A busy week! A mixture of events centred around music and talk. Firstly, M and I went to the National Arts Centre (NAC) on Sunday 13th to see/hear Alex Ross's lecture 'Chacona, Lamento, Walking Blues'. The talk is based on a chapter of his current book Listen to This. He 'talked with music': a playlist of tracks to illustrate his thesis. It was very interesting to hear the samples rather than just read their titles or description; almost the 'book with soundtrack' although not quite in the same vein as Vikram Seth's An Equal Music. A sell out, too. From there we headed to University of Ottawa's Freiman Hall (Perez Hall) for the flip side: 'music with talk'. This was courtesy of Ottawa-born pianist Frank Horvat, who was visiting as part of his Green Keys tour. Horvat is an eco-friendly musician and uses his shows (which are free, as the Green Keys tour is sponsored by eco-friendly businesses) to promote sustainability. Horvat explained the diverse influences behind each piece and included an improvisation. The highlight for me was the second half, a 'performance in the dark'. Horvat played his piece 'Earth Hour' with all the auditorium lights out. I found the experience incredibly relaxing and meditative; possibly a 'try this at home' thing?! Horvat's website contains tour info and music.
After a few days we were back at NAC on 16th for 'Hewitt plays Liszt', by another Ottawa-born musician, pianist Angela Hewitt. We expected the place to be pretty much full (I get the impression that Ms Hewitt's shows are not that frequent?) but the pre-show talk was completely rammed. The concert-goers got 'talk with music + music + talk', for the pre-concert talk was also 'illustrated', with more 'talk' at the post-concert meet & greet. Sadly our seats were not so good as those for Radu Lupu, but the sound of the Fazioli carried so all was well. The first half (Berlioz' Overture to Les Francs-juges and Liszt Piano Concerto No 1) was brilliant but we were both underwhelmed by Frank's Symphony in D minor. The concerto had lots of sections where the piano was pretty much playing alone; I really enjoyed this as I could listen to the tone of the Fazioli piano. Sadly, I don't think a Hewitt recording of this piece exists, and Ms Hewitt was clear in the pre-show talk that the piece has a bad reputation due to the way it's often played. Still, an excellent show for the first part.
After a few days we were back at NAC on 16th for 'Hewitt plays Liszt', by another Ottawa-born musician, pianist Angela Hewitt. We expected the place to be pretty much full (I get the impression that Ms Hewitt's shows are not that frequent?) but the pre-show talk was completely rammed. The concert-goers got 'talk with music + music + talk', for the pre-concert talk was also 'illustrated', with more 'talk' at the post-concert meet & greet. Sadly our seats were not so good as those for Radu Lupu, but the sound of the Fazioli carried so all was well. The first half (Berlioz' Overture to Les Francs-juges and Liszt Piano Concerto No 1) was brilliant but we were both underwhelmed by Frank's Symphony in D minor. The concerto had lots of sections where the piano was pretty much playing alone; I really enjoyed this as I could listen to the tone of the Fazioli piano. Sadly, I don't think a Hewitt recording of this piece exists, and Ms Hewitt was clear in the pre-show talk that the piece has a bad reputation due to the way it's often played. Still, an excellent show for the first part.
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