Marc Wieser is a pianist-musicologist based in Montreal. Specialising in chamber music and vocal repertoire, Marc undertook PhD studies at McGill University, and has presented and performed throughout North America and Europe. Marc is currently the Project Coordinator for the Azrieli Music Project at the Azrieli Foundation, Canada.
Angela Cheng’s recital featured a potentially intimidating quartet of sonatas by the Viennese masters, but under her hands the music was anything but intimidating.
Opéra de Montréal’s sumptuous production of Turandot at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier is a grand spectacle in every sense, but misses on some of the finer details.
Yuja Wang has the virtuosity for Rachmaninov in spades and stamina to spare, but her technically brilliant performance raised the question of whether it all wasn’t a little too easy.
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra led by Peter Oundjian performed at Montreal’s Maison Symphonique in a well-executed and altogether comfortable programme which nonetheless failed to challenge any notion of orchestral status-quo.
Considering the sheer wattage of Yo-Yo Ma’s name, it was not his playing alone that stole the show; rather, the magic of this performance existed in the act of collaboration between two artists.
Natalie Dessay’s recital at the Maison Symphonique last night should have been an art song lover’s dream come true. Instead the audience was treated to a bizarre spectacle of over-expression and under-singing.
What cathartic release to revel in three hours of a complete performance of Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage, the house lights of Montreal’s Maison Symphonique fully dimmed, a charismatic virtuoso on stage in the person of the indomitable Louis Lortie.
The OSM opened their 2014 offering with an evening of Beethoven. Kent Nagano was at the helm with pianist Radu Lupu as the soloist in the Fourth Piano Concerto.
Every city has its favourites, and Jan Lisiecki is Montreal’s darling. There was a sense of proprietary pride in the audience as he strode across the stage at the Maison Symphonique, to join Kazushi Ono and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal.
