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As the audience assembled in Roy Thomson Hall on Wednesday, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Members of the orchestra were taking their seats on the stage, getting ready to tune their instruments. However, anyone paying close attention to the setting would have seen a fixture hanging high above the stage.

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.

In the second week of their 2013/14 season, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Peter Oundjian, presented three major works, beginning with two which were definitely not the same-old, same-old repertoire. The event positioned two English pieces as a stark contrast to the Russian one in the second half.Benjamin Britten never completed his clarinet concerto.

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.