Tag Archives: Jonathan Crow

TSO Thais: via Massenet & Anatole France

Posted on August 12, 2020 by

The Toronto Symphony concert performance of Thaïs, recently released on Chandos, has me wishing we could see & hear more from Jules Massenet, the opera’s composer.  I begin to understand why the late Stuart Hamilton in his time with Opera … Continue reading →

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Framing the Pollyanna proposition

Posted on January 9, 2020 by

January is named for that two-headed god who is able to look ahead and back. As I ponder the wreckage of 2019 I wonder if Janus was too busy looking down at his phone and not watching where he was … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Song of the Earth

Posted on August 2, 2019 by

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

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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New Orford celebrate their first decade

Posted on July 13, 2019 by

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

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

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

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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Thomas Søndergård leads the TSO

Posted on October 21, 2018 by

Tonight was the second of two consecutive concerts of the Toronto Symphony conducted by Danish maestro Thomas Søndergård, a spectacular program devoured by an eager audience showing off the strengths of the orchestra: Thomas Adès: Dances from Powder Her face … Continue reading →

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L’Histoire du Toronto Summer Music

Posted on July 20, 2018 by

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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