Volume 8 Issue 7 - April 2003

Ill~~~~T~-~~~~-~~~~~~~g~~~~~~~~lll February 24, 2003: Like so many contemporary music concerts,
tonight's programme by the Esprit Orchestra was very much a
mixed bag: the music was banal and engaging, novel and cliched-,
direct and inscrutable. (For me, the best piece on the programme
Musi Cal
mixed bqg;
unqlloyed
post-concert
pfeqsure
by Colin Eatock
For some strange reason,
,I've always taken note of
the way people leave
concerts. At the end of a
Toronto Symphony
performance, departing
bons vivants are often in an
upbeat mood - the evening
is young, and they 're on
their way to a trendy bar
for brie and chablis.
By contrast, blissed-out
Tafelmusik folk quietly
mount their bicycles and
Robert Aitken & John Wyre
head straight home. At the
Canadian Opera Company,
patrons in the coat-line
warm themselves by
exchanging views on the
performance. They may
leave the building voicing
opinions so divergent that
one wonders if they were at
the same opera.
However, at new-music
events the audience often
doesn 't leave at all - they
re-group in the lobby for a
post-concert reception.
was Andre Ristic's purposeful score Information). But however an
Esprit concert unfolds, the orchestra can be relied upon for the
best post-concert schmooze in the city.
As usual, Toronto's new-music community was well
represented: James Montgomery, who runs the Music Gallery,
was present, as were OAC Music Officer David Parsons, David
Olds from New Music Concerts and, of course, composer Alexina
Louie (who, in case you didn't know, is married to Esprit
conductor Alex Pauk.)
Although many in the crowd were deeply involved in the
esoteric world of ~ontemporary music, the post-concert
conversation wasn't particularly esoteric. There was nothing here
for the lay-person to fear: no debates about stochastic aleatorism
or pitch-class analysis. Rather •. there were thought-provoking
exchanges amongst interesting people and tidbits of intriguing
news about the music world. I chatted briefly with a poet and
opera librettist who, in his retirement years, has decided to take
up mus.ical composition. I learned that Toronto's Evergreen Club
Gamelan Ensemble is now twenty years old. Perhaps the most
unexpected topic of conversation came from a local film-J:IJ.aker,
who is currently producing a film about Beethoven's hair. (Yes,
that's right - Beethoven's hair.) ·
March 23, 2003: Tonight, New Music Concerts chose to honour
three of Toronto's senior composers: John Weinzweig (who is
now 90!), Harry Freedman and John Beckwith. Op.ce again, the
concert was all over the map in terms of style and effectiveness: