2014: concerts of the year

January 7, 2015 · by · in

As ever with concerts, the ‘honorable mentions’ should really get as much love as those mentioned in more detail…

Erin Gee – Swarming Emotional Pianos

I saw lots and lots of the iterations towards this show, and I am nothing like an unbiased observer of my friend Erin’s work, but I have to tell you, this thing was immense.

Sibelius – Violin Concert in D Minor

With Byungchan Lee on solo duties, the McGill orchestra knocked this one out of the park.

Holst – The Planets

Ok, ok, so McGill has a good orchestra, sure, good talk.  Them playing a historical favorite of mine was probably overkill.

Those honorable mentions:  John Chowning’s Voices, outdoors at ICMIC; the grad recitals of Nadia Pona on bassoon and Amahl Arulanandam on ‘cello; magic from the Universite de Montreal care of Myriam Bleau’s Soft Revolvers and Patrick Saint-Denis’ City?; shoutout to McGill’s own Eliot Britton for Metatron and to McGill opera for A Midsummer Night’s Dream…and, again to the orchestra and Jane Archibald for Strauss’s Four Last Songs.