Articles for category: Reviews

June 7, 2026

Editorial Team

CMIM Violin Grand Final 2026: Technical Security and Everything Else

The final revealed different musical priorities from three violinists at different stages The grand final of the Concours Musical International de Montréal on June 4th took place at the Maison symphonique with invited conductor Sascha Goetzel leading the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. Three violinists competed in the final round, each having navigated a rigorous selection process from an initial pool of 250 applicants. The competition itself had already produced surprises. Bade Dastan, the Turkish-Belgian finalist, had delivered what many heard as the most convincing Mozart performance during the semi-finals the night before, yet she did not advance to the grand

April 6, 2026

Editorial Team

A Serious Schubert Evening with Goerne in Paris

Grande salle Pierre Boulez, 27 March 2026 This Schubertian triptych closed under the sign of the unexpected. The three concerts programmed at the Philharmonie de Paris this March were to bring together Matthias Goerne and Daniil Trifonov, a pairing announced as one of the highlights of the season. But Trifonov, forced to withdraw for health reasons, left the piano bench vacant for the entire cycle. The Philharmonie kept all three evenings on the calendar, entrusting the accompaniment to Martin Helmchen, a long-standing artistic partner of the German baritone. A substitution that, from the first night, ceased to feel like one.

December 26, 2025

Editorial Team

Quiet Mastery: Sergei Babayan at the 2025 Montréal Bach Festival

Sergei Babayan walked to the piano Thursday evening and played Bach’s Aria from the Goldberg Variations. Extraordinarily slow. Almost suspended in time. Then thirty-five more pieces unfolded across two hours. At the end, as an encore, he played the Aria again—the same notes, but heard entirely differently because of what had come between. The opening Aria moved at a pace that felt almost expressionistic. Babayan wasn’t interested in Bach’s proportions or historical accuracy. He was interested in what happens when you let a single line breathe without rushing. Each note arrived as if from a distance. The touch was light,

December 7, 2025

Editorial Team

When Two Musical Worlds Clash and Create Something New

There’s a particular kind of magic that happens when a jazz musician finally understands that Bach was improvising all along. On Tuesday evening, December 02 2025, at Studio TD, pianist Paul Lay and his trio—Clemens van der Feen on double bass and Donald Kontomanou on drums—didn’t just perform Bach through a jazz lens. They made the case that these are actually the same thing. The Festival International Bach Montréal‘s decision to program a jazz trio might have seemed unconventional, yet it paid off. By trusting that Bach’s music could sustain multiple approaches, the festival acknowledged something essential: that tradition remains

November 30, 2025

Editorial Team

Orliński Returns to Montreal: Redefining the Countertenor

There was an unmistakable sense of anticipation in Salle Pierre-Mercure on Monday evening as Jakub Józef Orliński took the stage alongside pianist Michał Biel at the early dates of the Festival International Bach Montreal 2025. Seven years had passed since the Polish countertenor’s first Montreal appearance in 2018—a performance that had left audiences mesmerized at the Church of Andrew and St. Paul. Yet the artist returning to us this November was not simply repeating past glories. Instead, Orliński presented something more ambitious: a recital designed to dismantle, once and for all, the narrow expectations placed on the countertenor voice. The

December 28, 2024

Editorial Team

Festival Bach Montréal 2024: Highlights, Surprises, and Reflections

When the Festival Bach Montréal 2024 concluded this December, it left behind a tapestry of sounds and experiences as intricately woven as the composer’s most elaborate fugues. For nearly a month, the city— and indeed beyond stretching to Québec and Ottawa—reverberated with the legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach, reimagined through a rich program that mixed time-honored traditions with contemporary approaches. This year’s edition offered a remarkable journey that began with open-armed accessibility and culminated in moments of shimmering grandeur. The festival, which has become a touchstone for Bach aficionados in North America since its modest six-day inception in 2005, has