23. German soprano Melanie Diener sings Isolde on the same dates as Heppner with American Margaret Jane Wray taking over opposite Fritz. Franz-Josef Selig sings King Marke, to whom Isolde is engaged. Daveda Karanas is Isolde’s maid Brangäne, who misguidedly concocts a love potion for her mistress, and Alan Held sings Kurwenal, Tristan’s loyal servant. At the podium is the world-renowned Czech conductor Jiří Bělohlávek, who has recorded widely for Chandos, Harmonia Mundi and Deutsche Grammophon among other labels.

In his program note for the original production, Sellars described the love duet in Tristan by saying, “We hear the celestial voice of compassion expounding Buddha’s four noble truths to mortals.” Given the influence of Buddhism on Wagner via the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), this statement is not as far-fetched as it might at first appear. Sellars aims to present Tristan as an exploration of spirituality, rather than sex as past directors have done. Whatever the result, the chance to see Tristan und Isolde in Toronto after such a long absence and to see Sellars’ work in our own Four Seasons Centre will start the new year on an aesthetic high.   

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

musictheatreoption danielle wade photo credit mirvish productionsJust in time for the holidays, the North American premiere of The Wizard of Oz settles into the Ed Mirvish Theatre for an open-ended run on December 20th, replete with Dorothy, Toto and the cast of characters known the world over. An adaptation of the 1939 film that won Academy Awards for both Judy Garland and “Over the Rainbow” (the song by Harold Arlen that became the singer’s signature), the musical is the brainchild of Andrew Lloyd Webber, the celebrated producer/composer (The Phantom of the Opera, Sunset Boulevard) who opened the show at the London Palladium, which he owns and operates, in March 2011. The Toronto production, presented under the auspices of Mirvish Productions, uses the same creative team to duplicate the staging that won accolades for Robert Jones, the production’s designer whose collaboration with writer/director Jeremy Sams transformed the fantasy world of L. Frank Baum’s 1901 novel into a visual feast as distinctive as the one Victor Fleming committed to celluloid. Considering that the film’s special effects, to say nothing of the performances of its cast, have accrued mythic status while scaling the heights of cinematic and cultural history ever since, this is no minor achievement.

It probably was inevitable that Baum’s much-loved fable would find life in the theatre, but its success was by no means assured. This helps to explain why Lloyd Webber hedged his bets when he undertook the London production. Banking on the kudos garnered by Jones and Sams for their revival of The Sound of Music at the Palladium in 2006, he gave them full license to create a new vision of Oz; in addition, he supplied them with new material — primarily, songs he himself wrote to augment Arlen’s score.

Although the original songs are memorable, their lyrics by Yip Harburg illustrate that the movie is not a musical but, rather, a story with music — too fine a point to belabour here, but one that film historians emphasize, and Lloyd Webber shares. On record as considering the film score under-written, he invited Tim Rice, his first (and best?) collaborator (Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita), to write the lyrics for his new melodies. Rice accepted, thus ending a long-standing separation from his erstwhile partner while completing the new material which, in the tradition of contemporary musicals, is more character-driven than plot-inspired. This becomes evident quickly in the production when Dorothy sings “Nobody Understands Me,” a Rice/Webber number, in Scene One. “Over the Rainbow,” her first song in the film, must wait till Scene Two.

Caroline McGinn, theatre critic at London’s Time Out, opines that Webber and Rice are “right to add [the] extra material” for “the new music is tense and atmospheric, albeit a tad cruel and campy.” In The Guardian, Michael Billington concurs, suggesting that the additions are “perfectly acceptable” and citing, in particular, Dorothy’s “plaintive” opening song and the “pounding intensity” of the “Red Shoes Blues,” a new number for the Wicked Witch of the West. Nevertheless, he suggests that the additional material, in its pursuit of a nebulous “full-blown musical” form, disrupts “the delicate balance” between fantasy and music that the film attains, ultimately making “an essentially simple fable about the importance of individual worth seem overblown.”

At its core, The Wizard of Oz is about heart — or, more accurately, its absence. While the Tin Man can openly lament his physical emptiness, other characters must reveal their heartlessness in less literal ways — unless, of course, they are downright wicked. The unmasking of the Wizard near the conclusion of the piece brings to full poignancy Baum’s parable of dashed hopes and thwarted desire in which Dorothy’s quest for a return route to Kansas stands in for her search for love and acceptance, always out of reach. What better way to fulfill her longing, and that of all the Dorothys of the world, than to make her dreams come true?

