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CONCERT PROGRAM
Andrew BalfourKiwetin-acahkos (North Star)—Fanfare for the Peoples of the North: Sesquie for Canada’s 150th (Jun 14 only; TSO PREMIÈRE/TSO CO-COMMISSION)
Samuel Barber Adagio for Strings
Béla BartókMusic for Strings, Percussion, and CelestaI. Andante tranquillo
II. Allegro
III. Adagio
IV. Allegro molto
IntermissionIn the North Lobby, join The Decades Project ancillary events curator Tom Allen in conversation with Professor Kim H. Kowalke, musicologist and trustee of The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, for a discussion on Kurt Weill’s work The Seven Deadly Sins.
Kurt Weill/libretto by Bertolt BrechtDie sieben Todsünden (The Seven Deadly Sins)Prologue V. Unzucht (Lust)
I. Faulheit (Sloth) VI. Habsucht (Covetousness)
II. Stotz (Pride) VII. Neid (Envy)
III. Zorn (Anger) Epilogue
IV. Völlerei (Gluttony)
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
8:00pm
Thursday, June 15, 2017
8:00pm
Peter Oundjianconductor
Wallis Giunta* (Anna I)
mezzo-soprano
Jennifer Nichols* (Anna II)
dancer
The Family
Isaiah Bell* (Father)
tenor
Owen McCausland*
(Brother)
tenor
Geoffrey Sirett* (Brother)
baritone
Stephen Hegedus* (Mother)
bass-baritone
Joel Ivany*
stage director
Jason Handlighting designer
Krista Dowsoncostume designer
29
The Seven Deadly Sins Production Credits and Acknowledgements
English Translation by Joel IvanySURTITLESTM created and operated by John SharpeSURTITLESTM invented at the Canadian Opera Company in 1983 and introduced worldwide with their production of Elektra by Richard Strauss.
Filmed segments conceived and directed by Jennifer Nichols and Chris Monette.Photographed and edited by Chris Monette.
This performance is funded in part by The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc., New York, NY.
Toronto Symphony Orchestra acknowledges the support of the Theatre Arts Residency program at
*The Participation of these Artists is arranged by permission of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association under the provisions of the Dance Opera Theatre Policy (DOT).
Please note that the performance on June 14 is being recorded for online release at TSO.CA/CanadaMosaic.
COMMUNITY PARTNER
30
THE DETAILS
In 1937, renowned maestro Arturo Toscanini was planning
programs for the début season of the NBC Symphony
Orchestra. Wishing to include a short American work, he
consulted conductor Artur Rodzinski, who had recruited
and rehearsed the new ensemble. Rodzinski, who had
just conducted Barber’s Symphony No. 1 at the Salzburg
Festival to great acclaim, recommended Barber.
The composer responded with two pieces: the brand
new Essay for Orchestra and the Adagio for Strings,
the latter a string-orchestra transcription of the second
movement from his only string quartet written in 1935. He
dispatched them to Toscanini, but a short time later, they
were returned without comment. When Barber’s friend
Gian Carlo Menotti visited Toscanini in the summer of
1938, Barber refused to accompany him. Toscanini told
Menotti, “He’s just angry with me, but he has no reason to
be—I’m going to do both of his pieces.” Toscanini made
good on his promise. Barber’s works were broadcast
nationwide, bringing his name to a wide audience in the
most prestigious way imaginable. In 1967, Barber recast
it once again as a choral work, using the Latin Mass text
Agnus Dei (Lamb of God).
The eloquent simplicity and grave beauty of the Adagio for
Strings have led to its becoming not only an international
concert favourite, but an appropriate element of solemn
public ceremonies. This practice began with the funeral
of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1945, and came
to include Barber’s own memorial service and the funeral
of Princess Grace of Monaco. The Adagio has also been
used to poignant effect on the soundtrack of several
films, including The Elephant Man (1980), Platoon (1986),
Lorenzo’s Oil (1992), and Amélie (2001).
Program note by Don Anderson
Samuel BarberAdagio for Strings
Born: West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA, Mar 9, 1910 Died: New York City, New York, USA, Jan 23, 1981
Composed: 1936
7min
For a program note to Andrew Balfour’s Kiwetin-acahkos
(North Star)—Fanfare for the Peoples of the North: Sesquie
for Canada’s 150th, please turn to page 14 of the Sesquies
Canada Mosaic program.
