The final ‘Chorus mysticus’ is one of the most powerful passages in his entire oeuvre, if not in the whole history of music – Henry-Louis de La Grange
It is easy to be overwhelmed by Mahler’s Eighth Symphony. Few works require such vast resources – hundreds of singers and instrumentalists. Fewer still rise to such towering [...]

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I’ve been visiting the Stratford and Shaw Festivals for as long as I can remember. Growing up in Toronto, I learned early that Stratford was home to one of the greatest theatre companies in the English-speaking world. The Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake came a little later, but it too quickly became famous for the quality [...]

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It has been years since I visited Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. This year, with some encouragement from friends, Marita and I decided it was time to go back. We traveled from the Eastern Townships of Quebec – where we can usually be found at this time of year – taking a [...]

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