Surely, this, as well as clever marketing, influenced Lloyd Webber’s decision to cast the role of Dorothy through a national audition masked as a television show. In the UK, over 10,000 women competed for the part which, in the end, was decided by the public through phone-in votes on Over the Rainbow, a BBC One musical rendition of reality TV. Building an audience for the stage production in what amounted to a long-running television commercial, Lloyd Webber repeated the formula that worked so successfully for The Sound of Music for which, to win the coveted role of Maria, neophyte actors auditioned on BBC TV’s How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? Although the premise of these shows is obviously commercial, the dreams that fuel their participants’ ambitions — and the support of their fans — are more real than Dorothy’s. Winning the competition equals getting a job. Appearing on a popular television show secures exposure and opportunity. When Elicia Mackenzie won the role of Maria in the CBC’s version of How Do You Solve in 2008, she launched a career that otherwise might have eluded her. “I will never forget the feeling of that moment when they called my name!” she acknowledges. And nor should she.

In Toronto’s Wizard, Danielle Wade plays Dorothy Gale after winning the part through an audition process identical to the one taped by the BBC. Here, CBC-TV cooperated with David Mirvish and his co-producers to create a reality show also called Over the Rainbow — adding further lustre to the template that Webber can market as a success. Joining Wade, a 20-year-old student at the University of Windsor, is an all-Canadian cast of veteran performers certain to make her onstage experience real — at least for her. Cedric Smith, a Gemini-winning film and theatre performer,stars as the Wizard. Lisa Horner, featured regularly at both the Shaw and Stratford Festivals, plays the Wicked Witch. Actor and choreographer Mike Jackson takes on the Tin Man. A Dora Award winner for his play High Life, Lee MacDougall plays the Lion. Jamie McKnight, one of the Canadian Tenors, breathes life into the Scarecrow. And Robin Evan Willis, well-known for many Shaw Festival productions, plays Glinda.

And heart? Does the show have heart? Well, dear reader, that is for you to decide. With certainty, I promise that the production will have spectacle. Discussing the Palladium show, Billington notes that, “Not since 19th century Drury Lane melodramas can London have seen anything quite like it.” With the same design team at work in Toronto, local audiences can anticipate a similar experience. “The Kansas cyclone that whisks Dorothy into a dreamworld is evoked through vorticist projections (the work of Jon Driscoll) that betoken chaos in the cosmos. The yellow brick road is on a tilted revolve from inside which poppyfields and a labyrinthine forest emerge. The Emerald City is full of steeply inclined walls suggesting a drunkard’s vision of the Chrysler Building lobby. And the Wicked Witch of the West inhabits a rotating dungeon that might be a Piranesi nightmare.” Not exactly suitable for young children? Well, neither is the movie.

Snow White: If you’re looking for “family fare” of a less scary sort, albeit with less innovative staging, check out Snow White, a presentation by Ross Petty Productions that opened at the Elgin theatre on November 23 and runs through early January. The latest in a series of shows presented by this unique company every Christmas, Snow White follows the conventions of British pantomime that the London Palladium was built to present in the early 20th century. Almost always, pantomime is based on traditional children’s stories, especially fairy tales (Cinderella, Aladdin, Peter Pan etc.), performed at Christmas for family audiences. Interestingly, although The Wizard of Oz figures rarely as the subject of pantomime, Ross Petty used it here only last year to create his annual Elgin panto in which a skateboarding Dorothy was deposited in a place called Oz where, as John Bemrose put it in the National Post, “a gyrating gesticulating crew of outback yokels, whom the Wicked Witch of the West dismisses, not too unjustly, as a bunch of ethnic stereotypes” are quickly recognized as Aussies. (It’s worth noting in this context that in last year’s Petty pantomime production of Oz at the Elgin, Dorothy was played by Elicia Mackenzie, and that, by falling in love with the Tin Man, performed by Yvan Pedneault, a formidable talent that Mirvish introduced to local audiences in We Will Rock You, she helped him find his heart.)

British pantomime (or “panto” as it is affectionately termed “over there”), has been popular since the mid-19th century, its use of song, dance, buffoonery, slapstick, crossdressing, in-jokes, topical references and audience participation appealing to people of all ages. Indeed, theatrically spectacular musicals such as the Webber Oz and pantomime share similar goals — notably, reassurance of the audience’s values (hence the use of stock characters and well-known stories) coupled with emotional and visual transport.

