When I started posting about the Bach Walk, I thought it might be a one-time thing.
Well, here we are, four years later, and it's an annual tradition now, and one I look forward to every spring.
This year, the locations were quite handy to me, being along the Danforth, literally about a half-hour walk from my home. If you know the area, you may have observed that there are several churches between Broadview and Pape, and these three were literally across the street from each other.
So, on a beautiful, clear (though cold) March 23, I got to the first location, Eastminster United, a place where I've enjoyed many classical music concerts.
The sanctuary here is spacious, and has very good acoustics, which I'm sure is what draws many musicians to it.
I've learned that a balcony seat here gives the best view, and the best sound!
I always get a good picture of the organ at every location, and this is Eastminster's Moeller organ. I couldn't find out its exact age, but it was dedicated in the 1950s. It's a more modest instrument than some I've seen, but it still produced a good sound.
The organist was Stefani Bedin, who had performed at a previous Bach Walk in the Kingsway area. She herself presented a program of "Bach the borrower (Organ Concerto after Vivaldi), Bach the teacher (chorale from the Orgelbuechlein), and Bach the master composer (Prelude and Fugue in C)"
Next, it was across the street to the simply-named Danforth Church.
Here, we were treated to some instrumental and vocal music, from various Cantatas and Oratorios.
This is a quite small space, and many chairs had to be brought in to accommodate the crowd, somewhere between 150 and 200 people by this time.
In this picture, you can see the players performing a piece from the Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn cantata.
At left is Daniel Bickle, another frequent performer at the Bach Walks. He is usually an organ soloist, but here is playing an electronic "harpsichord."
The young cellist, Julia Kim, whom you may be able to make out seated about centre, dazzled the crowd with a rendition of the prelude from Bach's Cello Suite No. 6 later on.
The final stop was St. Barnabas Anglican Church, just a short walk along the Danforth.
It's a lovely space inside, with a large nave, and lots of organ pipes. This is a view of the choir and altar.
There is also lots of beautiful stained glass here, mostly from the 1920s.
This enormous window at the narthex, for instance, depicts the ascencion of Jesus Christ, with the Apostles below and angels above.
And, naturally, I got a couple of shots of the (larger) organ here. It's a 1938 Casavant Freres instrument, and certainly produced a glorious sound.
Konrad Harley was the organist here, and expertly played a chorale, two preludes and fugues, and a Toccata and Fugue in D minor (no, not the "Phantom of the Opera" one - the other one!)
Then as usual, it was to the narthex for birthday cake and punch. One of the things I also enjoy about the Bach Walks is talking to other attendees, some of whom have been, like me, going to these since the beginning, and some for whom it's the first time. Whatever their experience, they always come away enthusiastic and eager for more - just like me!
I'm not a trained classical musician, but listening closely, especially to these fugues, I'm getting better at hearing how the opening themes repeat in different intervals, and even in inversions, and it's a lesson in composition and invention every time. My appreciation for this master musician grows with every hearing.
I look forward to the next year's celebration of Bach's birthday more and more each time.
And so, it was on to the Distillery District for this year's edition of TO Light Fest. As before, there were some amazing pieces, and some familiar ones, too!
Unfortunately, this year, there were no maps given out with the names of the pieces; there were boards at each site with the title, artist and description, but I didn't photograph any of them, thinking I'd be able to get a map. I even e-mailed the organizers afterwards to see if there was a way I could get the titles, but never heard back. So, these pictures and videos will have to be shown with only my descriptions. I don't think it'll detract any from their beauty and inventiveness, though!
So, let's get to it. Pictures first...
This is a short tunnel of lighted tubes that changed colours as you walked up a shallow ramp and through it, in either direction:
Here was a cavern-like construction, again with ever-changing colours inside and out:
As people went inside and through the piece, the colours would change, according to their movements!
Here's a fun reminder of last year's show, the piece called Perspective, though it was mounted differently this year, for a slightly different...um...perspective.
This gigantic sculpture of a polar bear was in the main square of the Distillery District.
Different texts were being projected on to it, I believe ruminating on natural and indigenous aspects of Canada.
This "floating" sculpture of a grandmotherly face was at once comforting and somewhat unsettling...
