Eight concerts to check out during Music and Beyond
Music and Beyond festival serves up breadth of options for arts lovers of all stripes
From the 75 concerts that form a tangled thicket of programming at the Music and Beyond festival that runs from July 4 to 19, Peter Hum selects eight that are worth your consideration, whether your tastes run to opera, choral music, baroque, violin or piano mastery, or even comic relief.
DIDO AND AENEAS
When and Where: July 4, 7:30 p.m., Dominion-Chalmers United Church July 5, at noon at St-François-deSales, Gatineau and 7:30 p.m. at Saunders Farm
Music and Beyond begins with a fine baroque-opera flourish. The 1680s piece by British composer John Purcell will be presented three times in different locations, with an all-star cast of vocalists, including sopranos Wallis Giunta or Ellen McAteer as Dido, supported by the choir and orchestra of the Montrealbased Theatre of Early Music.
FIVE SIDES OF MARC DJOKIC
When and Where: July 5, 2 p.m., Southminster Church
The Halifax-raised, Montrealbased violinist Marc Djokic comes to Music and Beyond having received last year’s $125,000 Prix Goyer, the biggest prize in Canada for classical music.
Djokic will demonstrate not just his quality but also his diversity, with a program that will include music from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess performed with pianist Julien LeBlanc, contemporary music for violin and two guitars, duets with marimba player Beverley Johnston and even a piece for violin with electronics. Djokic and Johnston will also play a concert of their own, joined by Ottawa cellist and Music and Beyond artistic director Julian Armour, on July 6 at 7:30 p.m. at Dominion-Chalmers United Church.
WHOSE OPERA IS IT ANYWAY?
When and Where: July 6, 7:30 p.m., NAC Fourth Stage: July 7, 10 a.m., Tabaret Hall, University of Ottawa
True to the “beyond” aspect of the festival, this unique Torontobased production combines opera with improv comedy. Its professional opera singers will sing about almost anything, or perform a famous opera in under three minutes. These could be gateway concerts for the classical-music neophyte.
JULIE NESRALLAH AND CAROLINE LÉONARDELLI
When and Where: July 1, 4 and 7 p.m., July 8, 3 p.m., National Arts Centre, Rossy Pavillion
At three Music and Beyond concerts, longtime collaborators Julie Nesrallah, the Ottawaraised, Toronto-based mezzosoprano, actress and broadcaster, and Ottawa harpist Caroline Léonardelli team up to launch Un Sospiro, their new CD, which is a collection of Italian art songs by the likes of Verdi, Puccini and others. While all of the songs were originally composed for piano, some presented in this project receive their premiere on the concert harp, thanks to Léonardelli.
When and Where: July 8, 7:30 p.m., Dominion-Chalmers United Church
A latecomer to piano studies who only began at the age of 16, the Russian-born Kharitonov developed his abilities quickly and even took first prize at both the Liszt International competition and the Rachmaninoff competition. His wide-ranging Ottawa solo concert will include two Bach preludes, works by Schubert and Rachmaninoff, and the entirety of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Kharitonov will also appear in three other Music and Beyond concerts, including two by the Madrid-based string quartet Cuarteto Quiroga, on July 10 and 11 at 7:30 p.m. at DominionChalmers, and a final appearance with a small ensemble that includes Ottawa cellist Julian Armour on July 12 at noon at Dominion-Chalmers.
HANDEL’S THE TRIUMPH OF TIME AND TRUTH
When and Where: July 8, 7:30 p.m., St. Joseph’s Church
For his last oratorio, the 1757 work The Triumph of Time and Truth, Handel radically reviewed is a drastic revision of his very first oratorio, which was written 50 years earlier. While critics disagree about the work’s place in the canon, Handel biographer Paul Henry Lang wrote of it: “It should be heard, for it is an admirable summary of Handel’s entire musical career.” Starring in this performance will be five vocalists, including soprano Shannon Mercer, an Ottawa native now based in Toronto, the Ensemble vocal-arts Québec and Ensemble Caprice.
When and Where: July 15, 7:30 p.m. First Baptist Church
A few years ago, the Spectator magazine posited regarding Christian Blackshaw: “Is this 65-year-old British pianist the next big thing in classical music?” His is a story of recognition and achievements delayed by tragedy. In 1990, Blackshaw’s wife died of cancer, and the widower put raising his three daughters first and his promising musical career second. In Ottawa, Blackshaw, who only began recording a few years ago, will perform works by Schubert and Schumann.
When and Where: July 15 and 16, 7:30 p.m. nightly, Dominion-Chalmers United Church
Tickets are selling briskly for the concerts featuring British composer John Rutter, who will conduct a concert featuring some of Ottawa’s finest vocalists and musicians performing his music. On the program is Rutter’s largescale work Magnificat, featuring Ottawa-raised soprano Mireille Asselin, the Capital Chamber Choir, the Elmer Iseler Singers, Thirteen Strings. Violinist Kerson Leon will be featured on Rutter’s Visions, which was written for the Ottawa-raised prodigy. (Leong himself will be featured during an afternoon solo concert on July 12 at Saint Barnabas, Apostle and Martyr Anglican Church, during which he will perform Eugène Ysaÿe’s six sonatas.