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MAY 20122

FOUNDING EDITORSWah Keung Chan, Philip AnsonLa Scena Musicale VOL. 17-8MAY 2012PUBLISHERLa Scne MusicaleEDITOR-IN-CHIEFWah Keung ChanBOARD OF DIRECTORSWah Keung Chan (prs.), Iwan Edwards, Holly Higgins-Jonas, Sandro Scola, CN ADVISORY COMMITTEEGilles Cloutier, Pierre Corriveau,Maurice Forget, C.M., Ad. E, DavidFranklin, Ad. E, Margaret Lefebvre,Stephen Lloyd, Constance V. Pathy,C.Q., E. Nol Spinelli, C.M., BernardStotland, FCA

MANAGING EDITORSLaura Bates, Crystal ChanJAZZ EDITORMarc ChnardPROOFREADERAnnie Prothin, Jef WynsARTISTIC DIRECTORAdam NorrisGRAPHICSRebecca Anne Clark Production: graf@lascena.orgCOVER PHOTOAlain LefortOFFICE MANAGERJulie BerardinoSUBSCRIPTIONS & DISTRIBUTIONIsaline CartierREGIONAL CALENDAREric Legault, Etienne Michel

WEBSITENormand Vandray, Michael Vincent BOOKKEEPERSKamal Ait Mouhoub, Mourad Ben Achour ADVERTISINGSmail Berraoui, Marc Chnard,Morgan Gregory / ads.scena.orgCONTRIBUTORSPatricia Abbott, Lorena JimnezAlonso, Ren Franois Auclair,Rene Banville, Francine Blanger,Ren Bricault, Frdric Cardin, ricChampagne, Marie-Astrid Colin,Ellwood Epps, Flix-Antoine Hamel,Alexandre Lazarids, Annie Landre-ville, Alain Londes, Tiana Malone,Philippe Michaud, EmmanuellePiedboeuf, Paul E. Robinson,

Joseph K. So, Jacqueline Vanasse,TRANSLATORSJohn Delva, Elisabeth Gillies, Karine PoznanskiVOLUNTEERSWah Wing Chan, Marie-AstridColin, Lilian I. Liganor, Annie Prothin, Michel ZambranoADDRESSES5409, rue Waverly, Montreal(Quebec) Canada H2T 2X8Tel. : (514) 948-2520 Fax: (514) 274-9456info@lascena.org / www.scena.org Ver: 2012-4-30 La Scne MusicaleSUBSCRIPTIONSSurface mail subscriptions (Canada) cost $42/ yr (taxes included) to cover postage and

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LA SCENA MUSICALE, published 10 times peryear, is dedicated to the promotion of classicaland jazz music. Each edition contains articlesand reviews as well as calendars. LSM is publi-shed by La Scne Musicale, a non-profit organi-zation. La Scena Musicale is the Italiantranslation of The Music Scene. All rights reser-ved. No part of this publication may be repro -duced without the written permission of LSM.

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PHOTO Alain Lefort

CONTENTS MAY 2012

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8 NOTES News in brief10 Spotlight on Faust11 The Montreal International

Music Competition12 40 years for the St. Lawrence

Choir 13 Concerto Della Donna

Northern Exposure14 A 14th opera for Chants Libres15 REVIEWS20 Guide to international festivals24 JAZZ SECTION Ellwood Epps27 REGIONAL CALENDAR29 CONCERT PREVIEWS36 DISCOVERY CD

Ravels Daphnis and Chlo

SOUNDSlike

SPRING

denisBROTT

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SOUNDS like SPRING

4 MAY 2012

denisBROTT

at the MONTREAL CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL

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ON THE COVER

MAY 2012

by WAH KEUNG CHAN

CELEBRATED CELLIST DENIS BROTT isriding high. Tourism Quebec recently awardedhis 17-year-old Montreal Chamber Music Festivala grand prize in the medium budget category, inpart thanks to a partnership with American Pub-lic Radio, which broadcasts the festivals concerts to over 6 millionlisteners. For Brott, the secret to his success is in the art of col-laboration that is at the heart of chamber music.

From concerts at the chalet up on top of Mount Royal to down-town at the St. James United Church and now to the beautiful St.Georges Church, the festival has been about creating music in his-torical venues that add to the atmosphere of the musical experi-ence. People were initially skeptical about the sound, but wemade it good with our stage setup, which costs about $30,000 ayear, he explained.

The idea behind the festival was to create a mini Marlboro Fes-tival, said Brott, where I played for Casals, Serkin and Schneider.I want to match young Canadian musicians with seasoned veterans.

MUSIC BACKGROUNDDENIS BROTT WAS BORN into a family of musicians. His fa-ther was the conductor and composer Alexander Brott, founderof the McGill Chamber Orchestra, and his mother was the cellistLotte Brott, who ran the orchestra. Music was the most importantthing in the household. His older brother Boris was also a musi-cal prodigy.

Growing up, Brott took on the cello and devoted himself to

music as a way to get attention from his parents. After elementaryschool, he was home-schooled, studying with various tutors. Helooked forward to summer camp at Aspen, from age 12, as he en-joyed playing with other musicians.

After finishing high school, at 16, Brott studied for a year in Eu-rope before doing his bachelors with Janos Starker at IndianaUniversity, which proved to be a horrible experience.

It was his teacher, the famous Russian cellist Gregor Piatigorskyat the University of Southern California, who made Brott look atbeing a musician as a calling. He taught me that it encompasseslife experiences and how its a wordless language. Music beginswhere words end, said Brott.