Peter OundjianMusic Director
Our second concert exploring the rich variety of music created in the 1930s is truly eclectic. Barber’s Adagio for Strings is a richly Romantic poem, but there are harmonic and rhythmic twists and turns that could only have happened in the 20th century. Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta is a masterpiece, almost as influential as The Rite of Spring in its evocative textures, powerful rhythmic vitality, and sheer emotional intensity. The second half of the concert is a real treat: Wallis Giunta, with dancer Jennifer Nichols and four extraordinary male singers, present Joel Ivany’s ingenious reimagining of Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins. This gripping creation is a dramatic powerhouse, a dark satire written during the most sinister time in Germany’s history. It is lyrical, greatly influenced by cabaret music and jazz, but there is a kind of frantic desperation in the music, despite the wonderful melodies and appealing harmonies.
31
Béla Bartók Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta
Born: Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary (now Sinnicolau Mare, Romania), Mar 25, 1881Died: New York City, New York, USA, Sep 26, 1945Composed: 1936
Bartók composed this remarkable work on
commission from Paul Sacher, music director
of the Basel Chamber Orchestra of Switzerland,
to celebrate the ensemble’s 10th anniversary.
In the course of Sacher’s lengthy career, this
enterprising maestro requested works from
many illustrious composers, including Igor
Stravinsky (Concerto for Strings), Richard
Strauss (Metamorphosen), and Paul Hindemith
(Harmony of the World Symphony). He would
go on to commission Bartók’s Divertimento for
Strings in 1939.
Sacher conducted the première of Music for
Strings, Percussion, and Celesta on January
21, 1937. It is one of Bartók’s most immediately
engaging works—rigidly organized, yet still
spontaneous in feeling. Firmly rooted in the
rhythms of eastern European folk music, it is
as polished and sophisticated as any music of
its time.
He provided exact timings for each movement,
and a detailed physical layout for the
instruments. He situated the members of the
percussion section between the two identical
bodies of strings, the better to emphasize the
score’s directional elements (and making it a
natural for stereophonic recording).
The music charts a satisfying emotional
progression from severity to exuberance. The
first movement is both a slow, intricate fugue
and an exercise in controlled dynamics. It rises
gradually, sinuously from a quiet start to a
searing central climax, then dies away to resume
the mood of the opening. Bartók gave the entire
work a sense of continuity by quoting the fugue
theme in the latter part of the final movement.
The second movement unleashes an explosion
of dynamic, frequently irregular dance rhythms.
The percussion section, piano included, comes
much more strongly into play than before.
The third movement is an eerie, atmospheric
night piece. Bartók filled it with unusual
sonorities, among them the brittle click of the
xylophone, the unsettling “slides” between notes
on the timpani, and the eerie rippling of the
celesta (lying at vast distance from Tchaikovsky’s
Sugar Plum Fairy). Master director Stanley Kubrick
made effective use of this movement on the
soundtrack of his 1980 horror film, The Shining.
Bartók’s finale matches the second movement in
drive, but its syncopated, almost jazzy rhythms
give it a warmer, more humorous personality.
Program note by Don Anderson
32min
ARCH FORMAll of the movements (except the second) in
Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and
Celesta are in arch form, in which the first
two sections are repeated in reverse order
after the middle section, thus creating
a mirror symmetry (e.g. ABCBA; see the
Visual Listening Guide). Bartók also applied
this “mirror” concept to the fugue subject
in the second half of the first movement,
where it appears in its inverted version.
36
THE DETAILS
Kurt Weill is best known for his theatre music,
from the satiric scores for the early Berlin piece
The Three-Penny Opera (1928), to the more
romantic but still individual Broadway shows and
Hollywood film scores he composed after his
arrival in America in 1935. His theatre music is
more substantial than the average stage show
of the day, without sacrificing its sharp wit and
melodic flair.
The saucy, diverting hybrid piece Die sieben
Todsünden (The Seven Deadly Sins) was
commissioned for the début of a Parisian dance
company. Headed by the celebrated Russian
émigré choreographer George Balanchine, the
troupe was known as Les Ballets 1933. Weill,
who had just arrived in the city, hit upon the
idea of a “sung ballet”. He invited author Bertolt
Brecht, with whom he had already collaborated
on several projects, to write the libretto. The
première took place on June 7, 1933. It drew a
largely puzzled reaction, hardly surprising given
its innovative style and contents. It did not return
to the stage until it was revived in New York in
1958. The challenges of producing it effectively
have led to its being performed most often in a
concert format rather than a theatrical one.
