Music director Peter Oundjian used the words “vibrant,” “unexpected” and “fresh” as he presented the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s 2012-13 season. But he really should have said “safe” and “familiar.”
Anyone who worships at the shrine of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Tchaikovsky can sleep easy knowing that the old chestnuts are safe on the Toronto Symphony’s season roster. They can also rejoice in knowing that the organization is bringing great Canadian as well as international artists in to perform these works.
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Anyone looking for something fresh and new isn’t likely to find much here, aside from seeing John Adams’ Harmonielehre (presented by the TSO last season) on nxt season’s opening programme on Sept. 20 and 22 (paired with a Verdi overture and Brahms’ Violin Concerto).
The biggest reason for this is economic uncertainty. Mozart sells tickets. Estacio doesn’t.
The big innovation announced this morning? Performances of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (on Set. 27 & 29) and Smetana’s Mà Vlast (Apr. 17 & 18, 2013) will get visual backdrops.
Then there’s the Canadian question.
It’s easy to see why commissioning and producing a mainstage Canadian opera is tricky. But I truly don’t see how an organization that presents more than 100 concerts a season can justify programming only eight Canadian works.
There’s a Canadian (nay, Torontonian) composer for just about any style and mood who would be willing to write to specific instrumental or length requirements. Oundjian says the symphony is taking on one such person on as Composer Advisor, but hasn’t figured out who, yet. That person will be responsible for writing one piece of music for next season — a piano concerto for visiting soloist, hot-hot pianist Yuja Wang.
Adding to my nationalistic heartache this morning was news that the TSO is commissioning a symphonic work to reflect the sounds of this city, one that will incorporate the creative input of all Torontonians.
That’s wonderful, right?
The composer, Tod Machover, a really neat and forward-thinking guy with his fingers on the digital world’s pulse, lives in Boston. (And Toronto has a pretty big role to play in the digital world, as well, thanks to some great, groundbreaking work going on via the Mozilla Foundation and Seneca College.)
Why do people from everywhere else in the world think so much better about our city than Torontonians do?
To be fair, given the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s track record since Peter Oundjian took over as music director, the next season will, without a doubt, brim with beautiful performances.
But I can’t help thinking there’s got to be more to it than that for the organization to thrive for another 90 years.
Details on the new season should be posted here shortly.
An exciting new conductor to catch
Hot young Latvian conductor Ainars Rubikis, 33, makes his TSO début with an all-Tchaikovsky programme on Dec. 5 and 6. In the space of two seasons, he has gone from a wannabe to a somebody, probably for good reason.
10 Notable Concerts FOR 2012-13
Here are some notable main concerts from the TSO’s coming season, in chronological order:
- Nov. 1 & 3: Conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos leads a concert performance of Manual de Falla’s opera, La vida breve, unfortunately with no Canadians among the soloists. The evenings also include a performance of Beethoven’s Eighth.
- Nov. 29 & Dec. 1: Sir Andrew Davis pops by to conduct Richard Strauss’ Don Quixote tone poem, and Canadian piano sensation Jan Lisiecki returns to perform Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto.
- Jan. 9 & 10, 2013: Canadian Opera Company music director Johannes Debus makes his first appearance with the TSO, in two different and equally winsome Mozart programmes featuring soprano Layla Claire.
- Jan, 23 & 24: Thomas Dausgaard leads a performance of Mahler’s Sixth, plus soloists from the TSO and guest pianist Jon Kimura Parker present chamber music by Mahler and Schubert.
- Mar. 7: Finnish violin powerhouse Pekka Kuusisto and Owen Pallett merge their talents for the Canadian premiere of Pallett’s Violin Concerto, part of the New Creations festival.
- Apr. 11 & 13: Soprano Measha Brueggergosman is scheduled to sing the gorgeous Knoxville: Summer of 1915, by Samuel Barber, as well as Four Songs by Henri Duparc, with conductor James Gaffigan.
- May 1,2 & 4: Pianists Frank Braley and Eric Le Sage join conductor Stéphane Denève in performing Francis Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos.
- May 22, 23 & 25: Peter Oundjian leads soprano Klara Ek and baritone Gerald Finley in Brahms’ German Requiem, with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir.
- Newly appointed principal pops conductor Steven Reinecke leads a live performance of Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, while a remastered print of the original film runs on a big screen.
- June 12 & 13: Come and cheer the lucky Canadian composer who gets his or her piece on a program that includes pianist Yuja Wang performing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and concertmaster Jonathan Crow gets to show his stuff in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Schéhérazade, with Peter Oundjian conducting.
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