Variations to the story of Snow White in this year’s panto, while equally audacious, are more traditionally conceived to adhere to the conventions of the form. Subtitled “A Deliciously Dopey Family Musical!” the show collapses the seven dwarfs of the original fairy tale into one character — 007, a James Bond lookalike played by Stratford leading man, Graham Abbey, whose appearance fulfills the convention of a celebrity guest star. As usual, the convention of the crossdressed older woman (known as the “pantomime dame”) is addressed by Petty himself who, by performing the role of the evil Queen, adds another drag performance to the long list of comic portrayals that makes him a fan favourite. Playing the title character is Canadian Idol winner Melissa O’Neil who made her panto debut as Belle in Petty’s 2010 production of Beauty and the Beast. Fresh from appearing in the Broadway production of Stratford’s Jesus Christ Superstar, she perpetuates an unofficial connection between Petty and Mirvish that the work of Andrew Lloyd Webber continues to facilitate.

musictheatre the story photo credit jacqui jensen royThe Story: Moving further afield, geographically if not aesthetically, a third show provides a unique form of spectacle even as it depicts a narrative traditional to the season. The Story, a production by Theatre Columbus, conceived and written by Martha Ross, returns to the Evergreen Brick Works on December 4th where it plays for the remainder of the month. Now in its 29th year, Theatre Columbus has a prestigious history of innovative play creation and production, with roots firmly planted in the creative compost of clown, commedia and buffoon. Ross, a co-founder of the company, unites her performance experience and writing skills to create the script for The Story which uses various locations in the Brick Works and its adjacent parkland to imbue the tale of the nativity with comic irreverence and visual beauty.

Based on the gospels of Matthew and Luke, the events of The Story are widely known. In this hour-long version, they occur mainly outdoors as the audience follows the flickering lantern of a solitary shepherd as he guides them past kilns, under iron girders, along gravel paths, through various interiors and into open spaces. With a strong eye for visual composition, director Jennifer Brewin uses the industrial and natural geography to imaginative effect, ably supported by Catherine Hahn (set and costumes), Glenn Davidson (lighting) and John Millard who, as sound and musical director for the production, oversees the local choirs (a different one each evening) that serenade the audience with seasonal songs while it weaves its way to each location.

Brewin’s DORA award for her direction of the premiere of this show last year is well deserved. Her decision to bring a physical approach to the material encourages the actors to develop their characters with broad, clown-like techniques at which they excel. The Three Kings are lost and disoriented; Mary is impatient and tense; King Herod is paranoid and petulant; and Gabriel, the herald, overwhelmed by the message he must deliver, has a dizzy quality reminiscent of a befuddled fairy in a panto. In fact, all the characters resemble those of a pantomime, their slapstick and buffoonery foregrounding psychological states and, ultimately, infusing their situation with a winning humanity.

The Story is short, sweet, and, at times, stunningly beautiful—the majesty of a star-lit winter sky providing a backdrop so unexpected that it hardly seems real. But it is, and so is the weather. Dress warmly and treat yourself to the hot chocolate on sale at the site — unusual directions for my hot tip of the month. 

Based in Toronto, Robert Wallace writes about theatre and performance. He can be contacted at musictheatre@thewholenote.com.

 

 

I have been writing a column in WholeNote for a number of years now and as 2012 heads towards the past I thought it might be interesting to look back at some of the items from the late 90s on, at changes that have taken place as well as some constants that don’t alter.

2000: For example, at end of the year 2000 I wrote: “Looking back over the past year, I realise just how much good jazz is available on a regular basis in this city. On any given week in Toronto, you can hear a wide range of music. The performers are often visiting “names,” but the majority are our own artists — and the standards are high. The concentration of good musicians in our own community is astonishing. The number of playing opportunities is regrettably small,  for it is an unfortunate fact that there is a lot less work for musicians than there used to be. And Toronto is a city with more playing opportunities than most. A young player entering the profession today has a difficult path ahead. There are simply not enough jobs to go around and talent is no guarantee of success.”

And I thought it was bad then!

jazznotes ralph suttonjazznotes bill basie between-1946-and-19482003: A sense of humour is part of the makeup of most jazz musicians and I have always tried to inject some into this column almost every month. So in 2003 I made up a small list of CDs that “might have been”:

Anita O’Day – “What A Difference O’Day Makes”

Bill (aka Count) Basie/Bill Holman Christmas Album – “Jingle Bills”

Mitch Miller – “Mitch’s Brew”

Al Kay – “Kay Passa”

Guido Basso – “Basso Profundo”

Phil Dwyer – “Dwyer Circumstances”

jazznotes bill holman -photo credit john reevesRay Bryant and Bill Mays – “Bryant and Mays: A Perfect Match”

Stompin’ Tom Connors – “Stompin’ At The Savoy”

(And in rehashing the topic for this month’s column with David Perlman, I have to give him credit for suggesting an album with Mike Murley, Larry Cramer and a rhythm section that could be called “Murley, Larry and Co.”)

