Looking for more to read, watch, and learn about early music, art, news, and more? Check out these links.
Once a month, we will gather the top 10 links from the Bonus Content section in our weekly newsletter for Premium subscribers, Tafel Notes. Here are the favourite articles and videos from February.
- WATCH Tafelmusik oboist Marco Cera and his clones are back at it again—this time they built their own theatre! Marco performs Purcell’s Prelude to Act 5 of The Fairy Queen, arranged for baroque oboes and mandolins. (Want a little more of The Fairy Queen? Listen to Tafelmusik’s album Purcell: Aryes for the Theatre here)
- WATCH Find your next weekend binge with this list of 10 movies and TV series themed around classical music that you can find on Netflix or on Amazon Prime, plus links to their soundtracks on Spotify. (Alternative Classical)
- READ A Van Gogh painting that’s been unseen for more than 130 years is now on view. (BBC)
- WATCH Oscar Peterson is one of Canada’s most honoured musicians and widely regarded as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time. Watch Historica Canada’s latest Heritage Minute, recounting the circumstances in which Peterson was raised and follows his rise to fame.
- WATCH The King's Singers and countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński collaborated on a brand new arrangement of Henry Purcell's aria 'Music for a while'.
- READ Here's a crash course on the sackbut, ancestor of the modern trombone, with a leading Canadian sackbut player, Maximilien Brisson. (CBC)
- WATCH Travel back to 1995 with this recreation of one of the oldest love stories: Dido and Aeneas. Set on a sound stage in Toronto, Canada, and filmed without the constraints of a proscenium stage, this production, directed by Mark Morris and Barbara Willis Sweete, stars Mark Morris Dance Group and Tafelmusik. An account is required to watch (Stage Access)
- READ Who was 19th-century soprano Jenny Lind? Worshipped by Mendelssohn and praised by Queen Victoria, Jenny Lind enjoyed unrivalled popularity for a singer. Trace the remarkable story of the ‘Swedish Nightingale’ here. (BBC Music Magazine)
- READ The late Christopher Plummer was a classical pianist, and played Rachmaninov between scenes of The Sound of Music.
- LISTEN Explore the life and music of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, with musical offerings by Tafelmusik. (Performance Today)
Image: Woman Reading a Letter, Johannes Vermeer, c. 1663 courtesy of The Rijksmuseum.