Archive for Symphony

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s TheConcertHall.ca Continues its Ground Breaking Season

Posted by shiragilbert on
 January 14, 2021
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The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra with Music Director Otto Tausk

VSO’s new streaming service amasses 3,000 subscribers and 30,000 concert views, in just 3 months!

During this unusual and unforgettable season, without in-person concerts, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO) continues to offer extraordinary music and to build new audiences – all via its new virtual home, TheConcertHall.ca, presented by TELUS. The VSO’s musicians and guest artists are beautifully recorded in 360-degree views, using state-of-the-art audio and video technology, while following strict social distancing protocols. Highlights of the season on TheConcertHall.ca, since its launch in October 2020 – 13 concerts to date – include Bach with James Ehnes, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, holiday programming for families, and VSO Music Director Otto Tausk, leading music by Beethoven, Mussorgsky and Sibelius, as well as contemporary works by Jennifer Butler, George Walker, and others. 

CNN highlights the final performance of the VSO’s BeethovenFest in March 2020, which reached over 100,000 worldwide

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s new initiative was inspired by the Berlin Philharmonic’s Digital Concert Hall and its model of offering audiences access to every concert that has been performed and recorded, all for a monthly subscription fee. (Annual subscriptions to TheConcertHall.ca are $129.99, with options for weekly and monthly viewing). The VSO is the first orchestra in North America to adopt this model, and plans to release more than 40 performances over the course of this inaugural season. With TheConcertHall.ca, the VSO continues to develop new ways to bring the concert experience to its loyal listeners, while attracting many new ones online. To date, 25% of subscribers come from outside the Vancouver area.

In reviewing TheConcertHall.ca’s first performance, the Vancouver Sun praised Maestro Tausk’s “calm confidence” as he navigated the new and “unorthodox setup.” Vancouver Classical Music called it “an impressive and innovative effort” and “a cause for celebration.” VSO audiences have responded enthusiastically, with over 3,000 subscribing to the monthly service. Concerts on the new platform have received well over than 30,000 views to date.

A MONTH OF MOZART AT THE VSO

The VSO celebrates the New Year and Mozart’s birthday with a Month of Mozart! The virtual mini-festival on TheConcertHall.ca features Mozart’s first and last symphonies, the Gran Partita for wind ensemble, as well as music influenced by Mozart from Mahler, Alfred Schnittke, Friedrich Gulda, and former VSO Composer-In-Residence Jocelyn Morlock.

“Mozart always lifts the spirits,” comments Maestro Otto Tausk, “As we head into another year of turbulence, but with hope on the horizon, nothing seems more appropriate than to celebrate Mozart and his impact on our musical world. This music brought much joy to me and the musicians of the VSO as we recorded it. I hope you will share in this emotion as we dive into a new year.”

Mo-Zart! – Release date January 17

RGF Integrated Wealth Management Spotlight Series

Mozart: Gran Partita, the Serenade No. 10 for winds in B-flat major, is notable for its beauty as well as its key appearance in the film Amadeus. Scored for 12 winds and string bass, the work highlights the orchestra’s clarinets and their big brothers, the basset horns, in music that is richly textured, intricate and playful. Listen for contributions by the VSO’s Jeannette Jonquil (principal clarinet), Roger Cole (principal oboe), Michelle Goddard (basset horn), Julia Lockhart (principal bassoon), Olivier de Clercq (principal horn), and their colleagues.

Also on the program is Zart (2006) by former VSO Composer-In-Residence Jocelyn Morlock. The work is inspired by the sweeter side of Mozart, The Magic Flute in particular.

A Tale of Two Mozarts – Release date Jan 22

Assante Vancouver Centre Stars Series

One of history’s greatest prodigies, Mozart wrote his first sonata at the age of five and his first symphony at the age of eight. This program contrasts Mozart’s astonishing 1st Symphony with his last and greatest symphonic achievement, the Symphony No. 41, or “Jupiter” Symphony. Composed just three years before the composer’s tragic, early death at 35, the “Jupiter” is among the most transcendent music ever written, featuring a melody which echoes back to the 1stsymphony.  

Viennese Reflections – Release date Jan 29

Newmont series

Viennese jazz/classical composer-pianist Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000) was renowned for his interpretations of Mozart. Echoes of that genius can be heard in his Concerto for Cello and Wind Orchestra (1988), a surprising and dazzling collage of lyrical tunes and frenetic dances. The performance features the VSO’s newly appointed principal cellist Henry Shapard. At just 21, Shapard is the youngest musician to hold this position with a major orchestra in North America.

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) adored Mozart and, as a conductor, was in large part responsible for the revival of his music on opera and concert stages. The gorgeous Adagietto from Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, scored for harp and string ensemble, was a declaration of love to his wife Alma.

Finally, the great Russian postmodernist Alfred Schnittke dissects Mozart and his mentor, Haydn, in Moz-Art à la Haydn (1977), a clever and virtuosic piece of musical theatre. The work features musical quotations played by two violins, highlighting VSO Concertmaster and Associate Concertmaster Nicholas Wright and Timothy Steeves.

Special Event: Otto Tausk & Rodney Sharman in conversation – Thursday, Jan 21, 2pm

A conversation about Mozart, with Maestro Otto Tausk and former VSO Composer-In-Residence Rodney Sharman. Sharman has spent significant time studying the works of Mozart, extending the master’s works into new compositions, and even uncovering the original notes Mozart wrote for his first symphony – before his father Leopold made a few “corrections.”

HOW TO WATCH

All performances available for streaming in TheConcertHall.ca, the virtual home of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. 30-day passes for a Month of Mozart are available for only $15.99 CAD. Includes access to all previously released concerts as well as new releases.