This was pretty cool - a four-paneled screen, with a camera at each corner, reflecting the viewer back on themselves. You could be playful and demonstrative, or simply get a very unique selfie, as I did.
And, on to the videos...
Here's another fun piece from last year, Electric Dandelions.
It was moved to the west entrance/streetcar loop this time:
This was an interactive one; a person could step into this "cage," and the operator would spin the lighted tubes around as they stood inside it. I didn't try it myself (there was a lineup), but it must have been fun (and maybe a little disorienting?) in there!
Another interactive piece; there were two rods hanging down from either end of it, and people could tug on them to get a wave effect, as the colours changed and shifted:
This one was cool too, giving a kind of "mirrorball" effect, with lights reflecting on the walls on either side, as I tried to capture with my camera:
More fun for kids, as they trotted through this tunnel while the lights changed colour constantly.
You can see some of the reflections from the previous piece on the walls at right!
This was just gorgeous, a fascinating piece made from a twisted material, and featuring shifting colours at different areas. Almost hypnotic.
This was also spectacular, a brilliant rainbow of lit tubes, with colours shifting and flowing:
Here was another piece that many people wanted to pose with, a kind of "pulsing" heart-shaped piece, which featured recordings of Michael Buble singing (hence the "MB" at right).
This is my own composition, of several pieces through this square frame; you can see the "tunnel" that is in the first picture above, the "rainbow" sculpture, and a bit of the tubal one that is shown in the next video:
And, finally, the piece that you got a glimpse of in the last video; a really spectacular sculpture of brilliantly bright fluorescent-type tubes that really light up the whole area.
And so it ends for another year. I was able to score a seat and hot coffee at Balzac's again, and got well-warmed up before making my way home.
It was also cold and windy this day, but it's so worth braving it to see what amazing sights artists from here, and around the world, contribute to our city.
My next post should be about the upcoming Bach Walk; I see it's on March 23, and is along the Danforth - almost in my neighbourhood!
Stay tuned!
Hello!
Apologies for not making an entry for so long. Looking back, I see that it's been since last fall that I posted anything.
So, Happy 2019, everyone, and at a couple of months into the year, let's get started with some winter attractions that come up every year in this great city.
First, the Ice Breakers exhibit along Queen's Quay...
This first piece is called Connector. It is a mass of orange tubes that collect on either side of this white disc, resembling nothing so much as a junction in a network of telephone or computer cables.
I liked how the artist left the many terminals on either side open. Do they connect to nothing? Do they connect to you, the viewer? Are you tempted to look into them, to blow into them? Why not?
The next piece is Tripix, so named because of its overall tripedal structure.
Remarkable-enough looking from the outside, stepping under the arches is where the real fun begins...
...because, under each of the triangular sections of the "legs" is a collection of angled mirrors that reflect the surroundings in startling ways, including one of yourself! Can you see me with my grey hooded coat and blue camera (almost centre of pic)?
Another section of the sculpture has a similar effect.
You can also see my right arm and blue camera, just below centre left. The fact that I was standing directly underneath that section gives an idea of the slightly disorienting nature of the piece!
I wasn't able to find the name of this next piece, but it may be Stellar Spectra. Don't quote me on that, but it kind of makes sense; from the outside, it's an interesting, though rather unremarkable, grouping of white tubes. But when you step inside...
BOOM! This stunning array (spectrum?) of coloured openings really hits you.
About 30 feet on, there is another one, and the effect inside...
...is equally spectacular. Thankfully, it was a pretty sunny day, so the colours really stood out.
What a beautiful piece of work!
The next piece is called Tweeta-Gate. The artist encourages the viewer to take as many pics as they like, and post them to social media.
The nice lady in the pic is Laura, who had just finished getting her adorable little poodle to pose under the first arch. You never know who you'll meet at these places!
On one side of each arch was a tiny bell like this one. It did give a charming little tinkle if you tapped it - which I did, of course!
The artist included as many shapes as possible in the piece, so there's Roman and Gothic arches; circular and square shapes; and "house" and "stair" shapes as well - all representing an entrance, or "gate" of some kind.
