Category Archives: Music and musicology

Escape from wartime reflections

Posted on August 1, 2018 by barczablog

Tonight’s installment of the Toronto Summer Music Festival might seem to have ignored their theme of “Reflections of Wartime”. The only real battle in Walter Hall was for our hearts, a friendly popularity contest between Angela Cheng and Alvin Chow. … Continue reading →

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Oxymoronic Gould Transcriptions

Posted on July 29, 2018 by barczablog

It seems like a lifetime ago, back when Glenn Gould was still alive. I’d first learned of him in my childhood as the one who showed us a new approach to Bach, a famous performer who had then abandoned live … Continue reading →

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Music minus one

Posted on July 28, 2018 by barczablog

I write a lot about transcriptions possibly because they’re so much fun. Sometimes I can manage to play them, sometimes they’re too difficult but still fascinating to explore.  One plays a piano piece while imagining an original from another context, … Continue reading →

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L’Histoire du Toronto Summer Music

Posted on July 20, 2018 by barczablog

It was all there tonight, on the stage of Koerner Hall. Sometimes concerts are microcosms that allow you to see and grasp everything in one lucid moment. It’s the second year of Jonathan Crow’s tenure as Artistic Director of the … Continue reading →

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Unforced Tears of Exile

Posted on July 17, 2018 by barczablog

Toronto Summer Music Festival’s theme for 2018 is “Reflections of Wartime”, in the centennial of the last year of World War I.  Tonight was my first concert, a presentation titled “Tears of Exile”, a program by Studio de musique ancienne … Continue reading →

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1960 Les Troyens

Posted on July 5, 2018 by barczablog

It’s a testament to what might have been, this CD I’m reviewing, a relic to be sure.  In 1960 the stars didn’t quite align, wouldn’t permit the recording that was intended, Sir Thomas Beecham engaged to conduct Hector Berlioz’s mammoth … Continue reading →

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Oundjian Ode to Joy

Posted on June 30, 2018 by barczablog

Tomorrow will be the last concert in this month-long celebration of Peter Oundjian’s tenure with the Toronto Symphony. I would have gone tomorrow but unfortunately I have to be somewhere else, and will miss that last encounter between orchestra & … Continue reading →

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100 years ago tonight: The Llandovery Castle

Posted on June 28, 2018 by barczablog

Composer Stephanie Martin & playwright Paul Ciufo are collaborating on their first opera, The Llandovery Castle.  They’re telling the story of the sinking of an unarmed hospital vessel of that name exactly 100 years ago. On the night of June … Continue reading →

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Plummer, Shakespeare & Oundjian

Posted on June 27, 2018 by barczablog

Tonight’s concert, the latest in the month-long Toronto Symphony celebration of Peter Oundjian, was like a cross between a pops concert and a play reading, titled “Christopher Plummer’s Symphonic Shakespeare”. It was like “Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits”, a series of textual … Continue reading →

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The People’s Purcell

Posted on June 25, 2018 by barczablog

Michael Slattery & La Nef are back with another recording from ATMA. A few years ago they collaborated on Dowland in Dublin. On that occasion their project took the music  in a new direction, reminding me of folk music or … Continue reading →

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