The quartet has the ease and mastery of impresarios who've been playing together 30+ years. We heard a wide-ranging repertoire from a set list that included bebop, original compositions, jazz standards and popular tunes: Dance of the Evil Toys / Conversation Among the Ruins / Snake Hip Waltz / When I Take My Sugar to Tea / Life Filtering From the Water Flowers / Sunny Side of the Street / The Windup Encore: My Favourite Things
Wintergarten Orchestra (February)
BPYC held a Roaring Twenties party with the Wintergarten Orchestra, featuring music from the 1920s-1930s popular, jazz and cabaret music from America and Europe. We had seats right by the band, and I kept taking photos of the lead singer as there was a bright light at his head and I tried to turn it into a halo and then a ball of fire coming from his mouth.
Tom Allan and Orchestra Toronto (February)
Telling A Tale, including music from Dvorak, Prokofiev, and Raum, with insights from Tom Allan.
From the program notes: Antonin Dvořák's Noonday Witch paints a musical picture of a scary figure from a story told to keep in his native Bohemia to scare children away from playing in the fields under the hot sun. * Toronto composer Elizabeth Raum has set the 14th-century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as a five-movement orchestra suite. The original Middle English saga features one of King Arthur's best known knights. * We all know the story behind Prokoviev's ballet Romeo and Juliet ballet. Prokoviev's own story is less well known. Romeo and Juliet is one of two non-political works that Sergei Prokoviev wrote after his return to the Soviet Union. Among its other quirks, it is one of the rare orchestral works that calls for a tenor saxophone.
Watching Grace play first violin and bumping into Bluffers at the concert.
Lisa Fischer and Grand Baton, Koerner (January)
What a voice! Fischer has amazing octave range, but also the ability to swell from a soft whisper to commanding volume; and to sustain notes for what seemed like minutes on end. She also worked two different mics - one in her hand that she moved towards and away from her mouth - the other the mic on the stand - creating amazing textures.
She was interpreting classic rock, with selections from Led Zeppelin, Nine Inch Nails, and the Rolling Stones, all bands that she has provided vocals as a back-up singer. An impressive talent in her own right, Fisher was one of the personalities featured in the documentary film 20 Feet from Stardom.
This was part of the Koerner series, Quiet Please There's a Lady on Stage.
Zakir is a world renowned tabla virtuoso, coming to the 21C festival for the Canadian premier of Peshkar, a concerto for tabla and orchestra. A beautiful piece!
He also improvised with a trio: John Patitucci (bass); Danilo Perez (piano); Brian Blade (drums). Watching and listening to these maestros play was a pleasure.
This was also the premier for Patitucci's piece Hypoocrisy, an interesting work featuring improvisations between the jazz trio and orchestra.
Sweat, CanStage, January
Lynn Nottage won the Pulitzer for her work on this as playwright.
The performances were a bit uneven, and I wasn't sure whether that was the direction or the actors. Overall, very much worth seeing, as it explores important themes of factory closures, the disappearance of well-paying jobs, and the effects on workers and communities.
In the Art of Falling, Anderson fulfilled her ambition to "make a piece that is one long sentence."
She told hypnotic stories, performed tai chi, and played viola accompanied by cellist Rubin Kodhelo. During the night she retold pieces of Aristophanes' comedy, The Birds, but left out the ending, to entice the audience into reading the play. Anderson spoke about her late husband, Lou Reid, and the tai chi sequence was in honour of his love of martial arts; so very moving to watch.
Caesar, Streetcar Crowsnest, January
Shakespeare's play was interpreted by the Groundling theatre company.True to his text, except for the beginning and end. The beginning helped set context by taking the form of political commentators delivering opinions of unfolding events in ancient Rome; the end brought the characters back from the dead to comment on their motivations. I thought the beginning very effective. I thought the end provided useful insights but was somewhat condescending; maybe it would have been better to bring the political commentators back to bookend the play with the same conceit.
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