Classical music gets a battle of the bands CBC Radio Two ("Classics and Beyond") is getting into the fight game. No, we're not talking boxing or the WWF, just the war of words between Tafelmusik artistic director Jeanne Lamon and Pinchas Zukerman, her opposite number at the National Arts Centre Orchestra. Last month, as devoted readers of The Globe Review may remember, Zukerman told music critic Robert Everett-Green of his contempt for period performance and virtually everyone involved in it, describing the whole phenomenon as "complete rubbish." Lamon fired a counter-salvo in Monday's paper, calling Zukerman's comments "outrageous," and accusing him of "hiding his head in the sand" for most of his high-profile career. She dared him to put his fiddle where his mouth is, and submit to a battle of the bands, in which Tafelmusik and the NACO would play the same baroque pieces back-to-back. The size of the purse for this invitational punch-up was not disclosed.
Now the heavyweights at CBC's Take Five are entering the fray, with an offer to host said battle on air. Today at 10 a.m., and again at noon, Take Five will play a movement from the NACO recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons,and the same movement from a Tafelmusik recording. Listeners will be able to offer their judgment of the bout by signing onto Take Five's Web site, at . And may the best band win.