As parents, Brott and his wife, Julie, made sure their threedaughters and their son studied music until age 12, at which pointthey were free to stop, and all four did. Im saddened we didnt in-sist they retain some music even as amateurs, since there is nogreater joy than playing an instrument. Its another language andits another emotional outlet, said Brott. Ironically, my daughtersits her four-month-old in my practice room and she is googly-eyed.

CAREERBROTTS CAREER TOOK OFF with his second-prize win at the1973 Munich International Cello Competition. In 1980, Brottjoined the acclaimed Orford String Quartet, replacing MarcelSaint-Cyr for an eight-year period that included the award-win-ing recordings of Beethovens complete string quartets. That wasone of my highlights, said Brott.

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... [being a musician] encom-passes life experiences [...] its awordless language. Music beginswhere words end. - BROTT

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DENIS BROTT

6 MAY 2012

CANADA COUNCIL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT BANKIN THE EARLY 1980S, Brott found that his career activities ne-cessitated a better instrument, and he came up with the idea of theCanadian Council Musical Instrument Bank. When I was in Los An-geles, I met up with Richard D. Colburn, a businessman and amateurmusician. I had previously known his daughter as a fellow student atAspen. He was an instrument collector and lent out his instruments topromising musicians, including myself, said Brott. I thought thereshould be something like this in Canada, but that would be open to allmusicians. I wrote to over 30 chief executives in Canada in the early1980s, and got polite rejections, except from William Turner of Con-solidated Bathurst. I met him in Montreal on a Saturday morning in1983, and on top of his turntable was a Beethoven LP, so I had a goodfeeling.

He sat on the board of the Royal Bank and was passionate aboutmusic, said Brott. I told him about my idea of raising funds and get-ting the Canada Council to administer the loan. Within two days,Turner raised $250,000 through his connections with CEOs of TD,Royal Bank, Imperial Oil and Bombardier.

Brott and Turner then met with Gilles Lefebvre, who was associatedirector of the Canada Council, to set up the administration of the bank,which was officially launched in 1985. In recognition of his own efforts,the first instrument purchased by the bank, a 1706 David Tecchler cellothat had previously belonged to the first cellist of the Philadelphia Or-chestra, was loaned to Brott for the duration of his career. To date, theInstrument Bank has 15 instruments, which are on loan to promisingCanadian musicians through an intense blind competition every threeyears. The next competition takes place this September.

Brott also remembers Colburn fondly for his funding of the ColburnSchool in Los Angeles, which has the reputation of being the Juilliardof California. Its a great model because students get free tuition andlive in dormitories on site, and the school is next door to Disney Hall,where music is made, said Brott. We should have had the same thingin Montreal, with the original design of the Conservatory next to thenew Maison symphonique. It was a lost opportunity.

2012 MONTREAL CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVALThe 2012 edition of the Montreal ChamberMusic Festival runs from May 10 to June 2.Opening the festival is soprano IsabelBayrakdarian in recital, on May 10 andagain on May 12, in a program from heralbum Tango Notturno. American cellistColin Carr takes on the Six Suites for SoloCello by Bach over two nights, May 16 and17. On the third week, the Paci!ca Quartetpresents the entire set of the ShostakovichString Quartets over four nights, May 22-25.The festival also features the Canadian pre-miere of the James Ehnes Quartet in twoprograms: Ravel on May 27 and Bartk onMay 28.

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ON THE COVER

MAY 2012

FESTIVAL FEVERMEANWHILE, THINGS HAVE BEEN LOOKING UP atthe Montreal Chamber Music Festival. In the last few years, thefestival has moved out of the Brotts home to a permanent office,and taken on a season manager in Davis Joachim. Their annualGala continues to be a greatfundraiser, netting $150,000 lastyear in combined ticket sales andsilent auction items.

Part of this success is due toBrotts ability to entice the businessworld to lend its support. Chambermusic is about team work, and thecorporate world can relate to ourpursuit of excellence in music mak-ing, he claims. The festival is anexample for corporations seeking tomatch young talent with seasonedprofessionals. Weve also been suc-cessful in getting corporations tocommit to three-year terms.

Looking ahead, Brott is excitedabout some new ideas. This yearsfestival includes a masterclass byColin Carr, on May 15, and Brott ex-pects to make this a regular event.He would like to expand his concert

series to New York. Next years festival will open with an exchangewith the Boston Chamber Music Society, and he hopes to createmore exchanges with major music schools in Canada and the US.He would like to bring the idea of concerts in large private homesto Montreal. A summer resident of Saint-Sauveur, he plans tobring chamber music to that resort area after the regular Saint-Sauveur Arts Festival.

Talk of expanding the Festivalyear round is now tempered, as Brottdoesnt want to be in competitionwith other groups. In fact, hes float-ing the idea of creating a chambermusic alliance, similarly to the con-temporary music alliance Le Vivier,he has commissioned a study on howgroups can work together.

He is most excited when he talksabout bringing to Canada the idea ofthe New York String Orchestra Semi-nar, a 10-day program that uniteshigh school and university studentstogether in late December. At the endof the 10-day practice sessions, thereis a concert, said Brott. Youll hearwhat great playing is about.

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THIS SEASON, the Montreal Chamber Music Festival makes its move to St. Georges Church. PHOTO Jean Gagnon

CHAMBER MUSIC... AND ALL THAT JAZZ!Also on at the MCMF, the TD Jazz Series caters to classicalmusic lovers wanting to put a swing in their step. Program-med with a chamber music sensibilty in mind, the four-concertseries features performers including pianist Eldar Djangirovstrio in their Montreal debut on May 11. For a taste of New Or-leans, be sure to check out the venerable Preservation HallJazz Band on May 18.

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