The scenario is an absurdist, anti-capitalist
morality play. The pressures of a money-centred
society have split Anna’s personality in two.
Anna I, the singer, is calm and entirely practical.
Anna II is an impulsive dancer. The two halves
of Anna’s personality do what is good for each
other. Throughout the seven-year quest that
takes Anna to seven American cities in search
of enough money to build a home in Louisiana
for her family (who are represented in the score
by a quartet of male singers), Anna II is tempted
by the seven deadly sins: sloth, pride, anger,
gluttony, lust, greed, and envy. Anna I resists
them all by enforcing self-denial. Perversely, she
sees nothing wrong with Anna II’s committing
the equally toxic sins necessary to gain the
desired fortune: prostitution, robbery, and
blackmail among them. Weill wraps every surreal
twist and satiric jab of the lyrics in an aptly, at
times deliriously, irreverent musical equivalent.
Program note by Don Anderson
Kurt Weill/libretto by Bertolt BrechtDie sieben Todsünden (The Seven Deadly Sins)
Born: Dessau, Germany, Mar 2, 1900Died: New York City, New York, USA, Apr 3, 1950Composed: 1933
39min
This performance is
funded in part by The
Kurt Weill Foundation
for Music, Inc., New
York, NY.
The Kurt Weill
Foundation for
Music, Inc. administers, promotes, and
perpetuates the legacies of Kurt Weill
and Lotte Lenya. It encourages broad
dissemination and appreciation of Weill’s
music through support of performances,
productions, recordings, and scholarship,
and it fosters understanding of Weill’s
and Lenya’s lives and work within
diverse cultural contexts. Building upon
the legacies of both, it nurtures talent,
particularly in the creation, performance,
and study of musical theatre in its various
manifestations and media. kwf.org
Kurt Weill, 1932
37
Peter Oundjianconductor
A dynamic presence in the conducting world, Toronto-
born conductor Peter Oundjian is renowned for his probing
musicality, collaborative spirit, and engaging personality.
Oundjian’s appointment as Music Director of the Toronto
Symphony Orchestra (TSO) in 2004 reinvigorated the
Orchestra with numerous recordings, tours, and acclaimed
innovative programming as well as extensive audience growth, thereby significantly
strengthening the ensemble’s presence in the world. He led the TSO on a tour of
Europe in August 2014, which included the first performance of a North American
orchestra at Reykjavik’s Harpa Hall. In May 2017, he led the Orchestra in its first-ever
touring appearances in Israel, with performances in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and in
Europe with appearances in Vienna, Prague, Regensburg, and Essen.
Oundjian was appointed Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra
in 2012, and was previously Principal Guest Conductor of the Detroit Symphony
Orchestra (2006–2010) and Artistic Director of the Caramoor International Music
Festival (1997–2007). Since 1981, he has been a visiting professor at the Yale School
of Music, and was awarded the university’s Sanford Medal for distinguished service to
music in 2013.
THE ARTISTS
Wallis Giuntamezzo-sopranoWallis Giunta made her TSO début in April 2014.
Praised by Opera News for her “delectably rich, silver-
toned mezzo-soprano,” Canadian Wallis Giunta has begun
an exciting and diverse international career. In the 2017/18
season, she will début the role of Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti
and the title role in L’enfant et les sortilèges with Opera
North, as well as appear in Lulu, La cenerentola, and Das Rheingold for Oper Leipzig.
Wallis also returns to Koerner Hall for the Bernstein Centenary Gala, and to the Munich
Radio Orchestra in concert.
Her recent company/role débuts include Olga (The Merry Widow) for the Metropolitan
Opera, Sesto (La clemenza di Tito) and Dorabella (Cosí fan tutte) for the Canadian Opera
Company, Mercédès (Carmen) for Oper Frankfurt, Tiffany (I Was Looking at the Ceiling
and Then I Saw the Sky) for Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and Théâtre du Châtelet, and
Candide with the Hamburger Symphoniker, among others. Wallis is a Naxos recording
artist and recitalist worldwide. She is a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann
Young Artist Program, the COC Ensemble Studio, The Juilliard School, and The Glenn
Gould School, and is a grateful recipient of support from the Canada Council for the Arts.
