Category Archives: Reviews

Persée

Posted on July 17, 2012 by barczablog

On the weekend I sampled some French culture, visiting the francophone town of Lafontaine Ontario for their Festival du Loup¸ followed by a visit to the nearby town of Midland and the Shrine to 17th Century Jesuit Martyrs. Today I … Continue reading →

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Goon

Posted on July 8, 2012 by barczablog

If you were to ask a Canadian to name the best hockey film, they’d have a fairly short list to work with.  Where baseball has generated a fairly long list of films, some sentimental, some colourful, portraying various aspects of … Continue reading →

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Goodyear—Beethoven I

Posted on July 7, 2012 by barczablog

To begin the voyage through Stewart Goodyear’s set on Marquis of the complete Piano Sonatas of Beethoven, I took two CDs, and listened to each one multiple times.  While I seem to be jumping in at either end (CD #1 … Continue reading →

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Wakowski Bros

Posted on July 6, 2012 by barczablog

It’s July in Toronto, which means it’s time for the Fringe Festival, the grand-daddy of them all. Whether we’re talking about Summmerworks, Rhubarb, The Fringe, or one of the others (forgotten by my heat-addled brain) the premise is largely the … Continue reading →

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Summer

Posted on June 30, 2012 by barczablog

When did music begin to imitate its subject, begin to be ambitious about signifying?  Is Mozart’s gentle rococo tuba mirum (so understated compared to Verdi’s dies irae or Mahler’s resurrection in his 2nd Symphony) an attempt to show us what … Continue reading →

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PREMIERES

Posted on June 28, 2012 by barczablog

Whatever you think of the music on PREMIERES – violinist Conrad Chow’s CD of original musical compositions for violin with different groupings of accompanying instruments— the concept seems to be original. My eyebrows went up when I heard that a … Continue reading →

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Somewhat soon and partially successful

Posted on June 16, 2012 by barczablog

For those of you accustomed to reading my accolades for singers, artists & pianists it may seem that you’ve stumbled into the wrong page, with a headline like this. Oh my God, he actually says negative things? yes Isn’t that … Continue reading →

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Wonderful Windermere

Posted on June 15, 2012 by barczablog

Given what I’ve said in previous reviews concerning historically informed performance (HIP), you won’t be surprised to find me eagerly eating up a recent release from Windermere String Quartet (Laura Jones -cello, who was so prominent recently in Essential Opera’s  … Continue reading →

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Influential Einstein

Posted on June 10, 2012 by barczablog

Einstein on the Beach has finally come to Toronto, an opera whose importance and influence is out of all proportion to the actual number who saw it.  Einstein’s a perfect example of that crazy 20th century phenomenon, where the idea … Continue reading →

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Beginning the Marathon

Posted on June 9, 2012 by barczablog

I attended the first section of Stewart Goodyear’s “Beethoven Marathon” today at Koerner Hall. I am still trying to wrap my head around this experience, which was in some respects more of a happening than a concert. We were given … Continue reading →

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