2010: The 2010 December issue contained some memories of the years when I was artistic director of the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival including the following:

“We have at times even helped the course of true love. One time I was in one of the festival vehicles along with a visiting group on the way to a sound check when the band’s road manager saw a lovely young lady walking along the street in downtown Toronto. He called out to the driver, “Stop the van! I must meet that beautiful woman! Stop the van!!” He slid the passenger door open and jumped out into the crowd.

We never saw him again — not at the sound check or the concert. He simply disappeared. I do hope everything worked out for him.”

In 2008 I expressed some of my feelings about Christmas in a piece titled “The Ghost Of Christmas Presents”:

“It’s that time of the year when the festive season, and all that goes with it, is upon us,” I wrote. “That time when there are the rival groups of Ho! Ho! Hos! in the red corner and Bah Humbugs! in the blue.

“Please don’t misunderstand me when I admit to being drawn to the blue corner, but I’m tired of the commercialism and insincerity which has turned the season into just another big sell. School may be out, but crass isn’t dismissed!

“The first Christmas card’s inscription read: “merry Christmas and a happy New Year to you.” “Merry” was then a spiritual word meaning “blessed,” as in “merry old England.” But today the great divide is between the spiritual aspect of Christmas and the secular and the secular is winning at a canter. Christmas may come but once a year but the commercial aspect of it which might well be called “giftmas” lasts for at least two months.”

Resolutions: After Christmascomes the event that used to be one of the busiest nights of the year for musicians — New Year’s Eve. It paid at least double scale and very few musicians sat at home wondering why they didn’t have a gig. Now most players do sit at home with their memories of gigs galore in days gone by. I have one funny, if at the time a bit embarrassing, recollection of the night at the Montreal Bistro when we had the count down to midnight and everybody was ready to sing Auld Lang Syne — and I launched into Happy Birthday to You!

New year is, of course also the time for New Year’s resolutions. Personally I don’t bother with them. If I’m going to resolve to try and do something, or change certain habits, why wait until the end of December? Do whatever it is no matter what time of year it is. After all it’s just as easy to break a resolution made in the middle of July as it is at the New Year when it might be made under the affluence of incohol!

But I have a couple of wishes for other people and I’m quite prepared to wait until January 2013 or even later:

I wish that jazz audiences would resolve not to talk loudly in a club while the music is being played. You are being rude and insensitive to the musicians and the people around you.

And I wish some wealthy patron would come along and donate decent pianos to several of the venues around town. My heart goes out to the talented pianists in this town who, over the years, have had to struggle with out of tune pianos, broken strings and keys. It’s a pipe dream I know, but as the song goes I Can Dream Can’t I.

Mind you, the latter isn’t a problem that exists only here. I remember an occasion when I was touring with that wonderful pianist, Ralph Sutton. The town was in the north of England and the piano was almost unplayable. Now Mr. Sutton for the most part was an easygoing agreeable character, but he did have a fuse which in certain circumstances was on the short side and I could see his anger rising as he did his best on this terrible apology for an instrument. We struggled through to the end whereupon Ralph, who was physically a very strong man, reached into the piano and pulled out handfuls of hammers and strings while saying with relish, “No other poor bastard will ever have to play this piece of shit!

On the subject of resolutions I’ll leave the last word to Oscar Wilde — “Good resolutions are simply cheques that men draw on a bank where they have no account.”

Have an enjoyable and safe festive season and may it continue into the new year.

Happy listening. 

Jim Galloway is a saxophonist, band leader and former artistic director of Toronto Downtown Jazz. He can be contacted at jazznotes@thewholenote.com.

The fascinating thing about jazz — and life itself — is that one never knows where it’s going. One of Toronto’s finest and most established jazz pianists, Richard Whiteman is set to celebrate the release of his eighthrecording. The big surprise? This time, he plays the bass.

intheclubs richard whiteman“My career as a bassist started during a photo shoot in my backyard in the summer of 2003 with Brandi Disterheft and drummer Sly Juhas. I held Brandi’s bass while she made a makeup/hair adjustment. Although I couldn’t play the thing, I was fascinated and said to myself, “This is cool!” Two weeks later I bought an instrument at George Heinl and Co. and started taking lessons.”