38
Jennifer NicholsdancerThese performances mark Jennifer Nichols’s TSO début.
Jennifer Nichols is a dancer, choreographer, and director,
who was born in Collingwood, Ontario. She completed her
classical training at the Quinte Ballet School and L’École
superieure de danse de Québec. With post-graduate studies
at the National Ballet School and Ballet BC, she went on to
dance with such companies as Banff Festival Dance and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens,
and for choreographers such as Robert Desrosiers and Newton Moraes.
Jennifer has been a member of the Atelier Ballet of Opera Atelier since 2008. She
choreographed Against the Grain Theatre’s Dora Award–winning Messiah, and has
also been commissioned as choreographer for Opera 5, FAWN Chamber Creative,
The Canadian Art Song Project, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and The Glenn Gould
School of The Royal Conservatory of Music. Jennifer is also a choreographer for film
and television, including the hit CW show Reign and the award-winning feature film
Barney’s Version. She is Co-Artistic Director of Hit and Run Dance Productions and the
founder/director of the Extension Room, home to renowned ballet fitness program,
The Extension Method.
THE ARTISTS
Isaiah BelltenorIsaiah Bell made his TSO début in March 2015.
Canadian-American tenor Isaiah Bell returns to sing with the
Toronto Symphony Orchestra for the third time, following
Messiah in 2016 and Written on Skin in 2015. Isaiah recently
starred opposite Stephanie Blythe in Mark Morris’s double-bill
production of Curlew River/Dido and Aeneas at the Brooklyn
Academy of Music. In his review of the production for The New York Times, Brian
Seibert wrote, “amid an excellent cast, the tenor Isaiah Bell as the Madwoman gives a
performance of exquisite poignancy....” Shortly afterward, Isaiah made his Carnegie Hall
début, winning third place in the Oratorio Society of New York’s solo competition in
Weill Recital Hall.
Isaiah has sung with every major Canadian orchestra, and is appearing increasingly on
international stages, including the Aldeburgh and Edinburgh Festivals (Owen Wingrave),
l’Opéra-Théâtre de Metz in France (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), and the Mostly
Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center (Acis and Galatea). This season, he débuts with the
Nashville Symphony, Opera Atelier, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Seattle
Symphony, among others. Isaiah is also a composer and librettist.
39
Owen McCauslandtenorOwen McCausland made his TSO début in December 2014.
New Brunswick tenor Owen McCausland is an alumnus of
the COC Ensemble Studio, and has been featured on the
Canadian Opera Company main stage in such roles as Tito
in La clemenza di Tito, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Testo in
Il combattimento di Tancredi et Clorinda, and Lurcanio in
Ariodante. He débuted for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in The Bear and he has
appeared with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Regina Symphony Orchestra,
Symphony Nova Scotia, Hamilton’s Bach Elgar Choir, and Kitchener-Waterloo’s Grand
Philharmonic Choir in repertoire including Messiah, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9,
selected Bach Cantatas, Elijah, and Rossini’s Stabat Mater. Recent and upcoming
appearances include Rodolfo in La bohème for Against the Grain Theatre, and Pedrillo
in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and the Fisherman in Le rossignol for the Canadian
Opera Company.
Mr. McCausland studied music at Dalhousie University. He was a finalist and winner of
the Canadian Encouragement Award at the 2015 George London Singing Competition,
and was also a semi-finalist in the 2015 Montreal International Music Competition.
Geoffrey SirettbaritoneThese performances mark Geoffrey Sirett’s TSO début.
A native of Kingston, Geoffrey Sirett has emerged as one of
Canada’s leading young baritones. In addition to Weill’s The
Seven Deadly Sins with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra,
highlights of this season include Oreste in Elektra and Ping
in Turandot for the Edmonton Opera, Elijah for the Pax
Christi Chorale, Messiah for the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s
Missa solemnis for the Grand Philharmonic Choir, and Mozart’s Requiem with the
Bach Elgar Choir of Hamilton. His affinity for the music of our time can be seen in his
performances of Put’s Silent Night for Opéra de Montréal, and the world premières of
The Bells of Baddeck by Dean Burry and Lorna MacDonald and Rolfe’s Against Nature
for Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie. Next season he takes the role of Akaki in the
world première of The Overcoat by James Rolfe and Morris Panych, a co-production of
Canadian Stage, Tapestry Opera, and Vancouver Opera.
