April 7, 2018 – Koerner Hall, The Royal Conservatory – Toronto

When you have Maestro Hilario Durán involved in a project you can be assured of its quality. For those unaware, Hilario Durán is one of the best pianists on the planet. Combined with his musical soul mate Mark Kelso, you know the rhythm section will be incredibly powerful. Add to the mix, countryman and bandmate on many projects, Joaquin Núñez Hidalgo as the percussionist and be prepared to experience Afro-Cuban percussive sounds to delight the senses. The other members of David Buchbinder’s Odessa/Havana for this night’s performance included, David Buchbinder, trumpet & flugelhorn, Aleksandar Gajic, violin, Maryem Hassan Tollar, vocals, Quinsin Nachoff, reeds and Justin Gray playing bass.

David Buchbinder’s Odessa/Havana is an award winning, genre defying band of extreme musicality. They have been described as an ensemble that mixes Jewish and Afro-Cuban cultures, I believe it goes much deeper than this. Each musician brings their own story to the stage and expresses it with passion and the highest level of skill.

The concerts double bill opened with Kuné and David Buchbinder’s Odessa/Havana closed out the show. The first song by Odessa/Havana had a strong klezmer feeling to it with violin wailing and accompaniment by bass and percussion. The percussionists stood out at once in their collaborative approach by playing off each other as if completing a sentence or a thought. The percussionists, Kelso and Hidalgo provided the undercurrent of Afro-Cuban dynamics. The violin was the driving locomotive force that paved the way for Buchbinder’s trumpet and Natchoff’s clarinet to add the impressive swing dimension all the while Hilario Durán leads with pounding percussive piano playing, intermixed with lightning fast runs, intricate trills, triplets and the occasional hand signal to the ensemble to transition from jazz to klezmer or some other bridge.

Many of the compositions performed were from the groups 3rd album, the 2018 release, Conversation of the Birds. The songs seemed to blend many styles of music, I heard elements of Baroque, Andalusian, Flamenco, Middle Eastern, Yiddish, Tumbao and hard swinging jazz. The chanting, narration and vocalizations of Maryem Tollar were delightful and her middle eastern style of singing fit perfectly with the music.

A song with a name like “Coffee Works” you would expect to be energetic and you would be correct. A hyper active song, frenetic in its pace and pounding with percussive intensity, snake charming clarinet, wicked trumpet and choppy arco violin. Another composition title per  Hilario Durán “Nameless” he opened it with a beautiful melody, violin and bass join in col-arco  and the rest of the musicians flow into the song, trumpet and clarinet providing a mournful refrain.

The final song of the evening featured four members of Kuné returning to the stage, a musical clinic ensued. The song featured a drum solo by Mr. Kelso that was what you would expect, simply mind blowing. Aline Morales and Matias Recharte would join in with Hidalgo to offer support in the percussion department while Luis Deniz and Selcuk Suna would join with Buchbinder and Nachoff in what became a cutting contest. The final feature of the evening seemed to come back to Hilario Durán who played with outstanding skill and passion.

A multi cultural evening of musical performances that exemplified how our cultural differences can come together in beautiful harmony to create an overwhelming display of peace, love and togetherness.

David Buchbinder’s Odessa/Havana:
David Buchbinder, trumpet & flugelhorn
Hilario Durán, piano
Mark Kelso, drums & percussion
Joaquin Nuñez Hidalgo, percussion
Aleksandar Gajic, violin,
Maryem Hassan Tollar, vocals
Quinsin Nachoff, reeds
Justin Gray, bass

April 7, 2018 – Koerner Hall, The Royal Conservatory – Toronto

What do you think of when you think of a musical Toronto sound? For me it is a sound of diversity. A sound made up of the cultural differences and similarities found in the Toronto multi cultural landscape. A landscape that includes the sounds of the respective residents, their backgrounds, cultures and the music and instruments that form their cultural heritage. A heritage that can be based on ancient musical scores or relatively new music.

The group KUNÉ is a perfect example of the Toronto sound. Members of the orchestra come from a mix of cultures and heritage. KUNÉ is an Esperanto word meaning together. An idea that resonates with the group members as they celebrate the music with a desire to transcend cultural differences, according to artistic director David Buchbinder. “A sound that is at once both global and uniquely local.”

Conceived by Mervon Mehta, The Royal Conservatory Executive Director of Performing Arts. The goal of the orchestra was to come up with a group that would sound like Canada today. Kuné is made up of 11 musicians from around the world. This concert celebrates the release of KUNÉ’s debut album on Universal Music Canada.

KUNÉ opened the concert, the orchestra gathered on stage — the violinist, Alyssa Delbaere-Sawchuk was featured on a composition entitled “Lloqlla” (Spirit of Rushing Water) by Matias Recharte, a flowing melody with powerful sustain from long fluid col arco on the violin. Tenor and alto saxophone adding to the glorious tones as the vocalist chant in a manner reminiscent of a northern indigenous drum circle.

The next composition was written by the violinist, “We Met In Tkaranto” with violin wailing, a happy sounding Irish jig develops. An upbeat, danceable tune with an element of joviality that has the orchestra members jumping. Other members of the orchestra join in, the strings, sitar, tar, double bass and guitar are joined by the clarinet and alto saxophone. The percussionist, three members strong, Aline Morales, Matias Recharte and Lasso (Salif Sanou) provide the intricate rhythms with all manner of percussion instruments.

The music, the different styles of music that was presented never lost its connection. The musical direction allowed for a song featuring sitar to fit in perfectly with the alto saxophone of Luis Deniz, a player with a strong jazz sensibility. The cohesiveness of the musicians became strikingly clear as they progressed through each song. A tight musical unit that had at its core a highly developed musicality that bridged any differences in musical styles or genres.

