Sirius Stage, Harbourfront Centre,235 Queens Quay West, Toronto
Beyond the Pale performs as the closing act of Harbourfront Centre’s “What is Classical” Festival. The concert will feature the group’s complete program of reinterpretations of music by Mozart, originally commissioned by CBC Radio Two in 2006 to commemorate the great composer’s 250th birthday.
Beyond the Pale has deconstructed and reconstructed a number of well-known and lesser-known Mozart pieces, including the 21st piano concerto (Elvira Madigan), 25th Symphony, and various selections from the Requiem. In this daring program, Mozart meets funk, reggae and bulgar grooves, odd-meter Balkan time signatures, and improvisations based in the vernacular of Klezmer and east European folk styles. Instruments rarely heard in Mozart’s music, such as accordion and mandolin, reinvigorate his melodies with fresh musical inflections. Compositions originally intended for symphony orchestras and choirs are reduced and recycled within an intimate small folk group context. This is not a superficial “pop” approach, but a deeply considered and sensitively rendered concept in which Mozart melodies are recast within folk forms and given new contemporary life.