Geoffrey Sirett is a founding member of The Bicycle Opera Project, winner of the
Norcop Song Prize, and a University of Toronto alumnus. His recordings include
Vagabond – English Art Song, Airline Icarus (Brian Current), The Heart’s Refuge, and The
Vale of Tears (Theatre of Early Music).
40
Stephen Hegedusbass-baritoneStephen Hegedus made his TSO début in December 2010.
Hailed by the Chicago Sun as a “superb narrator with a
strong and attractive voice,” bass-baritone Stephen Hegedus
is frequently heard with leading orchestras and opera
companies in the United States, Canada, and abroad. A prize
winner in the New York Oratorio Society’s Lyndon Woodside
Competition, Mr. Hegedus has appeared with the Minnesota Orchestra, Houston
Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and Toronto Symphony Orchestra (Messiah), Vancouver
Symphony (Mozart’s Requiem), Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (Haydn’s The Creation),
the Grant Park Festival (Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, Berlioz’s La damnation de
Faust), Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (Bernstein’s A Quiet Place), and Orchestre
symphonique de Québec (Bach’s Magnificat).
His 2016/17 season includes Mozart’s Requiem (Mercury Houston and Seattle
Symphony), Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (Florida Orchestra), Bach’s Weihnachts-
Oratorium (I Musici de Montréal), Masetto in Don Giovanni (Opéra de Montréal), Alidoro
in La cenerentola (Edmonton Opera), and Creon in Medée (Opera Atelier/Versailles).
Highlights for next season include appearances with Pacific Opera Victoria and Opera
Atelier. Trilingual, Hegedus is an alumnus of Atelier lyrique de l’opéra de Montréal.
THE ARTISTS
Joel Ivanystage director
Joel Ivany is the Founder and Artistic Director of Against
the Grain Theatre (AtG) in Toronto, and is the program
director of Banff Centre’s Open Space: Opera in the 21st
Century. His directing credits include productions of Verdi’s
Macbeth (Minnesota Opera), Carmen (Vancouver Opera
and the Canadian Opera Company), Les contes d’Hoffmann
(Edmonton Opera), Gavin Bryars’s Marilyn Forever (Adelaide Festival in Australia), and
Le nozze di Figaro (revival at Norwegian National Opera). He is the author of five (and
counting) original librettos including Opera on the Edge’s upcoming #UncleJohn
(an adaptation of Don Giovanni). He was a Dora Mavor Moore Award nominee for
Outstanding Direction (AtG’s Figaro’s Wedding) and Outstanding New Opera/Musical
(AtG’s #UncleJohn), and the recipient of the same prize for Figaro’s Wedding. Recent
mainstage directing credits include new productions of Brundibár (Canadian Children's
Opera Company) and Dead Man Walking (Vancouver Opera). For more information,
please visit joelivany.com.
41
Jason Handlighting designer
Jason Hand is a Toronto-based designer working in theatre
and opera. He has lit operas for the Canadian Opera
Company and Vancouver Opera (Carmen), Edmonton Opera
(The Tales of Hoffmann), and Minnesota Opera Company
(Macbeth). He has worked with acclaimed opera directors
Tim Albery (Imeneo, Dido and Aeneas, M’Dea Undone),
Paul Curran (The Rape of Lucretia), and Tom Diamond (The Marriage of Figaro,
Oksana G.). As Resident Lighting Designer for Against the Grain Theatre, Jason has
lit La bohème, Turn of the Screw, Figaro’s Wedding, Pelléas et Mélisande, Death and
Desire, #UncleJohn, AtG’s Messiah, A Little Too Cozy, and Ayre. His theatre designs
include productions for Young People’s Theatre, Tarragon Theatre, Canadian Stage, the
Stratford Festival, the Shaw Festival, Theatre Calgary, and Soulpepper.
Jason is a guest instructor at the National Theatre School of Canada and Banff Centre
for Arts and Creativity. On a team with director Joel Ivany and designer Camellia Koo,
Jason won third prize in the 2011 biennial European Opera-Directing Prize. He has
been nominated for three Dora Awards, and is a protégé recipient of the prestigious
Siminovitch Prize in Theatre. Upcoming projects include Kopernikus at Banff Centre,
and a new adaptation of Hamlet at the Tarragon Theatre.
