Concert review: Emotional fervour from Cecilia String Quartet and Georgy Tchaidze at Toronto Summer Music

The Cecilia String Quartet performed for Toronto Summer Music at Walter Hall on Wednesday night (Liz Parker photo).

Chamber music concerts are so often seen as staid, serious events. But Wednesday night’s Toronto Summer Music performance by Canada’s Cecilia String Quartet and pianist Georgy Tchaidze at Walter Hall was pure excitement.

Tomorrow: The art song is about conveying the text, says tenor Colin Ainsworth

Tenor Colin Ainsworth sings with the Nash Ensemble at Koerner Hall on Thursday.

Colin Ainsworth, whose lyric tenor is one of the golden voices among the younger generation of great Toronto singers, is slipping away from Opera Atelier’s summer production of Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Armide, which runs until Aug. 23 at Glimmerglass Opera in upstate New York, to perform with England’s Nash Ensemble at Koerner Hall on Thursday night.

Comment: It’s time to line our arts patrons up on stage before the music starts

How much are we prepared to pay for art music?

It has cost the Philadelphia Orchestra $10 million (U.S.) to restructure itself over a period of 14 months. The musicians have taken a pay cut, and Kimmel Center managers traded reduced rent for the storied symphony for the virtual disappearance of classical programming from its music season.