Toronto Summer time Music: Finale. Marie-Claire Saindon: “Turtulette Acadienne Montréalaise”; J.S. Bach: Magnificat; Samih Choukeir: “Lao Rahal Soti” (arr. Shireen Abu Khader) — Kathleen Allan, conductor; Pleasure Lee, piano; Group Program-Chamber Choir | Chopin: Ballade No. 3 In A-Flat Main, Op. 47 — Luke Zhang, piano | Eric Abramovitz: Bleep Bleep Bass (World Première) — Eric Abramovitz*, bass-clarinet; Miles Haskins, bass-clarinet | Kelly-Marie Murphy: Fierce Urgency of the Now (World Première) — Cassia Drake, viola; Jonathan Mak, piano | Debussy: String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10, L. 85 — Clarisse Schneider, Sophia Lee, violins; Bridget Allen-O’Neil, viola; Lara Isaac, cello; Tune Hee Lee, coach | Mozart: Serenade No. 10 in B-flat Main, Okay. 361/370a, “Gran Partita” — Sarah Jeffrey, Cristina Sewerin, oboes; Isabelle Dumas, Farimah Khorrami, clarinets; Jonathan Krehm, Eric Abramovitz, basset-horns; Zenghao Wang, Dorothy Cotton, bassoons; Jesse Dale, bass; Gabriel Radford, Robert Bernstein, Noah Hawryluck, Ethan Chialtas, horns | J.S. Bach: “Jesu, Pleasure of Man’s Needing” (Cantata 147, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben) — Byungchan Lee, Claire Heinrichs, Jonathan Crow, violins; Vanessa J. Goymour, viola; Sabina Crow, cello; Caitlin Wooden, Sarah Mole, sopranos; Jennifer Mak, piano | Janacek: Mládí for Wind Sextet — Claire Lee, flute; Cristina Sewerin, oboe; Jonathan Krehm, clarinet; Eric Abramovitz, bass clarinet; Dorothy Ward, bassoon; Avram Selick, horn | Dvořák: Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Main, Op. 81 — Yura Lee, Yoanna Haeun Jang, violins; Remea Elisa Ines Friedrich, viola; Bethany Bobbs, cello; Emmanuel Roberts Dugal, piano. August 2, 2025, Walter Corridor.
“Classical music is in good arms,” a visibly moved Jonathan Crow introduced, his towering determine dominating the Walter Corridor stage. The final evening of this 12 months’s Toronto Summer time Music Pageant was an event to pay homage to its indefatigable Inventive Director, who, after 9 seasons, is ending his tenure. He’s succeeded by one other Canadian violinist, William Fedkenheuer.
Not surprisingly, this was a transferring occasion in so some ways: from voices cracking with emotion to a standing ovation for Crow as he walked right down to obtain a trophy, to a 16-minute compilation of video tributes from mates and alumni of the Pageant, together with stars comparable to James Ehnes, Peter Oundjian, Angela Hewitt, and Gustavo Gimeno.
Group Program & World Premieres
It was additionally becoming that the night ought to have fun TSM’s neighborhood program, one of many best legacies of Crow’s tenure. This system’s Chamber Choir walked in, singing Marie-Claire Saindon’s ‘Turtulette Acadienne Montréalaise’; a significant selection, if not precisely a musically rewarding one, for all of the choir’s enthusiasm and infectious power.
Two actions from Bach’s Magnificat supplied a extra worthwhile car for them and their conductor, Kathleen Allan, as they easily negotiated advanced polyphonies. For the ultimate tune, the choir dispersed on both aspect of the stage, forming a dome as they echoed the soloist’s mournful tune, a tune by the Syrian Samih Chukeir, organized by the Jordanian-Palestinian-Canadian Shireen Abu Khader.
This system supplied no description or translation of the phrases. However, some post-concert analysis revealed how poignant and related they had been: “If my voice departs, your voices won’t / If the singer dies, the songs will stay / bringing collectively the damaged and struggling hearts.”
A message of warning for one more human catastrophe got here with the COVID-delayed premiere of Kelly-Marie Murphy’s ‘Fierce Urgency of the Now’ for viola and piano, that includes Cassia Drake (for whom the music was composed) and the ever-reliable Jonathan Mak. A name to motion to save lots of the surroundings, every of the piece’s three actions was impressed by a outstanding environmental scientist. The music moved from contemplative ruminations within the first two actions to frenetic drive within the third.
Between these works, Luke Zhang demonstrated the end result of his coaching with the Group program’s Piano Masterclass, in a courageous and largely achieved efficiency of Chopin’s third Ballade.
Then, Eric Abramovitz and Miles Haskins, each Group program mentors, introduced a contact of comedian showmanship with the previous’s medley of acquainted tunes for 2 bass clarinets, in homage to Chang Lee, one of many TSM’s members of workers.
4 first actions for bigger ensembles adopted: an animated Debussy String Quartet, a heavenly Mozart Gran Partita for wind, an enigmatic Janáček Mládi for wind sextet, and at last an invigorating Dvořák Piano Quintet.
The Spirit of Group
However, this night was not primarily about technical prowess.
It was concerning the spirit of neighborhood, concerning the viewers’s enthusiasm and assist even after two hours with out interval, concerning the smiles and tears as Jonathan Crow joined his workers in Bach’s ‘Jesu, Pleasure of Man’s Needing’, concerning the TSM workers’s continuous work and broad smiles, about studying that the matching fund-raising marketing campaign had surpassed its purpose, and above all about mentors and mentees, amateurs and professionals, collectively celebrating the joys of music-making.
Classical music in Toronto is certainly in good arms.
Thanks, TSM workers. Thanks, Jonathan!
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Michelle Assay is a Marie Curie/UKRI World Fellow on the Universities of Toronto and King’s Faculty London engaged on Girls and Western Artwork Music in Iran (Womusiran.com). She holds a PhD from the Sorbonne and College of Sheffield and has been a Leverhulme Fellow on the College of Huddersfield. She is the creator of award-winning articles on Russian and Soviet music and on Shakespeare and music, and often seems in concert events as a pianist. She is a daily broadcaster for the BBC and contributor to Gramophone, Worldwide Piano, and Bachtrack, together with Ludwig Van.
