Skip to main content

The diplomatic cultural events circuit

Something of a random spot in the free Metro paper. Sunday 31st October M and I attended 'an afternoon of classical guitar, flute and violin' sponsored by the Embassy of Japan but held in the auditorium of the National Gallery of Canada. We thought, maybe it would be similar to the Swiss Ambassador's Award Concert last year - we were wrong. The NCG auditorium holds many more people (a few hundred at least) and is much more modern. The show, free and not ticketed, was also completely full - mixture of dignatories, Japanese local residents and others. According to the Ambassador's preamble, almost 100 people were turned away!





The 3 musicians - Yasuji Ohagi, guitar; Kazunori Seo, flute; Gentaro Kagitomi, violin - have played a string of concerts across Canada, in Vancouver, Montreal and Quebec City as well as Ottawa. The programme was a mixture of (predominantly 20th century) Eastern and Western music for solo, duo and trio. M and I thought the solo works (Ysäye: Sonata No. 6 in Emaj for solo violin, and Kuhlau: Fantaisie No. 1 in Dmaj for solo flute) were the least engaging of the pieces played, although the solo guitar piece (Brouwer: Elogio de la Danza) was very good. Best from the first part was Ravi Shankar's L'Aube Enchantée sur le Raga 'Todi' played on flute and guitar. All of the duo/trio pieces were excellent but our preferences were from the second part: Takemutsu: Toward the Sea (flute and guitar); Piazzolla: Historia del Tango (violin and guitar) and the trio, Bondon: Les Folklores Imaginaires, Suite No. 2. The 3 musicians (who were excellent) received rapturous applause at the end of the show, especially after an encore of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah.

The full programme list is as follows:
Ravi Shankar: L'Aube Enchantée (The Enchanted Dawn)
Eugène Ysaÿe: Sonata for Solo Violin No. 6
Béla Bartók: Romanian Folk Dances
Friedrich Kuhlau: Fantaisie on a Theme from "Don Giovanni"
Leo Brouwer: Elogio de la Danza (Praise of the Dance)
--------------------------------------------------
Toru Takemitsu: Toward the Sea
Astor Piazzolla: Historia del Tango
Jacques Bondon: Les Folklores Imaginaires Suite No. 2

Judging by the questionnaire given to all attendees, this must be a new event for the Japanese Embassy as there were a few things that could have been organised better (such as ticketing), however we'll be looking for more of this sort of event as it was very entertaining!

photo from the Japan Foundation website

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Au quatrieme fois..

A jaunt en masse down to the Coal Exchange last night (23rd) to see The Subways excel again. For once we weren't massively early (in some ways to avoid the queues of teenagers) so arrived part way through the first support band. They are called Wry, from Brazil even! They were decent and will probably merit listening to further. Best option the ubiquitous myspace . Eagerly anticipated the main support, The Sunshine Underground, of whom I'd heard good words... They more than lived up to their expectations, with my only real niggle about their sound... whether it was the singer's style or sound mix I'm not sure but their show was at parts ear-splitting - explains my slight deafness today! Otherwise excellent, not an easy band to categorise, but my impressions were somewhere between Alabama 3 and the Killers' Hot Fuss album; dancing music too. Well worth going to see - just take earplugs! (or in my case, actually go out and buy some). I believe one can listen to the...
Post a Comment
Read more

4 and 5

Busy weekend. Number 4 was the 2nd Innercity Pirates night at Clwb Ifor Bach, spread the word to another friend so a highly successful evening! Again, Red City were the (only) support, who were still underwhelming and may even have got worse! Luckily a short set. The main Pirates set was much more polished than the last one, they have been practicing!! Only mishap this time when an overenthusiastic fan accidentally stood on a connector! Quite a different set, this time almost totally from the 3 recent EPs with the only oldies Whisper The Fear, and 'that song' from last time - which is called The Little Pills We Love. For the set list, simply check out the track listings for the 3 EPs on their website ! Number 5 entailed a visit to Coal Exchange to see Mogwai . Luckily the buses were back to normal - well normal for a Sunday ie nothing late at night! Slightly more interesting support band, The Magnificents (sound: a mix between Mogwai, Syntax and The Killers ), although I did ...
Post a Comment
Read more

From Black Rose to Buena Vista

Two very different but equally impressive live experiences this last weekend. First up, our long overdue homage to the late, great Phil Lynott as Limehouse Lizzy returned to the Point on Friday 2nd March. Certainly on form (and not just lead singer Wayne Ellis, mmmm!) After a late doors, the band came on for a 2 hour set. They started off with Jailbreak (with added pyro), the rest of the main set comprising known songs like Dancing In The Moonlight, Warrior, Emerald, Johnny the Fox, Are You Ready, Killer On The Loose, Cold Sweat, Do Anything You Want To, Out In The Fields, Cowboy Song, Rosalie, The Boys Are Back In Town plus at least 1 early track. The encore included 1 verse/1 chorus from Sarah, Black Rose, Whisky In The Jar and another track. Excellent atmosphere, the place was sold out. The boys are back at the Point in December. Next on to crowd pleasers of a very different sort. M and I managed to get tickets for the sold-out Buena Vista Social Club show at Wales Millennium Centr...
Post a Comment
Read more