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CRITIC’S PICKS | Classical Music Occasions You Completely Want To See This Week: January 13 – January 19


L-R (clockwise): Pianist Bruce Liu (Photograph courtesy of the artist); pianist Emanuel Ax (Photograph courtesy of the artist); The Imani Winds (Photograph courtesy of the artists)

This can be a listing of live shows we’re attending, wishing we might attend, or fascinated about attending between January 13 and 19, 2024. For extra of what’s occurring round Toronto, go to our calendar right here.

Toronto Symphony Orchestra: Emanuel Ax + Mozart

Wednesday, January 15, 8 p.m., Saturday, January 18, 8 p.m., Sunday, January 19, 3 p.m.
Roy Thomson Corridor, $63+

Much like final week, there’s loads of familiarity in TSO’s programming this week: Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 with perennial favorite, Emanuel Ax; and the superb Additionally Sprach Zarathustra — and sure, it’s nice to think about a number of the viewers discovering the work as a complete for the primary time. There’s a lot extra music after the fantastic opening, the opening that grew to become engraved so deeply into our cultural historical past with Kubrick’s 2001: A Area Odyssey (the truth is, there’s 30+ min after ‘Einleitung, oder Sunnenaufgang’: ‘Introduction’, or Dawn). And, each a type of minutes is golden. Getting uncovered to Tippet’s Concerto for Double String Orchestra is a welcome bonus; his retake on the outdated custom of the ripieno concerto (a bit like Vivaldi’s concerti grossi), options many parts of the previous: folks songs, the earliest base of an orchestra, together with the strings, plus jazz and the rhythmic variety (thanks, world music) that infiltrated classical music within the early twentieth century. Come and expertise how we construct previous and current, and what it means for us, to look again and ponder about what progress or passage of time might imply with this piece, almost 90 years outdated, but sounding contemporary to many people. Information right here.

Canadian Opera Firm: Dance Sequence: Preview of DanceWeekend ‘25

Wednesday, January 15, Midday
Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, 4 Seasons Centre, Free.

In anticipation of Dance Ontario’s annual DanceWeekend’25, amazingly fluid, vibrant, and devoted dancers will fill the midweek midday hour with gestures, rhythm, and lyricism. Drawing from such vast genres of ballet, flamenco, Hip Hop, Indian classical, Egyptian, Chinese language, up to date, and extra, this can be a nice alternative to expertise rhythm and music in a distinct context. How can we manipulate time? Or is it we who’re manipulated by time and sonic occasions? Does it matter which means it goes? Come and discover out — and see the sound and pulses come alive earlier than our eyes. Information right here.

Hugh’s Room Dwell: Gryphon Trio + Jovino Santos Neto and Pals

Saturday, January 18, 8 p.m.
Inexperienced Sanderson Corridor, Hugh’s Room, 296 Broadview Ave., $45+

Three-time Latin Grammy nominee Jovino Santos Neto is a jack of all trades — he performs the flute, piano, composes and arranges, and teaches and conducts. This busy man is joined by the native fav Gryphon Trio and different visitor musicians in a night of exploration of music and nature. Chamber music could be in many various types and genres, and it’s all the time beautiful to see such collaboration — let’s see what this mature artist (boyish Jovino, 70 years outdated this yr, and an inhabitant of such very totally different cultures; Rio de Janeiro and Seattle), will current to us, with such wealthy life experiences. Information right here.

21C Music Competition: Michelle Cann and The Imani Winds

Saturday, January 18, 8 p.m.
Koerner Corridor, $21+

The basic woodwind quintet consists of flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon. Nonetheless, not like string orchestras or brass bands, except you’ve been looking for out to listen to this particular format, most audiences might have heard such a mixture solely in passing fragments: in an orchestra live performance with part solos, most definitely. To listen to the ensemble’s color and functionality is a uncommon alternative, and the superb Imani Winds, winners of a 2024 Grammy Award, are visiting Toronto as a part of the 21C Music Competition. IM will current good up to date woodwind quintet compositions by Paquito D’Rivera and Lalo Schifrin, together with two of the cheekiest works by Poulenc: Trio for Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano, FP 43, and the Sextet, FP 100, with a Canadian premiere of Valerie Coleman’s Portraits of Langston, for flute, clarinet, piano and narrator. An awesome probability to discover the woodwind soundscape. Information right here.

College of Toronto Opera: The Avenue of Avarice

Sunday, January 19, 2:30 p.m.
Fleck Dance Theatre, Harbourfront Centre, Free (with e mail registration).

A real native venture right here. 4 mini-operas composed by college students of School of Music, College of Toronto, drawing from the colorful historical past of Toronto’s Jarvis Road, will probably be premiered on this Sunday afternoon. It’s outstanding what number of tales sleep quietly within the very streets we casually stroll via. The richness of our personal expertise fuels us via the modifications and trials of our personal life, of our personal area. Although all of the online-tickets are taken, there will probably be a restricted variety of walk-up tickets accessible, scheduled to be launched at 12:30 p.m. onward on Sunday on the Fleck Dance Theatre. After all, you may stream from house, however it’s by no means the identical. Come out and be a part of this to-be-packed home, and fall into the magic of dwell storytelling. Information right here.

Royal Conservatory of Music: Bruce Liu, Piano

Sunday, January 19, 3 p.m.
Koerner Corridor, $75+

Bruce Liu, winner of 18th Chopin Piano Competitors in 2021, brings his musical finesse and good approach to Koerner Corridor this Sunday afternoon matinee, with a wealthy program of late romanticism and a touch of modernism: Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Rachmaninov, Scriabin and Prokofiev. The piano, regardless of its percussive nature, could be spun to inform tales of infinitely lengthy phrases below the fingers of a masterful pianist — an unattainable process for mere mortals. There are only a few tickets left for this live performance, so get your tickets instantly, and see what magic might fill this afternoon live performance. Information right here.

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