PrettyInScarlett

The combined efforts of Ottawa Xpress and the National Arts Centre Facebook feed took us out on a wintry Tuesday night to the 'pay what you can' showing of 2 Pianos 4 Hands , currently at the NAC English Theatre and being performed by creators Ted Dykstra and Richard Greenblatt. In spite of the show's 15-year history, this has somehow managed to stay off my radar until now. No matter - it's brilliant. 2 Pianos 4 Hands is the story of a dream, maybe elusive, maybe achievable, told through the experiences of two boys growing up with the piano. A good crowd had turned up for the evening, and were hooked straight away with Dykstra and Greenblatt's silent humour opener and the incredibly funny series of impersonations, all illustrated with a wide range of classical and pop repertoire, from Liszt's Mephisto Waltz and Great Balls of Fire to J. S. Bach's Schafe können sicher weiden (Sheep may safely graze). Experience in music not required - the story is u...

As a precursor to a busy December and something of an impromptu idea, we attended U of O School of Music 's Wind Ensemble concert on 25th November, featuring Victor Herbiet on saxophone. Wind ensembles are something of a rarity in our (classical) concert calendar, so it was interesting to find that most of the programme was 20th century. To suit the Friday evening mood, the first piece performed was Edward Gregson's Festivo , with it's jaunty edge - almost like the opening movement to a classic film. Much of the evening's performance was of exciting, engaging music. True to Steven Mazey's pre-review, Herbiet's solo in Claude T Smith's Fantasia for Alto Sax was superb, with a 'sax solo' interlude reminiscent of (or maybe inspiring) electric guitar solos. A high level of musicianship all round and on this basis, much of the 2011-12 season should be very good! A forthcoming concert that has caught my attention is the School of Music's Piano Duets...