Category Archives: Music and musicology

Eve Egoyan CD launch Oct 16-18

Posted on October 13, 2015 by barczablog

“Less is more.” Eve Egoyan performs intimate contemporary piano music in an intimate space at Toronto’s Small World Music Centre, October 16 – 18. This distinctive recital programme features music by Toronto composers John Mark Sherlock, Nick Storring and Linda … Continue reading →

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Richard Margison as Abraham: David Warrack’s new oratorio

Posted on October 10, 2015 by barczablog

Abraham, an oratorio by David Warrack about the patriarch of three major faiths, will bring together leading Toronto artists in a special fundraising performance for Syrian refugees, Wednesday, October 28, 8 p.m. at Metropolitan United Church, 56 Queen Street East, … Continue reading →

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Hannigan conducts the Toronto Symphony

Posted on October 8, 2015 by barczablog

Soprano Barbara Hannigan is also Conductor Barbara Hannigan.  We knew she could sing. Tonight she sang and conducted the Toronto Symphony, her first time conducting an orchestra in North America.  This wasn’t just a concert to enable her to plant the … Continue reading →

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Soundstreams: Beyond the Aria but not beyond Virtuosity

Posted on September 30, 2015 by barczablog

Tonight in a Soundstreams concert titled “Adrianne Pieczonka: Beyond the Aria” we saw and heard two great operatic artists go beyond their usual boundaries, using their instruments in unexpected ways.  Soprano Pieczonka was joined by mezzo-soprano Kristina Szabó in a … Continue reading →

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Love Shards of Sappho at RBA

Posted on September 29, 2015 by barczablog

Today’s free noon-hour concert in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre (the upper lobby of the Four Seasons Centre) offered a rich pairing of matched works, presented by the Array Ensemble & a pair of sopranos.  Today feels especially like a preparation … Continue reading →

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Thoughts of youth and mentorship open Toronto Symphony’s 2015-16 season

Posted on September 25, 2015 by barczablog

One of my favourite things about Toronto Symphony concerts is the steady stream of gratitude in the speeches that usually precede performances.  While opening night may be weighed down with ritual, the language was sincere, tonight’s season opener at Roy … Continue reading →

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TSO – tiff Vertigo: so old, so new

Posted on September 21, 2015 by barczablog

I saw precisely one film at tiff this year, a movie conceived when I was a toddler. While you might know it as “Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo”, I would be more inclined to call it “Bernard Herrmann’s Vertigo”, especially when given … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Music and musicology, Reviews | 1 Comment

Tafelmusik ask the forbidden question

Posted on September 18, 2015 by barczablog

If tonight’s Tafelmusik concert at Jeanne Lamon Hall (Trinity –St Paul’s Centre), with Mireille Lebel mezzo-soprano, and led by violinist Rodolfo Richter is any indication, I think we’ll see a lot more of him in future concerts. Richter doesn’t just … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | 5 Comments

10 Questions for Adrianne Pieczonka: beyond the aria

Posted on September 15, 2015 by barczablog

Adrianne Pieczonka is one of Toronto’s treasures, a fabulous ambassador for Canada when she sings abroad. I first encountered her in Atom Egoyan’s Die Walkure with the Canadian Opera Company, a vocal and dramatic interpretation so compelling that it was as though … Continue reading →

Posted in Interviews, Music and musicology, Opera | 1 Comment

Scary music in Theatres of Terror

Posted on August 25, 2015 by barczablog

Halloween is still several weeks away but already terror is more than a gleam in the eye of some. Opera By Request are presenting Carl Maria von Weber’s gothic masterpiece Der Freischutz on Friday Sept 18th.  There will be no … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera | 3 Comments