Volume 25 Issue 6 - March 2020

More documents

Recommendations

Info

(and suggesting answers) about the relationships we cannot afford to take for granted in regard to the continually evolving relationship between artists and audiences. Part of the reason it was so interesting is the pivotal moment in the history of film that is at one and the same time the reason for the film’s existence and it’s own major storyline – the advent of the talking picture. Stars of the silent screen died off, metaphorically, in droves; new stars were born; actors who could actually act, singers who could actually sing, and dancers who could actually dance were suddenly able to bring prodigious live performance skills to a mass audience. Studios acquired orchestras where previously movie houses had theatre organs or player pianos. Sound stages on an immense scale came into existence. Memorably, February 8 in the RTH balcony, I found the inner story of the film being played out all over again, in a crazed, Escher-like version of itself: as though the fun-house mirrored twists and turns of Roy Thomson Hall’s intentionally disorienting lobbies and levels had been transported into the auditorium itself. There was one moment, for example, where I found myself watching the TSO live on the RTH stage (with a pull-down movie screen most of them could not see above their heads), making beautifully synchronized music for an orchestra on the screen, reduced once again to silent-movie puppetry by technology’s latest twist and turn; while, to top it all off, on that screen an auditorium of people sat watching their orchestra accompanying the same stars that our orchestra was. Layers within layers. There was a more fundamental moment for me, though, well into the movie’s second half. (Yes, there was an intermission to top up on popcorn and beer.) It came during one of the film’s memorable songs – not one of the obvious ones, like the title song, that had dozens of audience members happily singing along, but “Would You” a lovely gentle waltz, masterfully positioned at the film’s moment of denouement, ricochetting from bathos to pathos, in a lovely arc: He holds her in his arms, would you, would you? He tells her of her charms, would you, would you? I suddenly became aware that the person seated next to me was singing, completely comfortably and absorbed entirely in the moment. Not “singing along,” just singing. Not an audience member “joining in.” Nor aware, even for an instant, that she herself had an audience. Just feeling permitted. And here’s the point: she would not have had that permission either in a movie theatre or in a concert hall. It was a gifted moment, arising from a uniquely oddball set of circumstances: the live audience watching the live orchestra brought the people on the silver screen to life in a way that film alone cannot. The privacy of the typical filmwatching experience kept other audience members at bay, in a way that the typical concert environment does not. It’s an alchemy we all, artists and presenters alike, need to seek. After all, if, as the bard says, “all the world’s a stage,” then what’s an audience? Three days later: Tuesday February 11, at the COC “Oh, it’s a starry night!” my opera companion, delighted, turns to me and says, very quietly, as the Hansel and Gretel overture starts and the mysterious-looking panelled stage curtain we have been eyeing for the past ten minutes or so, speculating as to how its panels will part and divide, reveals what is behind it. Like lightning the person in the row right in front of us spins around. Her “SSSSHHHHH!!!” can be heard at least 15 rows back. Our slightly sheepish discomfort lasts all of the three minutes it takes for the same individual to take things to the next level by whacking the elbow of the person next to them with a rolled up program, for encroaching over the midline of the seat arm. Thirteen years ago, approximately In the selfsame balcony at Roy Thomson Hall. It is a performance of Bach’s St. John Passion. One of it’s