Formerly a horn player in the Montreal Symphony, Robert Markow now writes programme notes for that orchestra and for many other musical organizations. He taught at Montreal’s McGill University for many years, has led music tours to several countries, and has written for numerous leading classical music journals.
A sensational young Japanese violinist and a sensational, little-known Fifth Symphony brought high approval ratings from the audience at a Japan Philharmonic, all-Russian concert last Friday.
One of Japan’s leading orchestras, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, turned in performances of two warhorses as different as night and day: Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, curiously understated, and Brahms' Fourth Symphony, surging with power and passion.
Pianist Kit Armstrong proved that prodigious talent and good taste can be found in the same artist, while Christian Thielemann disappoints in Strauss’ blockbusting Alpine Symphony.
The San Francisco Symphony wound up its Asian tour in Tokyo with a program (Sheng, Shostakovich, Mahler) and soloist (pianist Yuja Wang) well calculated to generate strong audience response.
Who would think that a symphony concert featuring Schoenberg and Dutilleux would sell out? Well, it did – in Tokyo. Bravo to the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra for its daring programming.
Singapore’s amazing Orchestra of the Music Makers presents Mahler’s “Gift to the Entire Nation,” his massive Eighth Symphony, as part of the celebrations marking the country’s 50th anniversary as an independent state.
Taiwan is barely on the radar as far as most Western classical music aficionados are concerned. A recent visit, however, by the 40-member Taiwan National Choir certainly alerted those who heard it that something extraordinary must be going on over there.
An extraordinary event took place on Tuesday evening in Saint-Paul-de Joliette, Quebec, a pleasant little farming community located about an hour’s drive northeast of Montreal.
The Montreal International Musical Competition, this year devoted to voice, ended on a high note with the Winners’ Gala Concert on June 8. First, Second and Third Prize winners sang two arias each, but, in a gratifying show of solidarity with the remaining finalists, the program afforded concertgoers the opportunity to hear the five runners-up as well.
