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On the final leg of their North American tour, the Budapest Festival Orchestra’s Mahler proves a a transformative experience within the intimate setting of Toronto’s Koerner Hall. 

Matthias Goerne and Daniil Trifonov take their Toronto audience on a Schubertian journey to remember at Koerner Hall. 

Stepping in to replace Stephen Kovacevich, Jonathan Biss’ Schubert alternates between insight and impatience.

Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic bring their Year of Czech Music to a triumphant conclusion in Toronto’s Koerner Hall, where Daniil Trifonov raises the roof with Dvořák’s neglected Piano Concerto. 

The Toronto Summer Music Festival opens with Les Arts Florissants’ enchanting performance of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, featuring the singers of Le Jardin des voix and the dancers of Compagnie Käfig.

Sir András Schiff’s seventh visit to Toronto’s Koerner Hall was an almost three-hour-long feast of “quality” music by his musical heroes.

The young Handel's homage to Counter Reformation Rome, La resurrezione, is effectively brought to life by Opera Atelier with glittering sets and fine, stylish singing.

Faust and Melnikov's concert of Beethoven sonatas at Koerner Hall in Toronto swelled with passion tempered by gentleness.

On 1 October, Soundstreams, an international centre for new directions in music based in Toronto, presented music by Arvo Pärt, James Rolfe and Riho Esko Maimets. The latter two might be called Canadian counterparts to the established Estonian composer.

Ludwig van Beethoven once said: “Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.” On 19 September, 2013, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra performed three works by the late Classical and early Romantic composer: the overture to Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus, and his first two symphonies.

As I sat in the intriguing darkness of Koerner Hall, Marielle Labèque carefully placed the opening notes of Le fils des étoiles by Erik Satie. They hung in the air like little crystals. This was a simple beginning, yet deceptively so, that would build towards something larger. In turn, these notes would unfold in a continuous stream of build-ups and decays.

A key performance unlocks every note of familiar pieces so they can be enjoyed as if for the first time. Tiberghien began by paying homage to the “amazing” acoustics of Koerner Hall, then proved it by opening the minuet of Schubert’s Six moments musicaux softly as a breeze coloured lightly with birdsong.

The Toronto Summer Music Festival’s opening concert made the audience very happy with a program of piano trios heavily weighted towards lamentation. Gabriel Fauré composed his Op. 120 trio in retirement while oppressed by old age, total deafness and bouts of bronchial pneumonia, but he makes his misery sing.

The Danilo Pérez Trio tribute to Dizzy Gillespie was many things, including an invitation to relax. It was also a showcase and world première for Camino de Cruces, Pérez’s contribution to the 500th anniversary celebration of the founding of Panama.

Thomas Dausgaard conducts with his body. A shift in his posture, without engaging hands or arms, is enough indication for his Swedish Chamber Orchestra to execute subtly graduated dynamic shifts.

Beethoven started it, the piano’s duologue with the cello, in 1801, with his Seven Variations on “Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen” from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. Beethoven himself, and many composers from Brahms (1862) through Lera Auerbach (2002) continued to ornament this form. In 1968, Jacqueline du Pré and Daniel Barenboim, with their recording of Brahms’ Cello Sonata no.

If you know what people have been saying about Jan Lisiecki, you might enter the recital hall echoing some extremely high praise for this 17-year-old pianist. Of course, in Toronto, where Lisiecki has been studying at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory, CBC Magazine is asking: “Is he the next Glenn Gould?” But after hearing his recital today of Chopin’s Études Opp.

There are musical moments that lift you up into a jet stream you ride till your feet are on the pavement again. Last evening in Koerner Hall was a flow of such moments as the Amici Chamber Ensemble celebrated their first set of twenty-five musical years.

It was an evening of go big or go home. Koerner Hall is a world-class “acousticorium”. It has been praised for razor-sharp rendering of the sounds of soloists like guitarist John Williams, divas like Anne Sofie von Otter and Dee Dee Bridgewater, quartets like the Kronos and Takács, chamber orchestras such as the 28 strings of Gergiev’s Stradivarius Ensemble.

When French-Canadian pianists Louis Lortie and Hélène Mercier entered the stage of the Koerner Hall on Sunday, the 800-plus audience participated with an unprecedented level of attention. An episode also occurred to enforce this attention.

Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs hold an important place in the musical canon for voice and orchestra. The 81-year-old composer wrote them in 1948 from his post-war home in Switzerland, setting poetry by Hermann Hesse and Joseph von Eichendorff.

With one week’s notice, Horacio Gutiérrez was indisposed and cancelled his much-anticipated piano recital at Toronto’s Koerner Hall. In his place, it was Valentina Lisitsa to the rescue, the sensational pianist who has now had over 50 million views on her YouTube channel, giving her the status of a rock star.

The Ontario Philharmonic Orchestra is a regional orchestra that has 56 years of history in the province of Ontario. Led by music director Marco Parisotto, the Ontario Phil enjoys local community support to performances given chiefly at the Regent Theater in Oshawa, Ontario.

His build is blocky like the hockey defense-man he once was, but Denis Matsuev’s fingers can touch piano keys lightly as butterflies landing on begonias. The mood of his solo recital opened blissfully, like the January night by the fireplace described in Puskin’s poem “By the Hearth” which inspired the first of the twelve monthly miniatures Tchaikovsky published as The Seasons, Op. 37b.

Piotr Anderszewski seated himself on a chair without any fuss and eased into the Allemande of Bach’s French Suite no. 5 in G with a soft touch. His rounded notes, subdued in the left hand, not too sparkly in the right, were as far as you could get from the quirky, angular style of Glenn Gould, who rules in Toronto, his home turf.

Each time I hear the Takács Quartet in concert a new excellence comes through: this time it is their gentleness. Schubert’s String Quartet in A minor, “Rosamunde” is allowed to unfold gently, as the petals of a rose open themselves.

The Mariinsky Orchestra are great, because Valery Gergiev arranges a schedule that only the great could sustain. In the two weeks before they arrived in Toronto, his musicians played six performances of Swan Lake in Berkeley, California. Then Gergiev took them back to St Petersburg (October 15–23) to play the operas Boris Godunov and Aida.

To mark the 15th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to China, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta was invited to kick-start the Koerner Hall’s chamber music series as part of their debut tour in North American. Despite competing concerts held downtown that very same evening, those who supported the HKS were rewarded by their fine performances.

As children, we all had our iconic heroes, famous mentors, or performers we would die to meet. It is not very often in life these dreams become reality; however, The Royal Conservatory Orchestra had the unforgettable opportunity to rehearse, study, and perform under the honorary Leon Fleisher.

As Christmas is quickly approaching, it is only fair to take advantage of some of the musical gifts and traditions that accompany this festive season. Handel's Messiah is one of the most widely-known sacred oratorios, most commonly recognized by its Hallelujah chorus. However, Handel's Messiah, was not always regarded as a popular work for the Christmas season.

Eine makellose Führung zu den Stadt- und Komponisten-Schätzen in Europa sortge erneut für bleibende Eindrücke und enthusiastische Erzählungen.

Wer bei diesem frühbarocken Programm und der Energie des Ensembles nicht mittanzt und genießt, dem ist nicht mehr zu helfen. Große Freude, purer Wahnsinn!