IT’S A FINNEGAN’S WAKE, literature beyond words. Like Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia, architecture beyond building. Olivier Messiaen’s grand conception of a dramatic poem celebrating the spiritual quest of St. Francis reaches beyond any human scale. Twenty-five years ago, a young Kent Nagano assisted Messiaen in the first Paris production of this monumental piece, the culminating work of the French composer’s career. The first Canadian performance by the MSO earlier this month was only the second in North America, bringing the conductor back to a central inspiration of his career. The love Nagano feels for Messiaen’s music could be felt in the energy that drove the orchestra’s performance of this strangely medieval contemporary work. Read on…

KENT NAGANO HAS BEEN Musical Director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra for over a year—time enough to ask, where has he taken us? In terms of programming, last week’s concert could stand for many of that year: super-standards mixed with shorter works, and the occasional grenade. Nagano certainly understands the necessity of throwing pineapples; with this lob, he succeeded spectacularly. Read on…

“BASICALLY, WHAT I’M DOING these days is being a mom, but I’m not supposed to talk about that.”

The voice on the other end of the phone is speaking through a smile. A little breathless, yet utterly grounded, somehow both maternal and sexy, Coral Egan can’t help giving off mixed signals. On the cusp of maturity, she’s managed to achieve an enviable version of what the star-idol world calls triple threat: performer, creator, mother. At 35, the singer-songwriter has three great-selling CDs and a slew of important awards to her credit. While baby Lola is learning to crawl, her mom is leaping into a whole new venture musically: she’s writing an album in French. Read on…