Sinfonia Toronto returns to the stage after the holiday break with guest musicians Maciej Frackiewicz (in their Canadian debut) on the accordion, and violinist David Baik. The Piazzola & Palej concert takes place January 24.
Subtitled “Tears and Tango”, the concert juxtaposes the fiery Nuevo Tango of Piazzolla and the premiere of Toronto composer Norbert Palej’s Tears of Things.
The Music
The full program includes:
- Mozart: Divertimento K. 138
- Wieniawski: Fantasia on Themes from Gounod’s Faust, op. 20
- Palej: Lacrymae Rerum — tears of things (world premiere)
- Piazzolla: Five Tango Sensations
Mozart was only 16 years old when he wrote the Divertimento in 1772. It along with K. 136 and K. 137, were collectively known as the Salzburg Symphonies. His prodigious talents were already in full bloom; known as a virtuoso, and becoming renowned as a composer. The title of Divertimento implies it was written as light entertainment for socializing at court, possibly, in this case, at the Archbishop of Salzburg’s court, where Mozart was heading with his father at the time.
Sinfonia Toronto Artistic Director Nurhan Arman created the string orchestra arrangement of Fantaisie brilliante for Violin on Gounod’s Faust by Henryk Wieniawski (1835-1880). Wieniawski was a violin virtuoso whose performing talents overshadowed his compositions. He invented what is known as the Russian bow grip, which lets violinists play many challenging pieces more easily, and it becomes important in the extremely challenging Fantaisie.
Toronto’s Norbert Palej was inspired by the verses of the Roman poet Virgil in the Aeneid in writing his piece, in particular:
Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangent. (There are tears of things and mortal thoughts touch the mind.)
Maestro Arman met Polish accordionist Maciej Frackiewicz in November 2022 during a guest conducting engagement. Impressed with his artistry, he put him in touch with Norbert Palej, who had recently contacted Sinfonia Toronto about writing a new piece for the ensemble. This piece and performance are the result.
A native of Cracow, Palej has premiered his compositions at Carnegie Hall, along with concert halls and venues across North America, Thailand, China, in Europe and South America. Alongside a performing career, he is Associate Professor of Composition and the artistic director of the annual New Music Festival at the University of Toronto.
Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla’s Five Tango Sensations, a suite of five works for bandoneon and string quartet, was composed in 1989. It typifies his mature style, blending jazz and classical music with tango rhythms in what has become classic nuevo tango, the genre he invented.
Musicians
Accordionist Maciej Frąckiewicz studied his instrument extensively at the Frederic Chopin University of Music (UMFC) in Warsaw (Poland), HfM in Detmold (Germany), ESMUC in Barcelonai, and FUdK in Essen, along with many master classes globally. He went on to win many major competitions for the accordion, including the 20th ‘Arrasate Hiria’ International Accordion Competition in Spain, Deutscher Musikwettbewerb in Bonn (2018), Folkwang Preis in Essen (2017), and GWK Competition in Münster (2015), among others.
He has performed with orchestras and in festivals across Poland and elsewhere in Europe, in Russia, South Korea, and the US. Maciej is a champion of new music, and has premiered over 100 new pieces for accordion, most of them were dedicated to him.
Violinist David Baik is a rising star in the Canadian classical music scene. Featured on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s “30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30” list, the South Korean-born violinist has won multiple awards, including the the 2023 Peter-Mendell Award from the Jeunesses Musicales Canada Foundation, Grand Prize at the 2021 NAC Bursary Competition, among others. He was named a winner of the 2023 Canada Council Musical Instrument Bank competition, and performs on the 1871 J.B. Vuillaume violin, on loan from the CCA.
David has studied with noted musicians internationally, including James Ehnes, and Martin Beaver, after earning his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto. He followed up with studies at the Schulich School of Music under a fellowship. David Baik is a resident of the Rebanks Family Fellowship and International Residency Program at the Royal Conservatory of Music for the 2024/25 season.
Baik is a dedicated chamber musician as well as a soloist, and has collaborated with artists such as Charles Richard Hamelin, Jennifer Koh, Andrew Wan, Jonathan Crow, and Philip Chiu, among others. His string quartet, the Stelios Quartet, has won multiple awards, including the 2024 Schiermonnikoog Festival Audience Award and the Grand Prize at the 2023 McGill Chamber Music Competition.
- Find more information about the January 24 concert [HERE].
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