“Nava e sarosh” (Whispers of an Angel) by sitarist and vocalist Anwar Khurshid, this composition had a lovely melody. It reminded me of nature, winds blowing gently through a forest. Pleasing notes, held in sustain and taken to a high register where they are allowed to bend and howl with joy.

Padideh Ahranejad of Iran, the tar player, a stringed instrument, that she plays beautifully. She introduced herself and mentioned her love of her instrument and that is apparent from how she plays it. Her song, “Lahzeye Sokut” (Moments of Silence) with lyrics by Rumi was a song about her travels from Iran to Canada and her feelings at that time. The song expressed to me sounds of excitement, confusion and turmoil but with an overwhelming sense of strength and perseverance.

The concert had many exciting moments, even a touch of rap by Dorjee Tsering on the song “Espera, Esperanto” a composition by bassist Paco Luviano and Hannah Burgé.

Demetrios Petsalakis provided many exciting moments playing on oud, guitar and Lyra. A wonderful feature of the concert was the playing of Lasso on his wooden flute. An instrument from west Africa that he played wonderfully.

All in all a wonderful concert, fully deserving of the standing ovation by the Koerner Hall patrons at this sold out show.

KUNÉ – Canada’s Global Orchestra:
Padideh Ahrarnejad (Iran): tar & vocals
Alyssa Delbaere-Sawchuk (Canada – Métis): violin, viola & vocals
Luis Deniz (Cuba): saxophone
Anwar Khurshid (Pakistan): sitar & vocals
Lasso (Salif Sanou) (Burkina Faso): Fulani flute, n’goni, talking drum, djembe, doum-doum & vocals
Paco Luviano (Mexico): acoustic & electric bass
Aline Morales (Brazil): Brazilian percussion & vocals
Demetrios Petsalakis (Greece): oud, lyra, acoustic & electric guitar
Matias Recharte (Peru): cajón, drums & percussion
Selcuk Suna (Turkey): clarinet
Dorjee Tsering (Tibet): dranyen, flute, piwang & vocals

David Buchbinder (Canada): Artistic Director

Photos courtesy of The Royal Conservatory/Koerner Hall – Lisa Sakulensky Photography
(click on a thumbnail to see large images)

As long as musicians such as Keith Jarrett play and record Johann Sebastian Bach’s most frequently performed keyboard (harpsichord) works on the harpsichord there will probably be a continuing debate as to whether Bach’s keyboard sound better on the harpsichord or the piano. But Angela Hewitt put that matter to bed in favour of the piano (yet again) on the 12th of November, 2017, at Koerner Hall, in Toronto. She did so with sublime tone and with volume tantalisingly modified by the pressure of her delicate fingers, which, in turn gave her a spectacular range of sounds with which to explore the intricacies of Bach’s contrapuntal style. Of course, she had a boon companion in the priceless Fazioli piano on which the programme of Bach Partitas was performed. They were Partita No.3 in A Minor (BMV 827), Partita No.5 in G Major (BMV 829), Partita in A Major (BMV 832) and Partita No.6 in E Minor (BMV 830). For two hours that afternoon in Toronto there was no place else on earth better than at Koerner Hall, because there no other pianist conveyed so powerful an impression of passionate analytical intelligence as Angela Hewitt did this repertoire.

There have been a few great interpreters of Bach keyboard music, now performed on the piano. Like such other strong personalities as Wanda da Landowska, Samuil Feinberg, Edwin Fischer, Rosalyn Tureck, Glenn Gould, Martha Argerich, Maria João Pires and, of course Murray Perahia, but Angela Hewitt is a law unto herself. She compels you to listen to her Bach on her terms. Everything sounds natural and inevitable. Ego doesn’t come into it: rather she acts as a conduit between composer and audience with a purity that few can emulate. Miss Hewitt’s ‘personal’ Bach is Bach played to perfection. It is a transcendent redirection of the mind to the absolute beauty of Bach’s ideas in improvising and the perfect manner in which they were sublimated on the keyboard – any keyboard. And Miss Hewitt triumphs because all her fingers – like Bach’s – are “equally skillful; all (were) capable of the most perfect accuracy in performance”. And so Angela Hewitt’s performance of these Bach Partitas was indeed a spiritual marriage between the mathematics and music, or as Johann Georg Neidhardt put it in 1732: when the victory of “equal temperament brings with it its comfort and discomfort, like blessed matrimony”.

Angela Hewitt recorded the complete set of six Bach Partitas on the British Hyperion label under the title Bach: The Six Partitas. Like everything Bach that she has done it is music bristling with pedagogy and genius. Miss Hewitt is not by any means an exclusively Bach musician. Her Mozart is brilliant too, as is her Beethoven… However, there is something special about her Bach – whether orchestral or exclusively keyboard. On this cold day in November 2017, she performed the bottom (or top) half of the six Bach Partitas and they were sparkling accounts of these suites building up in intensity and grandeur from the already-complex “No.3 in A Minor” to the monumental “No.6 in E Minor”. Her “Sarabande” in “Partita No.5 in G Minor” was full of pathos as any reading, twinkled with an easy playfulness. Each assortment of Bach’s galantarien was full of spring and excitement. Even the oft-disputed “Partita in A Minor” was sublimely and incontrovertibly and soaring Johann Sebastian Bach: strong-willed and thrilling – every note, slur, arpeggio and glissando, literally a dewdrop falling heavenward before returning blissfully earthwards, to rest in our collective mind’s ear, as works “composed for music-lovers to refresh their spirits” as Bach had earnestly hoped so many centuries ago. Miss Hewitt’s pacing was unerring throughout; the sense of narrative that she brought to these partitas was utterly persuasive. The streams of semiquavers and interplay between the hands was a thing of delight.

https://youtu.be/ZAeLjliS1LY