Tag Archives: Jonathan Crow

Beethoven encore with Crow and Chiu

Posted on July 31, 2021 by barczablog

Toronto Summer Music’s 2021 Festival season concludes this weekend. In a year when theatre, opera & classical music have mostly been clinging to a precarious life through online presentations, this year’s festival was certainly a bit different, mixing vimeo links … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Reviews | Tagged Gavin Fraser, Grace Church on-the-Hill, Jonathan Crow, Kreutzer Sonata, Ludwig van Beethoven, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Philip Chiu, Scheherazade, semiotics, Toronto Summer Music, Toronto Symphony Orchestra | Leave a comment

Crow and Chiu play Beethoven live and in person

Posted on July 28, 2021 by barczablog

The performance is almost incidental to the miracle of live music. Please let me never become blasé, never lose my sense of wonder and gratitude, inured to magic. This is a privilege. I was stunned that not only the Toronto … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology | Tagged Grace Church on-the-Hill, Haydn, Jessie Montgomery, Jonathan Crow, Kreutzer Sonata, Ludwig van Beethoven, Mozart, Philip Chiu, Toronto Summer Music | Leave a comment

Kreutzer rather than Bridgetower

Posted on July 27, 2021 by barczablog

2020 was to have been the Beethoven year, the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth in 1770. But of course the plans for operas, plays or concerts collided with the restrictions imposed by the pandemic. Thank goodness Toronto Summer Music … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged George Bridgetower, Jonathan Crow, Kreutzer Sonata, Leon Tolstoy, Leos Janacek, Ludwig van Beethoven, Rodolphe Kreutzer, Toronto Summer Music | 1 Comment

TSO Thais: via Massenet & Anatole France

Posted on August 12, 2020 by barczablog

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 →

Posted in Books & Literature, Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews, Spirituality & Religion | Tagged adaptation, Anatole France, Chandos, Erin Wall, Jonathan Crow, Jules Massenet, stuart hamilton, Thaïs, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Toronto Symphony Orchestra | Leave a comment

Framing the Pollyanna proposition

Posted on January 9, 2020 by barczablog

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 887, Against the Grain Theatre, Alaina Viau, Amplified Opera, Aria Umezawa, Book of my shames, crystal pite, Dawn Jani Birley, Elisa Citterio, Gustavo Gimeno, Isaiah Bell, Joel Ivany, Johannes Debus, Jonathan Crow, Jonathan Young, Kiviuq Returns, Kopernikus, Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory, Masaaki Suzuki, Musique 3 Femmes, Revisor, Robert Lepage, Rusalka, Sondra Radvanovsky, Tamara Wilson, Teiya Kasahara, The St Matthew Passion, Toronto City Opera, Wajdi Mouawad | 1 Comment

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 →

Posted in Music and musicology, Reviews | Tagged Arnold Schoenberg, Gemma New, Gustav Mahler, Jonathan Crow, Mario Bahg, Mozart, Rainer Riehn, Rihab Chaieb | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | Tagged Angel Blue, Cesar Franck, Eric Owens, George Gershwin, Healey Willan, Jascha Heifetz, Johannes Brahms, John Corigliano, Jonathan Crow, Philip Chiu, Porgy and Bess, Toronto Summer Music, Walter Hall, Walter Homburger | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Music and musicology, Reviews, Spirituality & Religion | Tagged Andrew Wan, Brian Manker, Christos Hatzis, Eric Nowlin, Jonathan Crow, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, New Orford String Quartet, Toronto Summer Music | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | Tagged Adrianne Pieczonka, Chopin, Four Last Songs, John Greer, Jonathan Crow, Kerson Leong, Koerner Hall, New Orford String Quartet, Richard Strauss, Steven Philcox, Toronto Summer Music | 2 Comments

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 →

Posted in Music and musicology, Personal ruminations & essays, Reviews, Sports | Tagged Firebird, Gustavo Gimeno, Igor Stravinsky, Jean Sibelius, Jonathan Crow, Sergei Prokofiev, Toronto Symphony Orchestra | 1 Comment