Krista Dowsoncostume designer
Krista Dowson learned to sew at her parents’ dining room
table during her 14-year tenure as a ballerina with The
National Ballet of Canada. From the stage to behind the
scenes, this self-taught costumier enjoys making spandex
look beautiful and the challenge of turning two-dimensional
designs into three-dimensional apparel.
Dowson has had the privilege of designing and building costumes for ProArteDanza,
The National Ballet of Canada, the Hillside Beach Club in Turkey, Casa Loma’s
Legends of Horror, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, and Hit and Run Dance
Productions, in addition to a number of independent artists locally and internationally.
42
THE TSO CHAMBER SOLOISTS CONCERT PROGRAM
Milton BarnesLadino Suite
Oskar MorawetzSonata for Brass QuintetI. Allegro moderato
II. Andante moderato
III. Allegro
Morley CalvertSuite from the Monteregian HillsI. La Marche
II. Chanson Mélancolique
III. Valse Ridicule
IV. Danse Villageoise
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
6:45pm
Andrew McCandlesstrumpet
Steven Woomerttrumpet
Audrey Goodhorn
Vanessa Fralicktrombone
Mark Tetreaulttuba
THE DECADESPROJECT 1930–1939
43
This concert program features music written
for brass quintet by Canadian composers Milton
Barnes (1931–2001), Oskar Morawetz (1917–2007),
and Morley Calvert (1928–1991). Although these
works were composed several decades after
the one under exploration this month by the
TSO in its orchestral concerts (Ladino Suite and
the Sonata are from 1977, while the Suite from
the Monteregian Hills is from 1961), you might
hear them as a continuation of compositional
styles from that period that infused traditional
expressiveness with modernist approaches.
As a composer, Barnes rejected the 12-tone
approach of the academic avant-garde and
sought a more tonal, romantic idiom, imbued
with jazz and pop influences, as well as music of
his Jewish heritage. His Ladino Suite, exhibiting
various Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) melodies, is a fine
example of his “eclectic fusion” style. It opens with
an improvisatory-like “Spanish fanfare”, played by
the first trumpet, which returns two more times
throughout the course of the suite. A succession
of melodies of varying styles follows, including
sombre, lively, and stately (a few of them evoke
Baroque dances like the sarabande).
Chromaticism and polyphony lends Morawetz’s
Sonata its kaleidoscopic colour and rhythmic
drive. The first movement is in a free sonata
form, very rhythmic in character. In the second
movement, an impressionistic, dream-like section
with a melancholy trumpet melody bookends a
contrasting, expressive middle section. Rhythm
and counterpoint return in the final movement,
which ends with a brilliant coda.
Calvert’s professional career as a bandmaster
informed his work as a composer. His Suite from the
Monteregian Hills, a commission by the Montreal
Brass Quintet, is based on French-Canadian folk
songs and named for the eight-mountain range
that spans from Mount Royal to the American
border. With its pleasing, folk-like quality, it is one
of his most popular works, having been performed
worldwide and recorded by notable ensembles.
Program note by Hannah Chan-Hartley
Founded in 2014, The Toronto Symphony
Orchestra Chamber Soloists came together
with a mission to create programming
featuring a diverse and varied range of
instruments. Acclaimed as an ensemble of
distinguished virtuosi, The Chamber Soloists’
unique combination of winds, strings,
keyboard, and percussion gives it the flexibility
to present a wide range of unusual and
infrequently performed repertoire, along with
some of the best-loved works in the chamber
music literature.
Comprising principal players from the
Toronto Symphony Orchestra, The TSO
Chamber Soloists have already performed
around the world, from Roy Thomson Hall
to the iconic Harpa Hall in Iceland, with such
distinguished guest artists as Emanuel Ax,
James Ehnes, Barbara Hannigan, and John
Storgårds. Curated by TSO Concertmaster
Jonathan Crow, The Chamber Soloists seek
to bring audiences closer to the musicians
of the Orchestra—personally and musically.
As the chamber ensemble could be seen as
a microcosm of the symphony orchestra,
the intimate nature of chamber music invites
the audience to a close encounter with
the distinct personalities and talents of the
TSO’s individual musicians, while the works
performed offer a different perspective into a
particular composer’s craft.
THE DETAILS THE TSO CHAMBER SOLOISTS
Recommended