great chorales “O grosse Lieb” has just commenced and someone, I would guess in his 80s, deep in the moment and alone with the music starts, quietly, to do what Bach instructs – to sing along. Someone turns to chastise ... David Perlman can be reached at publisher@thewholenote.com WHO’S WHO FIND OUT IN THE WHOLENOTE ONLINE all the time THE WHOLENOTE.COM/WHO All inquiries to members@thewholenote.com SUMMER MUSIC EDUCATION Special Focus PRINTED THIS MONTH THE CANARY PAGES Directory of Southern Ontario’s Choirs PRINTED IN MAY Deadline to join: Tuesday April 7 THE GREEN PAGES Guide to Summer Music in Ontario and Beyond PRINTED IN OUR SUMMER EDITION (JUNE/JULY/AUGUST) Deadline to join: Tuesday May 5 8 | March 2020 thewholenote.com
KOERNER HALL 2019.20 Concert Season MAURICE RAVEL’S L’HEURE ESPAGNOLE GIACOMO PUCCINI’S SUOR ANGELICA THE GLENN GOULD SCHOOL SPRING OPERA 2020 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18 & FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 7:30PM KOERNER HALL The extraordinary artists of The Glenn Gould School vocal program and Royal Conservatory Orchestra perform a double-bill opera in Koerner Hall: Ravel’s L’heure espagnole and Puccini’s Suor Angelica, conducted by Nicolas Ellis and directed by Michael Cavanagh. Part of the Price Opera Program TICKETS START AT ONLY $25! 416.408.0208 RCMUSIC.COM/PERFORMANCE 273 BLOOR STREET WEST 237 (BLOOR ST. STREET & AVENUE WEST RD.) thewholenote.com (BLOOR TORONTO ST. & AVENUE RD.) TORONTO March 2020 | 9
Page 1 and 2: 25 th SEASON! Vol 25 No 6 MARCH 202
Page 3 and 4: 2019/20 Season BACH ST JOHN PASSION
Page 5 and 6: 2506_March20_Cover.indd 1 2020-02-2
Page 7: FOR OPENERS | DAVID PERLMAN If All
Page 11 and 12: What was the first piece of Bach’
Page 13 and 14: Beste Kalender, at Koerner Hall wit
Page 15 and 16: KOERNER HALL 2019.20 Concert Season
Page 17 and 18: contemporary works by Odawa First N
Page 19 and 20: MUSIC AND HEALTH BALANCE IN BLINDNE
Page 21 and 22: attentive, she wouldn’t fuss or c
Page 23 and 24: Fides Krucker (left) and Peggy Bake
Page 25 and 26: Beat by Beat | Classical & Beyond F
Page 27 and 28: Sarah Jeffrey James D. Stewart quar
Page 29 and 30: his own compositions. Heinrich Sch
Page 31 and 32: “The sound filled the church… W
Page 33 and 34: DON WRIGHT FACULTY OF MUSIC Patrick
Page 35 and 36: Beat by Beat | Music Theatre Newnes
Page 37 and 38: of The Events. The choirs themselve
Page 39 and 40: hated the word jazz, found it too l
Page 41 and 42: their agreement “for appearance i
Page 43 and 44: 2020 SUMMER MUSIC EDUCATION DIRECTO
Page 45 and 46: www.camptutti.com Deadline: None Co
Page 47 and 48: (ages 4 to 10) for string players i
Page 49 and 50: Cost: TBD Day Program !! Summer Ope
Page 51 and 52: Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yong
Page 53 and 54: Chris Verrette, chorus director; Ch
Page 55 and 56: Wednesday March 18 ●●12:00 noon
Page 57 and 58: Piano Erhu Project THU.MAR.26 TRINI
Page 59 and 60:
Csaba Koczo, violins, Rory McLeod,
Page 61 and 62:
Pelleas und Melisande. Apr 4 & 5: B
Page 63 and 64:
more. Lonely Boa; Nick Scofield; Ce
Page 65 and 66:
and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamco
Page 67 and 68:
creative music realm tend to find t
Page 69 and 70:
●●Mar 28 9:00am: The Susan Hoep
Page 71 and 72:
March’s Child is Suba Sankaran Su
Page 73 and 74:
and that she is currently preparing
Page 75 and 76:
without ever sounding lightweight.
Page 77 and 78:
Beethoven - Sonatas Opp.26 & 90 Vic
Page 79 and 80:
characterized by cascading warmth o
Page 81 and 82:
to medieval song. A prize-winning h
Page 83 and 84:
making music “that crosses border
Page 85 and 86:
vigour, elan and grace. All three a
Page 87 and 88:
Old Prose Richard Whiteman Quartet
Page 89 and 90:
The Space Between Disguises Simone
Page 91 and 92:
Old Wine, New Bottles Fine Old Reco
Page 93 and 94:
TS Toronto Symphony Orchestra “[W
Page 95 and 96:
Here, I confess, is what I think is
show all

Volume 25 Issue 6 - March 2020

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?