The possibilities for pictures were manifold, so I thought I'd try an "artistic" shot from outside the circular frame. The "house" shape intersects nicely here with the square opening, and matches the angle of the stair shape as well.
And, here's the view of the entire piece, looking in the opposite direction, north towards Queen's Quay.
I might have stayed longer here, but the solid ice everywhere made for pretty tricky walking!
The final piece is called Chroma Key Protest. It is a series of wooden buoys set in the harbour, with green chroma-key (yep, the colour they use in green-screen effects in the movies) rectangles on long poles.
The artist also thought they looked similar to a group of protesters holding placards and signs - hence, the second part of the title.
And, that was it for the Ice Breakers exhibit!
There was a restaurant right next to this piece called Loch and Quay (cute!), where I enjoyed a dinner of butter chicken poutine - only in Canada!
It was getting dark when I finished, so it was off to my next destination, which will be the next posting...
Nuit Blanche is certainly something I look forward to every year. I never know what I'll see or experience!
If you saw my posting last year, you'll know that I spent a fair amount of time with a friend at the Aga Khan Museum in Don Mills. I had such great memories of that experience that I thought I would make it my first stop this year.
Once again, there were shuttle buses leaving, this time from right in front of the ROM (chartered school buses - did that bring back some memories; mainly, how much smaller I was back in school!)
This year, for the first time, there were installations way out in Scarborough (and shuttle buses going there, too), but there was enough to see for a downtowner like me already - maybe next year?
There were some displays on the reflecting pools of the Aga Khan Museum, as there had been last year, but they weren't animations this time. They were still striking, though, and the more I look at these pics of them, the more fascinating they become.
I stood back a little from these first two, the better to get views of the buildings behind them.
The first one appears to be a kind of fantastical interior, with pink arched upper parts diminishing into impossibly fine points to a blue-hued mosaic floor.
The main museum building is in the background.
The next one has another pink-and-blue colour scheme, with star shapes against a "hollowed-out" hexagonal background.
The atrium of the remarkable Ismaili Centre is in the background here.
This one seems to be a combination of the last two, with one of the pointed, arched pieces from the first one resting on flat versions of the star-shapes from the second one.
A yellow and green colour combination here.
By contrast, this one uses only a simple arch shape as its motif, with a teal and reddish-orange colour scheme:
That wasn't all of those pieces on display, but I found these four the most interesting. As I said, they kind of grow on you!
As they did last year, the museum generously allowed Nuit Blanchers to explore the displays on the first floor of the museum at no cost. You could take pictures, as long as you didn't use a flash. I thought I'd take a little more time looking around this year, and there were some terrific things that I hadn't noticed last time.
What caught my eye first was this stunning fountain from Syria. I don't think it was here last year; I'm sure I would have noticed!
These would be embedded in the floors of dwellings, presumably with water coming out of the central "tower" into a cooling pool in the centre.
The marble and sandstone mosaic work is absolutely breathtaking.
This amazing pitcher was something else that really caught my eye. Again, the detail is incredible: On the bottom part are depictions of mythical characters, while around the rim is Arabic script, of an elongated type that isn't used nowadays.
I regret that I didn't get the picture I wanted, because, all around the inside of the rim was running more of that beautiful script. I thought I got it in the picture, but didn't. Maybe next time...
It's still a beauty, though, isn't it?
Also different this year was a display of three large tapestries. The nicest was this one, which was roughly three by ten feet in size.
It may be hard to tell from the picture, but you can tell it's hand-woven if you look carefully at the patterns that seem to repeat, but are actually slightly different.
In last year's posting, I mentioned some illustrated manuscripts that I found very beautiful, so this year, I got a picture of one of them.
It depicts princes Salm and Tur receiving their envoys, and is part of the legend of a mythical Iranian king who granted the whole of the country to only one of his three sons, two of whom were Salm and Tur, who then ended up with nothing. They had their brother slain in revenge, only to discover that he had a son, who had been raised by the king, and would therefore be the heir instead.
They sent these envoys to the king to beg forgiveness on their behalf, and the illustration shows them getting the bad news that none was forthcoming!
Once again, the pic didn't come out as well as I thought; the amount of detail is much better than you see. Apologies.
I may take time every year to explore this terrific place!