Whiteman’s greatest challenge?

“Merely learning how to play the instrument,” he says. “I have done a lot of slow repetitive practice over nine years to get a reasonable technique. Playing in tune is paramount.” (Charmingly, in the new recording’s liner notes he thanks his life partner Bev Legg “who has had to endure nine years’ worth of daily arco practicing. Love is not only blind; it is deaf.”) On that note: “Playing the bass has improved my musical ear. Unlike a fixed pitch instrument like the piano where the player has merely to press a key and a sound will be generated, a string player has to really hear a note before playing it and then stop the string at an exact spot on the fingerboard — not an easy task. My overall musicianship has improved.”

The new album, On Course, is an enjoyable straight-ahead jazz affair seasoned by tasteful choices not only in repertoire but also in personnel. Whiteman explains:

“There is no concept for the CD except, perhaps, ‘Songs I like performed by musicians I like.’ I’m very impressed by Amanda Tosoff’s piano-playing and am pleased to showcase her. She gets a lovely sound out of the instrument, paces her improvisations intelligently and burns with a lot of fire when needed. Master guitarist Reg Schwager is a brilliant soloist and the best possible accompanist. Morgan Childs plays the drums with great energy, spirit and musical taste. Tosoff is a prolific jazz composer and we recorded two of her tunes. The other songs, by writers like Harold Arlen, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, are timeless and beautiful. You’d have to be deaf to the beauties of the Western tonal system NOT to like this material.”

Peruse our In the Clubs (Mostly Jazz) listings section (page 64)and you will find that Whiteman still plays plenty of piano, leading a quartet on Monday nights at Gate 403; he also plays with the Hogtown Syncopators at the Rex on Fridays from 4-6pm.

“I don’t have the time to learn another instrument, but I would like to take a few voice lessons so I can use an instrument that doesn’t involve gear, automobiles and heavy lifting,” says Whiteman, drolly adding, “I certainly have the ego for it.”

Richard Whiteman’s bass quartet celebrates On Course by playing the early evening slot every Thursday in December at the Rex at 6:30pm.

“QUOTES ABOUT QUOTES”

For the first time in years, our In the Clubs (Mostly Jazz) listings are empty under the letter Q, as Quotes Bar & Grill, the cozy jazz venue below Barootes Restaurant, is closing this month. Reminiscent of a 1940s New York City jazz club, Quotes will be missed by many folks who attended the Canadian Jazz Quartet’s fantastic “Fridays at Five” series, featuring Gary Benson on guitar, Frank Wright on vibes, Don Vickery on drums and Duncan Hopkins on bass and cream of the crop weekly guests. If there’s one silver lining, it’s outlined in this quote about Quotes:

“All this ceased, not because of waning interest, but because the building was sold. The old adage ‘All things must come to an end’ somehow doesn’t fit here. Not yet. I find it hard to believe that all this life and vitality won’t find another home for ‘Fridays at Five.’”
Gary Benson, leader of the Canadian Jazz Quartet.

Event and project manager Fay Olson is very hopeful about the continuation of the series and is seeking a new venue ... she talks about her qualified quest for an alternate to Quotes on our blog here.          

It’s that time of year again. As of this writing there has only been one light dusting of snow, but the merchants have been promoting their super special Christmas offerings since sunrise on the day after Halloween. Unlike some other times of the year, when we are on a quest for community ensemble news, our mail bag is filled to the brim with information on Christmas concerts and other initiatives. By the time this issue is off the presses, alas, some of these will have already passed into the history books. Having said that, whether over or just ahead, several of these offerings represent a pronounced shift in the “same old” repertoire selected for the Christmas season, and are therefore worthy of comment.

bandstand daniel warrenThe Repertoire Bandwagon: While there are still some Christmas carols and more modern fare like Rudolf and Frosty the Snowman in these programs, there is much more depth in many, including transcriptions from the baroque and classical periods. There are also featured soloists on less likely instruments. Here are three early examples of this trend, one just over, two just ahead: thePlumbing Factory Brass Band (PFBB) from London (November 28), the Markham Concert Band (December 2)and theWellington Winds from Waterloo (also December 2). If their offerings are any indication of things to come in the community band world, they are most welcome. Bring on the seasonal concerts.

