An die Musik
An evening of great Lieder, set amidst a rich variety of instrumental colours.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006 at 8PM
Trinity St. Paul's Centre
For Immediate Release - Toronto, May 8, 2006: Talisker Players complete their 2005/06 season in glorious style on Wednesday, May 31 with An die Musik, an evening of great Lieder set in a rich variety of instrumental colour. The brilliant Dutch soprano Anne Grimm, and mellow-voiced mezzo-soprano Marion Newman, one of Canada’s most acclaimed young singers, join the instrumentalists of Talisker Players in this lush and lyrical programme.
The vast repertoire of German Lieder – or art song - is of course the heart and soul of vocal music. Most of it is written with simple piano accompaniment. The Talisker Players, with characteristic inventiveness, have set out to explore the small but captivating segment that draws upon the colours of other instruments.
Naturally, the starting point of the programme is Schubert. The intimate evening features the famous Der Hirt auf dem Felsen (The Shepherd on the Rock), for voice with clarinet and piano, as well as a collection of Schubert’s Mignon Lieder, in a new arrangement for voice and string quartet by the German composer Aribert Reimann.
Paul Hindemith’s Die Junge Magd (for voice with flute, clarinet and string quartet) is another highlight. This setting of impressionistic poems by Georg Trakl is one of Hindemith’s loveliest and most lyrical works. The Talisker Players also offer short works by Robert Schumann and Richard Strauss for voice with violin and piano, as well as Lyric Sextet, for voice with flute and string quartet, by Canadian composer Mieczyslaw Kolinski. A much-loved professor of composition at the University of Toronto and prolific composer of music for voice and small ensembles, Kolinski wrote in an eclectic variety of styles. This piece, a setting of German Romantic poems, is a worthy 20th-century successor to the great tradition established by Schubert.
As always, this Talisker Players concert includes the spoken word. Stratford actor Deborah Tennant will read from interviews with the late Greta Kraus (in transcription, and also from contemporary articles). The revered accompanist and teacher held Lieder classes at the University of Toronto for over three decades until shortly before her death in 1999. She was opinionated, humourous and always eloquent about the repertoire she loved best.
Dutch Soprano Anne Grimm has received praised for her work in opera, concert and recital throughout Europe, North America and New Zealand. Career highlights include appearances at the Netherlands Opera in Monteverdi’s Orfeo, in Handel’s Rinaldo under Christophe Roussel in France, and staged works of Handel at the Halle Handel Festspiele and the Potsdam Festival Sans Souci. She has also toured with Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir appearing at festivals throughout Europe including Salzburg and Ambronay. Now based in Toronto, Anne Grimm has also appeared with the Off Centre Music Salon at Glenn Gould Studio, with the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, the National Arts Centre Orchestra (under Pinchas Zuckerman) and Opera Lyra in Ottawa, and in recital at the Elora Festival.
Recent engagements include performances in Poland, Italy and Holland with the Orchestra of the 18th Century under Frans Brüggen in Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes, Messiah with Tafelmusik, an extensive tour of Holland as soprano soloist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion with Apollo’s Fire in Cleveland and at the Ojai Festival (California) as well as Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem. Anne Grimm has recorded for Erato, Harmonia Mundi, NM Classics, Vanguard Classics, Troubadisc and Sony.
First Nations mezzo-soprano Marion Newman has quickly established herself as a "jewel in Canada's impressive performing arts crown". Marion made her debut in the title role of Carmen, with Opera 2005 in Cork, Ireland where the Irish Examiner review noted her "superbly sinuous sexuality" and marked her as a "very exciting new talent". She has also appeared as Margret in Wozzeck and Juno in The Tempest with Pacific Opera Victoria, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Meg Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and the White Cat, Dragonfly and Squirrel in L'Enfant et les Sortilèges. Soon to be released is a Naxos recording of the Aradia Ensemble performing Handel's Rinaldo with Marion singing the role of Goffredo.
Upcoming roles include Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte with Vancouver Opera and a return to Cork, Ireland for the role of Rosina. Marion has also toured in France with Richard Dubelski’s What’s Goin’ On, as part of the Banff Centre New Music Program, and in the Czech Republic and Germany, appearing in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera. A frequent soloist with the Victoria Symphony, she has also appeared with the Kingston Symphony, the Vancouver Symphony, and the Portland Baroque Orchestra. The public knows her for her appearances on CBC television, as she has performed several times as a soloist for the Aboriginal Achievement Awards.
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Media Contact: Francine Labelle/flINK
416-654-4406
labellefrancine@rogers.com
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