Category Archives: Concert

“From The Beatles, With Love”; an HPO treat Reply

by • Concert, Orchestra

Review by Danny Gaisin

Over two dozen of the Fab Four’s standards; the Hamilton Philharmonic and Hamilton Jazz great Darcy Hepner at the podium; a musical trifecta. Faultlessly presented with stage rear overhead projections from a certain Beatles cartoon that incorporated the artwork of Peter Blake and Jann Haworth; the evening was an almost psychedelic experience. This was an evocative evening recalling songs we danced to; identified with ; and sang the lyrics to 8-tracks or cassettes or top-twenty radio stations. Last night, I and a filled Great Hall audience turned a concert into a 1500 person singalong.

Tributing the output of the FAB 4;   Note the projection of Hamilton from the mountain!

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“Compose Yourself” an HPO concert 1.0 event Reply

by • Concert, Orchestra

Review by Danny Gaisin

 ‘A long time ago in a Province far away’, I and many other classically-minded kids would religiously tune in to CBS on Saturday for Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Young People’s Concerts’. It was an opportunity to learn more of the intricacies involved with classical music, without feeling that the pedagogue was patronizing or condescending. It also gave us the occasional trivia that could be impressively incorporated into dating conversations!
Conductor Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser is a master at performances before young audiences. Like Bernstein, he never talks down to his audiences, and has an innate ability to integrate with the audience on an educational journey through classical music/orchestras utilizing humor and colloquial terms.

The maestro teaching us how to be a conductor!

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Robbie Burns concert; entertaining & fun Reply

by • Concert

Review by Judith Caldwell
Among the many celebrations of Scottish poet Robbie Burns Hammer Baroque offered a program of Caledonia Connections, which did not involve haggis, although there was Scottish Ale at intermission. Music was supplied by soprano, Meredith Hall, Julia Seager Scott’s harp, cellist Laura Jones and Alison Melville playing flute and recorder. These ladies are all excellent musicians with impressive resumés, and they played a collection of very interesting instruments. Seager Scott had her triple string Baroque harp which was probably developed around the 1640’s. Her 34 string clarsach (or Scottish harp) was probably in use around the year 1000 and it looks exactly like the one on the Guinness logo.

The musicians who honored ROBBIE BURNS

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5 @ 1st welcomes a growth in attendance Reply

by • Concert

Review by Judith Caldwell

The word is definitely out about the standard of music offered at the Five at the First series of concerts, the organizers at the opening concert of the 2019 season had the nice problem of needing to bring in extra chairs for the over capacity audience for String Extravaganza VIII. The concert began with 14 year old Emad Zolfaghari, viola and pianist Emily Rho, playing Franz Schubert’s Sonata for Arpeggione & Piano in A minor – Allegro moderato. Young performers often appear nervous performing a difficult passage, not so Zolfaghari, he looked totally lost in the music * More…

“The Hockey Sweater ”; (or Go HABS go!) Reply

by • Concert, Orchestra

Review by Danny Gaisin
What is probably the last of our O.A.R. covered events for 2018 certainly was a cherry-topping one. The Hamilton Philharmonic’s presentation of Roch Carrier’s story about a Quebec kid forced to wear a Maple Leaf’s sweater was narrated by the writer himself; and offered with composer Abigail Richardson-Schulte’s interpretive music as back-drop is about as perfect an evening as this writer could even imagine. Fortunately, it was professionally recorded! It was also the first opportunity for the audience to see the Trillium®-subsidized projection screens so that Cohen’s caricature imagery could be easily projected and viewed. *

Roch Carrier & HPO’s Gemma New doing “The Hockey Sweater”

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Hammer Baroque, continues offering the best of an era Reply

by • Concert

Review by Judith Caldwell

Tenor Bud Roach sang a short concert of largely English airs by Henry Lawes and his contemporaries, with three Italian airs from the same period included for good measure. Roach accompanied himself on the 14 string Theobro, a large bass lute used in the 16th century which Roach joked about needing a wide angled lens to photograph and could, on occasion, be 14 strings of chaos. Not so today when played by a master musician. The sizeable audience were clearly anticipating a program of quality music and that is what was offered. The same program was recently performed by Roach in New York, where it was well received.

Tenor Bud Roach of Hammer Baroque

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