Music extravaganza

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.

Comments

Music, Poetry and Cake (Gateshead and Lanchester)

Piano at the ready! (by M) After a good few months prep, the concert Piano Music and Poetry (organised through the Gateshead Piano Workshop folks) came around pretty quickly. As one of the participants, I was excited and also a little nervous about the prospect of a Paying Audience. The work paid off, as all the performers were excellent! Well appreciated by the compact audience. The format was in relation to National Poetry Day which was on 2nd October. Each performer chose a poem either in direct or indirect relation to their piece. A summary of the programme: Alan - Liszt Consolation No 4 and Mozart Adagio in B minor Graeme - Chopin Nocturne Op. 62 No. 2 with 'Uncertainty' by Adam Mickiewicz me - Clara Schumann, andante con sentimento with 'Clara Wieck und Beethoven' by Franz Grillparzer Jim - R Schumann Kinderszenen 1 and 7 with 'My child, we were just children' by Heinrich Heine Ernie - Debussy Clair de lune with excerpt from 'Fêtes g...

Sounds of JUNOfest

Classical JUNOs performers Something of a musical melange weekend but an excellent set of events! Eschewing some of the bands and artists we knew, we chose less familiar sounds for our JUNOfest experience. First up was the Classical JUNOs in Concert event at the National Arts Centre , featuring both nominated performers and composers. The mix of contemporary music was brilliantly played by Christina Petrowska Quilico , Susan Hoeppner , Heather Schmidt and the New Orford String Quartet . Quilico amazed the almost 100-strong audience with her performance of Derek Charke's Sepia Fragments in a reduction for piano; I found this piece a really captivating mix of earthly and ethereal elements. Quilico's second performance was of Ann Southam's Glass Houses No. 5 , an hypnotic piece which sounded both fiendishly difficult to play but also very clean and unembellished. Susan Hoeppner's excellent performance of Eldin Burton's Sonatina for Flute and Piano got the po...

Pigeon Funk

Notes on a very random purchase. Earlier today I acquired Venetian Snares 'Rossz Csillag Alatt Sz ü letett ' purely on the basis of the language and artwork. Its certainly something different - and most definitely not pop. After a bit of searching: Venetial Snares is, according to Wikipedia, the performing name of Aaron Funk, who seems to specialise in experimental tracks in odd time signatures. Article here . The sleeve notes for this album (whose title is Hungarian for 'Born under a bad star') poses the question: what if, for just a day, we could both be pigeons? Interessant. Apparently this concept (a day in the life of a Hungarian pigeon) is non-typical of Venetian Snares sound, but one could ask, does Mr Funk do 'typical'? On first listening, the sound of this CD mixes classical/traditional Hungarian sounds and breakbeats. but aside from that? Definitely a 'listen for yourself' artist; try the website , fan site or myspace .

PrettyInScarlett

Search This Blog