The feature number of the Markham Band’s December 2 concert is a modern concert band arrangement of The Nutcracker, complete with Kate Kunkel as guest harpist. If you are in a band looking for new repertoire, this arrangement is worthwhile, but not for the faint of heart. If the band doesn’t have at least one competent bassoonist, don’t consider this. The Markham Band also has the brass quintet from the Navy’s HMCS York Band as guests.

Rather than produce a Christmas concert per se, The Plumbing Factory’s director, Dr. Henry Meredith, has continued with his approach of thematic programming with “Dances of Many Times and Places.” Like one of his previous offerings of marches through the ages, this November 28 program featured a broad spectrum of dances. On the fast-paced side it included Smetana’s Dance of the Comedians and Manuel de Falla’s pyrotechnical Ritual Fire Dance, along with Rossini’s tarantella, La Danza, Chopin’s “Minute” Waltz, and Bizet’s Farandole from L’Arlesienne Suite #2. For a totally different perspective on “the dance,” The Plumbers also premiered two Victorian era Canadian dances with Ontario connections: The Burlington Polka and the Cayuga Two Step, published as solo piano editions in 1851 and 1906 respectively, and heard for the first time in over 100 years as arrangements for brass band by PFBB tuba player, Dave Pearson. One of their soloists was euphonium player, Terry Neudorf who brought his well-travelled vogelJoy ensemble to accompany his variations on My Grandfather’s Clock.

For their program on December 2 at 3pm, Wellington Winds have decided on a significant component of baroque music, but have chosen selections that are still seasonal. These include the Alfred Reed arrangement of Bach’s Wachet Auf, Phillip Gordon’s version of a Corelli Concerto Grosso, a Vivaldi Concerto in D major for Guitar and a Scott Amort transcription of Weber’s Concerto in F minor for Clarinet. More contemporary seasonal works include Holst’s Christmas Day (original for brass), the Robert Smith arrangements of Holst’s In the Bleak Midwinter and Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Greensleeves, and James Curnow’s Christmas Fancies.

More than a concert: Although we are looking forward to a concert of excellent music, the Wellington Winds afternoon will be much more than a concert. It will be the launch of a major initiative; the first of its kind that we have heard of anywhere in Canada. The band will be previewing their DVD/YouTube channel/online teaching guide project. Ultimately they hope to have as many as 100 Canadian band works on the site, some as full video, but most as sound only clips. The intent and hope is that this project will be a resource for all band people in Canada. They hope that the whole project will be as useful as possible for high school band teachers to engage their students in the conversation about making music performance a permanent part of their lives.

This project was achieved with the aid of significant public funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. Hopefully, in the not too distant future, the foundation will see that not just the Wellington Winds, but all of our community bands, deserve similar funding from the foundation.

Our hats are off to the Wellington Winds for this remarkable initiative. I am looking forward to producing a comprehensive review of this project in the next issue of The WholeNote, after I have seen the presentation at the concert, watched the DVD, seen some of the YouTube content and browsed the teaching guide. In the meantime, ask Mr. Google to take you to the Wellington Winds home page, watch an interview with Howard Cable and sample some of the content already there.

Of the other concerts planned for the holiday season, that of the Festival Wind Orchestra in Toronto offers another departure from what we normally expect. Keith Reid, their conductor tells us that the theme is “Russian Christmas Music.” Again we have Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite. Their solo feature will be Rimsky-Korsakov’s Variations on a Theme of Glinka with Katrina Liddell as oboe soloist.

Rather than break with tradition, the oldest of the bands that we heard from, the Newmarket Citizens Band, is carrying on with a long-standing tradition that most “town bands” have abandoned. They are performing in no fewer than four Santa Claus parades and are also playing three concerts for residents of retirement or long term care facilities. Their commitment to these parades is strong enough that the band owns a complete set of well-insulated winter uniform jackets.

In the new year: After a recent recital by flutist Christopher Lee, I had a fascinating conversation with his accompanist, Simon Capet. In the months ahead this talented accompanist and conductor will be a globetrotting ambassador of music, conducting such groups as the Orchestra of Light and Hope in Cairo where all of the musicians are blind women, or the Calcutta Chamber Orchestra where all members are men from a single orphanage. While this certainly does not qualify as community banding per se, it definitely qualifies in the category of bringing communities and music together. Rather than attempt to do justice to this amazing venture in bringing peoples around the world together through music, I suggest a visit to Simon’s website: kicksimon.com. Learn about his plans for this year in Ghana, Egypt and Sri Lanka.

