This is a somewhat delayed post, but better late than never. In mid Jan., Maxim Vengerov had his rescheduled concert. I already mentioned that the Beethoven and Shostakovich pieces were the standouts of the concert, as well as the generous encore.
The following week I saw an all-Bach program put on by the UT Music School. What was particularly nice was I showed up early in order to listen to some CDs at the Music Library. I was not expecting to be able to check them out and was just planning on using their listening stations. I did flag it with them that I didn't think I could take the CDs, but perhaps the rules have changed (on alumni borrowing). At any rate, that freed up a lot of time!
A bit later in the week, Esprit did an interesting concert with the main piece being accompanied by a troupe of taiko drummers! The following week, the UT Percussion Ensemble did Reich's Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ, which has an almost hypnotic vibe to it. Even better the concert was free, and I also used the trip to return those borrowed CDs. I went roughly a week later to a free concert by their jazz ensemble, but it was just going to be two long completely improvised pieces, which personally I think is a pretty huge mistake in what is supposed to be a showcase for playing. As expected, there was a lot of pointless noodling around. I left at about the 40 minute mark, though I was the 7th or so person to bail, not the first. Tonight there is another free concert and this one is supposed to feature works by jazz composers from the Music School, so presumably there will be a lot more structure. I'll still likely leave early if I am not enjoying myself, but hopefully it will be interesting.
One thing that never fails to keep me excited about concert-going is finding out about a concert at almost the last minute and still making it. This happened when Steve Winwood played Vancouver back in 2012. Just recently, I was looking over the CD releases from Cellar Live (a Vancouver-based label) and saw that Neil Swainson had a new CD out, called Fire in the West.
Unfortunately, Swainson doesn't really seem to maintain a regular web presence, so it isn't easy finding out when he is gigging around town. However, I saw that he was going to be at the Jazz Bistro literally the next evening supporting Bernie Senensky! I spent a bit of time seeing if I could order the CD in time and I even called a handful of the surviving music stores in Toronto, but they have almost all given up on new CDs (though they sometimes sell used CDs) in favour of new vinyl! Finally, I just went to the gig and asked him if he had brought any for sale, and he had, so I had him sign a copy (as I did years ago with The 49th Parallel). The music was good, esp. their closing piece, which was Horace Silver's Nutville, but I still dislike the Jazz Bistro. It was almost entirely empty but they still had me sit at the bar because I was a party of one. I don't like the layout very much. Just in general, The Rex is a much better place to actually listen to music, though they pretty much only feature local jazz artists and don't normally get the big names in jazz (though very few come through Toronto in the first place...).
As it happens, Allison Au was given the Friday early slots for the month of February at The Rex, bringing in some synthesizer-heavy project called BaruBaru, so I thought I would check them out last Friday. It turns out someone couldn't make the gig, so she cancelled that and just brought in a somewhat traditional trio of guitar and bass. I think I have seen her with this bass player over at Crow's Theatre, though that time she might have had a keyboard player instead of guitar. I enjoyed her first set, but didn't stick around for the second set, as I was biking back and I didn't want it to get any darker. (It's quite incredible and yet concerning that I've been able to ride my bike pretty regularly in January and February.) I can't go this Friday, as I am seeing Christian McBride and Joe Sealy doing a jazz concert celebrating Black heroes, but I'll try to go on the 24th.
I actually had tried to see Anne-Sophie Mutter doing Vivaldi's Four Seasons over at Roy Thompson Hall, but the tickets that were left were just far too expensive. I am seeing the Toronto Youth Symphony Orchestra up in North York in two weeks doing a quite eclectic program (Beethoven, Falla, Messiaen and Sibelius).
In terms of other interesting upcoming concerts, Amici is playing on March 5 (though I need to go ahead and get those tickets), Bill Frisell is coming to town on March 11, the Takács Quartet is coming to Koerner Hall on March 23 and TorQ is part of a Steve Reich celebration on March 25. So a lot to look forward to. Speaking of TorQ, they are doing this piece Invisible Cities by Dinuk Wijeratne on March 12, but it is in St Catharines. I believe I saw a section of Invisible Cities a few years back but they didn't perform the entire thing, or maybe I was going to go and the concert was cancelled. At any rate, I am leaning towards going, but I also need to see how the timing works with a MegaBus ride out to St Catharines (and back!). At least the weather has been such, that I don't think I need to worry about getting stuck in a blizzard on the way back...
Esprit is supposed to be doing several concerts in April, but so far nothing has been announced on their website, so I'll keep my eyes open for that. What was just announced is the RCM 2023-24 season, and the most intriguing concert is in May 2024 when Kronos is visiting on what is supposedly their last season as a touring group, marking 50 years together as an ensemble. I've been fortunate enough to see them several times now, and I'll have to make sure to make this concert. I suppose if the dates work out (and the program is different), I might travel to see them in Chicago or Detroit or elsewhere (tickets in NYC will likely be ridiculously high...) on this farewell tour, but I won't completely distort my schedule to do so. Also, Angela Hewitt is coming through in Jan. (with a quite varied program -- not only Mozart or Bach this time) and the Dover Quartet will be here in April 2024, playing Brahms's Piano Quintet. Since this is the piece I failed to see over at TSO through my own negligence, I expect I will go as kind of a do-over, even if a somewhat expensive one...
I don't think I am going to be doing nearly as many summer concerts out at Budweiser Stage this summer, but I did get tickets to see Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. It was stressful getting those tickets (trying to beat the bots as soon as they were released to the general public). And I had to do this on my phone, which made it harder. I probably would have tried to sit a bit further back in the cheaper seats, but I'm glad I scored a ticket at all. I think I'll enjoy the show quite a bit, but I do wish that I had gone and seen Plant when he played Detroit in 1990. For some reason I have it in my head that seeing "Ship of Fools" live would be amazing. He more or less retired the song in 1994, though he played it on a very few dates in 2002. I think it is extremely unlikely he will work up a version with Krauss, but I suppose hope springs eternal.
Just a couple of days before this, I am seeing Sparks at the Danforth Music Hall. Again, I managed to get one of the last regular tickets, rather than a jacked-up resale ticker through a scalper. I am by no means a huge Sparks fan, but I can definitely appreciate how influential they were. It's a bit hard to believe how energetic they are for 70 year old men (brothers in fact). They seem to still have it live, so I decided to go support them. What's interesting is that they don't seem to be playing "Left Out in the Cold" on their recent tour, which is unfortunate. It's a fairly catchy song and seems to be creating a bit of a buzz, along with this new documentary on the group. On the other hand, I'll be seeing them in July, so it won't be nearly as topical as if I were catching them now. One of the weird missed opportunities was that Tati was going to cast them in some film about American consultants coming over and taking over a French TV station. I do so wish that had come to pass!
No comments:
Post a Comment