Toronto – Last Wednesday and Thursday the Toronto Symphony Orchestra hosted Xian Zhang, the Associate Conductor for the New York Philharmonic. She conducted two main efforts. The first was Rachmaninov’s piano concerto No. 2 featuring the young pianist Natasha Paremski. The second effort was a collection of pieces composed by Leonard Bernstein: Three Dance Episodes from On The Town, followed by Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. Altogether it was a great show. Miss Zhang is a very energetic and vibrant conductor.
If not for tsoundcheck, I’m afraid the symphony would be sorely lacking in 20-something young things sporting their jeans, blazers, and cool hipster glasses.
So I’m a sucker for cheap live music. And it just doesn’t get much cheaper than the Toronto Symphony’s Tsoundcheck program. Tsoundcheck is an organization dedicated to promoting classical music to the “youth” of the city. In symphonic terms, a “youth” is anyone under the age of 30. Thanks to this program, said youth can make a night of seeing some fantastic live classical music for a very reasonable entrance fee of $12. If not for tsoundcheck, I’m afraid the symphony would be sorely lacking in 20-something young things sporting their jeans, blazers, and cool hipster glasses.
Through tsoundcheck, you can buy 2 (sometimes 4) tickets for a show. It’s important to know that your date doesn’t have to be under 30, but you do. And yes, they do card you. If you’re in your early 30’s, the TSO understands that you have more money than the 20-something riff raff, but aren’t yet willing to pay full-price. This is where tsoundcheckplus [sic] comes in. It’s not quite as flexible, but you can buy tickets in packs. Best of all, unlike other similar programs, just because you’re paying a pittance for a ticket doesn’t mean you’re relegated to sit in the balcony with the unwashed masses. I’ve been 5th row centre with $12 tickets before. You simply couldn’t wipe the grin off my face knowning what my white-haired brethren to the left and right of me were paying for their seats.
Rachmaninov’s piano concerto #2 was excellent. Young (and may add, nubile?) pianist Natasha Paremski really lost herself in her music; which is always great to see. Rachmaninov’s pieces are known for their dynamics and expressiveness. Sadly I couldn’t feel the full force of Natasha’s playing because I was sitting behind the symphony in the choir section for this show. This was interesting as it was the first time I was at a classical show and looking directly at the conductor instead of inspecting their back. But the piano was on the other side of the symphony and less prominent from this vantage.
The conductor, Xian Zhang is one classy lady. One of the criticisms of the classical music scene is that it can be, well, rigid, stuffy, and unable to contemporarize. Classical music doesn’t have to be this inaccessible; and programs like tsoundcheck have gone a long way to introduce the youth to classical music, and teach the older generation that music doesn’t have to be enjoyed the way their parents enjoyed it. True, the nature of hearing a live un-amplified symphony requires silence (concert douchebags need not apply!), but that doesn’t mean you can’t let some exuberation spill out in between pieces. At the end of every piece, Xian would playfully point out the musicians who did a great job and make them stand up during applause. You stand up, yes you, the timpani player (then she’d pretend to play the timpani), yes you, stand up, you did a good job. It’s gestures like these that remind me that classical music doesn’t have to be treated with that stoic “stiff upper lip” attitude that tends to prevail.
[Leonard Bernstein’s] music evokes a simpler time in the 50’s when we built things really really quickly. During most of the West Side Story stuff, I had the distinct urge to build a house.
Rachmanivov was followed by some modern classical music scored for the musical theatre. I have to admit that I often shy away from the term “modern classical” music. Not because it’s an oxymoron, but rather because “modern classical” is a genre I just can’t seem to get. The traditional stuff I love: Baroque (Bach), Classical (Mozart), Romantic (Rachmaninov), but the modern stuff is inaccessible to me in a way that I imagine bepop is to people who hate jazz anyway. Thankfully, Leonard Bernstein’s stuff is not that type of modern classical, but more theatrical pop-classical. It’s playful, inventive, and easy to listen to. Much of it reminds me of the Bugs Bunny comics when they were building things like highways and sky-scrapers in fast motion. This music evokes a simpler time in the 50’s when we built things really really quickly. During most of the West Side Story stuff, I had the distinct urge to build a house.
The Toronto Symphony’s season ends this June. Until then, you can catch music from Beethoven, Mahler, Brahms, not to mention The Godfather, Rocky, and Superman (TSO Goes to the Movies!).