Category Archives: Reviews

Song of the Earth

Posted on August 2, 2019 by barczablog

I can’t help noticing symmetry in 2019’s Toronto Summer Music and its Beyond Borders theme. The Festival opened July 12th with a concert featuring a Mozart sonata including the famous rondo “alla Turca” and a 20th century song cycle in … Continue reading →

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Crow Comes Out

Posted on July 30, 2019 by barczablog

Tonight’s concert at Walter Hall –“Europe and the New World”—in the Toronto Summer Music Festival put artistic director Jonathan Crow into the spotlight.  He seems very comfortable there. That’s what I’m getting at with the headline. Our concert was sold … Continue reading →

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Voices Across the Atlantic

Posted on July 19, 2019 by barczablog

The title “Voices Across the Atlantic” could refer to compositional voices or singing voices. You had Barber & Willan from our side of the pond, Brahms, Britten & Monteverdi from the other. Ditto for the performing talent, coming from many … Continue reading →

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New Orford celebrate their first decade

Posted on July 13, 2019 by barczablog

Two for two. It’s the second night of the 2019 Toronto Summer Music Festival and again it felt like a special event, this time in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the New Orford String quartet.  There’s a natural connection … Continue reading →

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Beyond Borders with Toronto Summer Music

Posted on July 12, 2019 by barczablog

Tonight was the opening concert of Toronto Summer Music, running until August 3rd at multiple venues in Toronto. In this the third year of Jonathan Crow’s tenure as Artistic Director the talent pool seems a bit deeper, suggesting exciting days … Continue reading →

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TSO & Gimeno: a question of leadership

Posted on June 29, 2019 by barczablog

Tonight was the first concert in the Toronto Symphony’s last weekend of the season, giving us a glimpse of their new music director Gustavo Gimeno. Will he come to be known as GG? While last week’s concert with Donald Runnicles … Continue reading →

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Pathways to the past with TSO Carmina Burana

Posted on June 20, 2019 by barczablog

Some concerts are put together so well that you can’t help admiring the clever curator, combining compositions. Ai caramba I didn’t mean to be so alliterative. But even so they made magic at Roy Thomson Hall tonight in a Toronto … Continue reading →

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Isaiah Bell: The Book of My Shames

Posted on June 9, 2019 by barczablog

Should I have said “The book of HIS shames”? Isaiah Bell’s one-man show is about his shames, right? But no. He is everyman, every-person, and so these are your shames & my shames too. I couldn’t imagine a more apt … Continue reading →

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Pomegranate

Posted on June 8, 2019 by barczablog

Less is more. Pomegranate, bearing the epithet “a lesbian chamber opera,” is the latest specimen suggesting that grand opera is all but dead. Small is beautiful whatever your sexual politics, both for the lower price-tag and the ideal connection you … Continue reading →

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Mikolaj Warszynski—Piano Solo

Posted on June 5, 2019 by barczablog

As I’ve been listening to a 2015 solo piano studio recording by Mikolaj Warszynski, I’ve found myself wondering about the process, about how music is made and how it comes to be heard. If a pianist plays brilliantly and no … Continue reading →

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