ABOUT THE VANCOUVER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 

Founded in 1919, the Grammy and Juno-award winning Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is the third largest orchestra in Canada, the largest arts organizations in Western Canada, and one of the few orchestras in North America to have its own music school. Led by Music Director Otto Tausk since 2018, the VSO performs more than 150 concerts each year, throughout Vancouver and the province of British Columbia, reaching over 270,000 people annually. On tour the VSO has performed in the United States, China, Korea and across Canada. The orchestra presents passionate, high-quality performances of classical, popular and culturally diverse music, creating meaningful engagement with audiences of all ages and backgrounds. For the current season, the VSO may be heard in its virtual home, TheConcertHall.ca. 

THANK YOU!

In this challenging COVID season, the VSO acknowledges the incredible support of its sponsors and many donors. This season celebrates the 70th anniversary of the VSO’s partnership with TELUS, marked fittingly by TELUS presenting TheConcertHall.ca. The VSO also thanks Assante Vancouver Centre, Newmont, RGF Integrated Wealth Management, London Drugs, and OriginO – series sponsors of the 2020-21 season. 

THECONCERTHALL.CA

Jaap Nico Hamburger: Chamber Symphonies Nos.1 & 2

Posted by shiragilbert on
 November 16, 2020
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With Ensemble Caprice conducted by Matthias Maute  & l’Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal conducted by Vincent de Kort

In honour of Remembrance Day and the 75th Anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands, Canadian composer Jaap Nico Hamburger presents Chamber Symphonies Nos.1 & 2, featuring Ensemble Caprice and l’Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal. The album will be released November 6, 2020 on the Canadian label, Leaf Music. While confronting serious and challenging themes, these two new works for chamber orchestra are imbued with hope and optimism.

Chamber Symphony No. 1 “Remember to Forget” is performed by Ensemble Caprice under the direction ofMatthias Maute. “Remember to Forget,” a phrase from the Tenach or Old Testament, alludes to the notion that doubt (“I should have”/”I could have”), as opposed to being critical (“Where can I improve?”) is inherently self-destructive. Inspired by the biography of György Ligeti (1923-2006), “Remember to Forget” is a tone poem, using the colours and structures of sound to tell the story. Ligeti’s own musical influences stretch back to the 15th century and polyphony, from folk inspirations to chromaticism through to jazz and polyrhythms. (Ligeti is perhaps best known for his soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 – A Space Odyssey.) “Remember to Forget” is a metaphor of a train journey, moving from youth to catastrophe, through survival to rebuilding and finally, forgiveness.

Chamber Symphony No. 2 “Children’s War Diaries” is performed by l’Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal under the direction of Vincent de Kort and was recorded at the “Violins of Hope” concert at Maison symphonique de Montréal in November of 2019. The work was inspired by the diaries of five teenagers murdered during the Second World War. Twenty years after he had read these diaries, the composer’s 89-year-old mother, Jannie Moffie-Bolle, published her own autobiography “Een hemel zonder vogels” (“A sky without birds”). She too was a teenager at the outbreak of the war in Europe and the book describes her experience in multiple Nazi death camps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau. In 2010, Jaap travelled with her to Israel on the occasion of the presentation of her book at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Memorial Center in Jerusalem, and it was the Children’s Memorial there – uniquely sobering in its memorial to 1.5 million murdered children which represented approximately 95% of all Jewish children in occupied Europe at the time – inspired the piece. Overwhelmed by the starkness of the Memorial, Jaap left the building and stepped into the blazing Jerusalem sunlight, where the contours of the new symphonic work came to mind, virtually complete.

This album follows the August 2020 release of Jaap Nico Hamburger: Piano Concerto, also on Leaf Music.

Jaap Nico Hamburger is Composer in Residence with Mécénat Musica in Montreal. His compositions include commissions from Turning Point Ensemble, Ensemble Caprice, the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, and an original contribution for the project 400 years of Dutch Keyboard Music. He was recently commissioned by the Dutch Government and the United Nations’ International Court of Justice to compose a new concerto for harp and orchestra, to be premiered by Lavinia Meijer and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 2021. Other commissions include works for Discovery Channel, and broadcasting companies in the UK and the Netherlands. He is a Canadian Music Centre Associate Composer, and President and CEO of Orange Music Inc., a Vancouver music production company. Born in Amsterdam, Hamburger began his musical education at the age of three, and studied piano with Ruben Lifschitz, Alexandre Hrisanide and Youri Egorov. He graduated from the Royal Sweelinck Conservatorium of Music in Amsterdam, with a soloist degree in piano. He has lived in Canada since August 2000. 

Since its founding by Matthias Maute three decades ago, Ensemble Caprice has become one of the most sought-after ensembles on the classical music scene, known for its innovative programming and vibrant, compelling performances. In a 2009 full article, The New York Times praised the ensemble as a progressive force on the contemporary musical scene. ensemblecaprice.com

Conductor Matthias Maute has gained an international reputation as one of the great recorder and baroque flute virtuosos of his generation, as well as for his work as a composer and conductor. As artistic director and conductor of Ensemble Caprice, Maute tours around the globe. matthiasmaute.com

One of Quebec’s leading cultural ambassadors, the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal was founded in 1981. For more than 20 years, the OM has grown alongside its artistic director and principal conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, whose career continues to reach new heights. orchestremetropolitain.com

Netherlands-born conductor Vincent de Kort is highly in demand as a symphonic and opera conductor. Recently he made successful debuts at the  Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow as well as at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, invited by Valery Gergiev. He is a regular guest at the opera houses of Dresden, Stockholm, Edinburgh, Leipzig, Tokyo, Vienna, among others. vincentdekort.com

leaf-music.ca                     jaaphamburger.com

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