We rarely see tangible recognition of the many ways in which a local band may serve its community. I was fortunate enough recently to see tangible recognition of such service in a form one does not usually expect. At their annual Remembrance Day dinner, the Uxbridge branch of The Royal Canadian Legion did just that by inviting Steffan Brunette, conductor of the Uxbridge Community Concert Band as their guest speaker.

Back on the repertoire front again, I would like to report on my discovery of a daunting work for trumpet soloist. During a visit to America in the late 1800s, Jacques Offenbach wrote his American Eagle Waltz. Although originally written for trumpet and orchestra, there are now arrangements on the market for band as well. I wonder if Herbert L. Clarke might have performed this one. If your band is looking to shake up your trumpet section, this number should do it.

bandstand scarborough society of musiciansOther bands: The Brampton Concert Band will perform their concert “Christmas at The Rose” December 8. The Milton Concert Band will present their concert, “Home for the Holidays,” at the Mattamy Theatre in Milton on December 8 at 8pm (not in the listings) with a special performance of Twas the Night Before Christmas. They have also announced that their conductor Joseph Resendes is taking a leave while he assumes new duties at McMaster University for the coming year. During that period, the band’s assistant conductor, Sheena Nykolaiszyn will take over the baton.

Among the newer bands to appear on the scene in recent years, Resa’s Pieces is certainly prospering with over fifty regular members. However, Resa tells me that they could use another trombone and euphonium as well as some extra percussion including timpani.

Having not heard from them in a long time, it was good to hear that the Scarborough Society of Musicians have embarked on their fifth season. Formed by a small group of high school graduates who “wanted to stay involved in music and ensure an opportunity exists for new grads to continue exploring their talents,” they expect to play a number of retirement home concerts in the coming months. If interested, visit their website at www.continuingmusic.ca. Unfortunately, some of the press releases and posters sent to us by these groups were damaged and unreadable. Check the listings section for more details.

Argos: As I am writing this column, the 100th Grey Cup game and its festivities are dominating the news in Toronto. The Argonauts are in the game, but there is no official Argonaut band for the pregame or halftime shows. Few Argo fans are aware that the team did have its own official 48-piece professional band from 1957 to 1967. In fact, when I telephoned the Argonaut office not long ago, nobody could find any record of such a band in the team’s archives. The band played for all home games and some parades, but never got to play for a Grey Cup. How am I so sure? I played in that band for all ten years of its existence.

Clarification: On another front, my memory has recently been challenged. In the March 2010 issue of this publication I referred to an early wax cylinder recording of a conversation reputed to be between Thomas Edison and Johannes Brahms. Recently I have been taken to task by a reader who questions the existence of such a recording with the comment: “There is no evidence, apparently, that Edison and Brahms ever met.” He has thrown down the gauntlet and asked that I now substantiate my statement in that 2010 column with proof. He states: ”A statement that does not stand up to inspection must not remain unchallenged.” Since all of my old cylinder recordings fell under my son’s jurisdiction a few years ago, they are not right at hand for me to check. If such a recording might be as rare and valuable as the reader suggests, I had better get after my son to track down all of those old cylinders. They could be worth a princely sum.  

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

In last month’s column I solicited responses on selecting band repertoire and programming. While I would still love to hear from more readers on these topics, the responses received to date were very welcome.

On the subject of who should have a say in these matters, most people indicated that they would like to have a greater voice, but had reservations on how to establish a decision making system. Fred Cassano from the Columbus Centre Concert Band pointed out that, in addition to other considerations, their library is influenced by their main sponsor and tailored to their main audiences. Since the Columbus Centre bills itself as “the heart of Toronto’s Italian community,” it is only natural that this band has a greater percentage of Italian music than other bands might have. In fact the band has already built a program for next year around the theme of the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, and another to honour the 200th anniversary of Verdi’s birth. As for additions to our list, they suggest Neopolitan Overture, Verdi’s Nabucco and Grand March from Aida, Count Basie Salute, Souza marches, Dixieland Band selections (featuring soloists) and music from The Lion King.

Last month I also asked for some suggestions to add to a list of “hackneyed or over-performed works.” From responses to date, Harold Walters’ Instant Concert is a front-runner followed closely by his Hootenanny. However, as Fred Cassano also mentions, Instant Concert is a “crowd pleaser.” It’s a matter of reconciling the different preferences between performers and audiences. Personally, having had to play each of these works many times per year for the past 45 years or more, I would be happy to relegate them to the archives for a year or so. However, many audience members may have never heard them and are entertained by a bit of novelty.

