Salish Sea Early Music Festival
Telemann: Paris Quartets

When & Where Febuary 27 at 7:00pm | St. Mary's Kerrisdale, 2490 West. 37th, Vancouver BC

David Greenberg Baroque violin Susie Napper viola da gamba Elisabeth Wright harpsichord Jeffrey Cohan Baroque flute

Reviewer Elizabeth Paterson

A small but dedicated audience enjoyed a dazzling performance on a snowy evening, dazzling but never ostentatious. This was top-class music played by musicians of the first water. The four musicians, David Greenberg (baroque violin), Susie Napper (viola da gamba), Elizabeth Wright (harpsichord) and Jeffrey Cohan (baroque flute), have played together for many years and it showed in the close conversation and camaraderie amongst the players. Quick responses and shared purpose brought out the various textures while never losing sight of the whole picture Virtuosity was a given. Full review


Chor Leoni and La Nef
The Return Voyage

When & Where February 16 at 7:30pm, February 17 at 2 pm & 5 pm | St. Andrew's Wesley United Church

Conductor Chor Leoni Erick Lichte La Nef led by Sean Dagher

Reviewer Elizabeth Paterson

Chor Leoni and La Nef have created a splendid programme in The Return Voyage,
a programme of sea songs and shanties. Like all work songs, sea shanties
are immediately engaging with their strong rhythms, repetitive lines and choruses. Sung with verve and pizzaz as they were on Friday evening they are vitalizing, almost asking the audience to actually `Haul on the Bowline' or pull on the capstan bars to heave up the anchor. Luckily, there are several chances to belt out the choruses.
Full review

 

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Tea & Trumpets Series: European Postcard

When & Where Thursday, February 1, 2024 at 2pm | Orpheum Theatre

Conductor David Bui Host Christopher Gaze

Programme Dukas' La Peri: Fanfare, Rossini's Italian in Algiers: Overture, Mendelssohn's Fingal’s Cave: Hebrides Overture, Mozart's Three German Dances, Bizet's Carmen: Suite No. 2 -Marche des Contrabandiers, Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 (allegro con brio), Haydn's Cello Concerto #2, Sibelius' Finlandia.

Reviewer John Jane

It’s appropriately rousing to begin an afternoon concert with a fanfare, especially one as big, bold and brassy as Paul Dukas' Fanfare for La Peri. Dukas was apparently, one the most self-critical composers and even went so far as to destroy much of his work before he died. Full review

 

 

Salish Sea Early Music Festival
Three Centuries

When & Where January 26 at 7:00pm | St. Mary's Kerrisdale, 2490 West. 37th, Vancouver BC

Michael Freimuth Renaissance guitar and theorbo Jeffrey Cohan Renaissance and Baroque flutes

Reviewer Elizabeth Paterson

A sign of spring in Vancouver, besides the teaming rain, is the opening of the Salish Sea Early Music Festival For the last decade they have presented music from the Renaissance to the Baroque on period instruments and specialists on those instruments from across Europe and North America. Full review


Chor Leoni
Christmas with Chor Leoni

When & Where December 15 at 7:30pm, December 16 at 11 am, 2 pm & 5 pm , December 18 at 5pm and 8 pm| St. Andrew's Wesley United Church

Conductor Erick Lichte

Reviewer Elizabeth Paterson

Chor Leoni's Christmas program provided a welcome hour of calm in a hectic season. Performing at St. Andrew's Wesley, the choir processed up the side aisles and settled into the aisles and transepts for their opening number. A constant, humming drone grounded the melodies, filling the church and surrounding the audience with heavenly sound. Erick Lichte's "To Hear the Angels Sing" proposes new ways of listening to familiar carols. A boisterous, shanty-like version of "I Saw Three Ships" followed in lively contrast. Ed. Henderson's arrangement is full of jollity with jaunty, glinting breakers of song. Celtic notes; downward falling passages ring the changes. Full review


VSO: Tea & Trumpets Concert Series
A Shakespearian Romp

When & Where November 16, 2023 at 2pm | Orpheum Theatre

Conductor David Bui Host Christopher Gaze

PROGRAM Bernstein's West Side Story: Overture; Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream - Nocturne; Midsummer Night's Dream - Intermezzo & Scherzo; Sibelius' The Tempest: Prelude; Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture

Reviewer John Jane

In a concert that offers up music connected to Shakespeare’s works, it’s perhaps fitting that it would start with Leonard Bernstein's Overture from West Side Story. Anyone who has seen either film version or a stage production of West Side Story has had no problem identifying it as being based on William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. In West Side Story, Romeo and Juliet are transposed from Italy in the sixteenth century to become Tony and Maria in New York City’s upper west side. Full review

 

 


VSO: Tea & Trumpets Concert Series

Orchestral Dances

When & Where September 21, 2023 at 2pm | Orpheum Theatre

Conductor Andrew Crust Host Christopher Gaze

PROGRAM Ginastera's Estancia: Four Dances: The Land Workers, Falla's El Amor Brujo: Ritual Fire Dance, Turina's La Oracion del Torero, Piazzolla's Milonga del Angel, Schifrin's Tango del Atadecer, Villa-Labos's Bachianas Brasileiras, Arturo Márquez's Danzon No. 2, Moncayo's Huapango for Orchestra, Moncayo's Huapango for Orchestra & Ginastera's Estancia: Four Dances IV. Malambo - Final Dance

Reviewer John Jane

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra opened a new season of their immensely popular Tea & Trumpets concert series with a new series sponsor Parc Retirement Living TM. The first concert’s central theme features music from South America, Mexico and Spain. Full review

 


Movie Nights with the VSO

West Side Story™ Film with Orchestra

When & Where April 22, 2023 at 7pm & April 23, 2023 & 2pm | Orpheum Theatre

Conductor Andrew Crust

Reviewer John Jane

Maestro Andrew Crust leads the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in a heart-pounding interpretation of Leonard Bernstein’s Stravinsky-inspired score that has long been considered a “popular masterpiece.” The orchestra fittingly begin the concert with Overture, a medley of the soundtrack’s musical highlights: Tonight, Maria, Mambo and The Rumble. Full review