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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.

Contrasts dominated in André Laplante’s recital for the Montreal Chamber Music Festival, some coming off to great effect, and others less so.

Aleksey Igudesman (violin) and Hyung-ki Joo (piano) walked onto the stage at St. George’s Anglican Church in Montreal with an aura of severity. The pianist was dressed in tails and the violinist was dressed in a formal white dress shirt and dress pants: nothing you wouldn’t expect from the usual suspects of classical music performers.

Violin virtuoso James Ehnes gave a concert of works by Béla Bartók on May 28th at the Montreal Chamber Music Festival. Just the day before, Ehnes had performed an equally challenging program of completely different repertoire - works by Ravel (the duo, the trio, and the quartet). Both performances were of the highest quality, and showcased a performer with unparalleled command of his instrument.