When it comes to selecting new concert works written specifically for concert band, while the internet makes it possible to hear what these works might sound like, there is little opportunity to assess the challenges they may present to the performers. There is no relying on recalling familiar melodies. On the other hand, if the work is of good quality, not only are the band members rewarded with new reading challenges, but the audiences experience new music. Three works which fall into that category have come to my attention in recent months. Commissioned by the Kobe Symphonic Band in Japan, Tanczi (2006) is a set of three Russian dances by Belgian composer Jan Van der Roost. Not for the faint of heart, this is an ideal selection to provide rehearsal challenges to all sections of the band. Once mastered, it is a very rewarding number for the audience. Another good contemporary choice is Concerto d’Amore (1995) by Dutch composer Jacob de Haan. It is considerably less demanding, but still provides challenges and entertainment. Another is Transformations by American composer Robert Longfield (2003). Commissioned for a school music festival in Dade county Florida, this work develops a wide series of variations based on the musical notes DADE in honour of the county where it was first performed. While a good reading exercise, it is less entertaining for an audience than the other two.

As was mentioned in the September issue, the last weekend in September was designated as the third annual Culture Days weekend. My only foray was to accept the invitation of the Hannaford Street Silver Band to sit in and join them for an afternoon of music making. With a prior morning rehearsal elsewhere on trombone, I had a choice to make. Should I take the trombone and switch from bass clef to treble clef, or should I try something bolder. There was an instrument lurking in one of my closets which hadn’t seen the light of day for over 25 years; an E-flat horn.

Some call this E-flat horn an alto horn and some call it a tenor horn. By either name it is normally never seen anywhere but in a brass band. Here was my chance. So, in the space of a couple of hours, it was a switch from a B-flat slide in bass clef to a three-valve horn in treble clef. “Never fear” thought I, “the Hannaford folks will have simple music for us visitors.” The first couple of numbers were just fine. Hymns are always a good way to get the tuning settled. Then it happened. In rapid succession, we went through the two suites for military band by Gustav Holst followed by Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro Overture. The parts for my newly adopted instrument were more challenging than I expected. The “peck horn,” as it is sometimes referred to with some derision, gained new respect from me. If the hospitable hosts of this worthwhile event do it again next year, I’ll be there.

31-32-bandstand-hannaford-option-3While on the subject of the Hannaford Street Silver Band, they have a very special treat for lovers of brass band music. Their first concert of the season, “Trumpets of the Angels,” on Saturday November 3 at 8pm in the Metropolitan United Church, will feature the renowned British composer and conductor, Edward Gregson, leading the HSSB in performances of his brass band masterworks, Trumpets of the Angels and Rococo Variations. The HSSB will also premiere John Burge’s Cathedral Architecture, commissioned by the HSSB, with organ virtuoso William O’Meara, and the beloved overture, Fall Fair, by Godfrey Ridout in a newly authorized transcription by Stephen Bulla.

As for what is happening on the community band scene, I am happy to report that the new Brampton Youth Concert Band is now in full swing under the direction of their new music director, Susan Barber Kahro. If you live in the area and have a young musician in the family, here’s a great opportunity. For additional information, including how to join and membership fees, visit their website at bramptonconcertband.com. Also on the youth band scene, the 2013 National Youth Band of Canada will be meeting in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia from April 27 to May 5, 2013. Musicians 16 to 21 years of age are encouraged to audition by December 1, 2012. For more information visit their website at canadianband.ca.

Over the past few weeks we have received far more information on community band activities than can be included in this month’s column. On the New Horizons front, there are now six bands at three levels with over 100 regular members. This year, the Canadian Band Association (Ontario) held its Community Band Weekend in Richmond Hill on October 13 and 14, with host band, the Silverthorn Symphonic Winds. On the first day as many as 50 band members from various community bands across the province, along with the Silverthorn Symphonic Winds, rehearsed seven selections, each with a different conductor. The second day featured a concert at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts.

It may be rushing things a bit, but we are already getting information on Christmas concerts. The Markham Concert Band is presenting “A Seasonal Celebration” on Sunday, December 2, 2012. It will include Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite with guest harpist Kate Kunkel, as well as the Brass Quintet from the band of HMCS York, Toronto’s Naval Reserve Division.

DEFINITION DEPARTMENT

This month’s lesser known musical term is Articulosis: to be unable to play staccato. We invite submissions from readers. Let’s hear your daffynitions. 

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

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