But there was more to see, so it was back (on a bus with a group of rowdy teenagers - wow, I'm getting old) to the Bloor and Avenue Road area.
There were all-night performances at the Church of the Redeemer by several Asian dance and music troupes, collectively entitled Star Moon Water Stone.
When I arrived, this dance ensemble was performing a traditional routine. Their costumes appear to be Korean, but I never caught their name.
Next up was the amazing high-energy taiko drumming ensemble, Nagata Shachu.
I've seen these folks in a full-length concert, and believe me, there's never a dull moment!
Then, it was down St. George Street to the Astronomy building at U of T, for this installation, One Sky.
(While waiting in the (long) lineup for this, I struck up a conversation with a young couple who had come all the way from Orillia for Nuit Blanche!)
It featured a projection of the night sky over Toronto, with music (roughly a 12-tone E scale) based on the positions of the stars and other celestial bodies. You may notice how some stars will twinkle more brightly, based on their proximity to earth; they will be accompanied by louder notes to match.
Next, down to Queen and University for this whimsical installation by Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi, entitled Life's Little Worries. Using the statue of Sir Adam Beck as a base, he spent hours stacking objects like a desk, computer monitor, books and so on, apparently to represent Toronto's progress since Beck's time.
Beck advocated for a publicly-owned hydroelectric power company, and was the first chairman of what would become Ontario Hydro, now Hydro One. So it's kind of a tribute to him - in a backhanded way, I guess.
This year, Nathan Phillips Square was rather empty, relatively speaking. This installation by Ibrahim Mahama, Radical Histories 2012-2018, however, took up the entire rotunda.
The artist spent years assembling this huge collection of jute sacks from markets in Africa, then stitching them together to form an enormous tapestry.
The sacks would have contained products like cocoa, coffee and charcoal for export to first-world countries.
Looking at the writing and markings on them, one can only imagine the journeys these rough sacks have made.
This year, there was an installation in the parking garage under Nathan Phillips Square, by Gayle Chong Kwan, entitled Preserved. It's enlarged, mounted photographs of immigrant neighbourhoods in different cities, like London, New York, and Toronto.
The sign on the left-hand building (in English and Cyrillic) reads "Russian Baptist Mission"
None of the areas in these photos truly exists anymore. They are from New York's Little Italy, London's Limehouse district, and the Toronto area known as The Ward - the latter having been mostly demolished to make way for - yes - Nathan Phillips Square.
A Chinese laundry and a Kosher restaurant are neighbours here.
There is a bit of Toronto's original Chinatown still left along Dundas Street West near Yonge, but interestingly, the area between Bay and University is kind of a "little Tokyo," now, with sushi and ramen shops in abundance!
Chop suey isn't actually a true Chinese dish - it was concocted for the American palate.
The last attraction I got pics of at NPS was this one, All Eyes on You, sponsored by car company Infiniti. I took the shots from the elevated pedestrian walkway.
It's an actual car, covered with LED lights, with sensors picking up the movements of passersby.
People were having a good time, waving, twirling and jumping in front of it!
This was called Continuum: Pushing Towards the Light, by Brandy Leary and the Anandam Dancetheatre. It featured dancers moving slowly through the new pedestrian walkway between the Eaton Centre and Hudson's Bay.
The soprano sax you hear in the clip wasn't the actual accompaniment to the performance; it was a nearby street musician. Oddly, it was kind of suitable!
The last thing I saw was at the remarkable Cloud Gardens on Temperance Street. If you follow my blog, you may remember my stop here a couple of years ago as part of the Jane's Walk that explored the hidden art treasures around our downtown.
This piece was called (G)listening, and was created by David Rokeby. It's an arrangement of lighting setups that pulse and flow through different parts of the park. I stood on one of the bridges at the west end to capture the display.
And that was it for this year's Nuit Blanche. I saw a few more things than I've posted here, but these were the highlights.
Every year, I wonder what they'll come up with for this event, and every year, I'm astonished by the endless creativity of our own artists, as well as those from other countries who submit their works for our consideration.
Personally, I try to make the night last until about 1 or 2 am; I'm usually pretty beat by then. Maybe one year, I'll go through the whole night - just to say I did it!
