{"id":103396,"date":"2024-04-17T11:19:32","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T15:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=103396"},"modified":"2024-04-17T11:25:20","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T15:25:20","slug":"scoop-toronto-symphony-orchestra-hits-road-montreal-ottawa-juno-winning-canadian-mezzo-soprano-emily-dangelo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2024\/04\/17\/scoop-toronto-symphony-orchestra-hits-road-montreal-ottawa-juno-winning-canadian-mezzo-soprano-emily-dangelo\/","title":{"rendered":"THE SCOOP | Toronto Symphony Orchestra Hits The Road To Montreal & Ottawa With JUNO-Winning Canadian Mezzo-Soprano Emily D\u2019Angelo"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra performs at the National Arts Centre during their Centennial Tour (Photo: Curtis Perry)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, with Music Director Gustavo Gimeno, are taking Brahms No. 1 and celebrated mezzo Emily D\u2019Angelo on tour to Montr\u00e9al\u2019s Maison symphonique and Canada’s National Arts Centre in Ottawa on May 4 and 5.<\/p>\n

The program for the tour will feature the North American Premi\u00e8re of enargeia, the World Premi\u00e8re of TSO RBC Affiliate Composer Alison Yun-Fei Jiang\u2019s Illumination, and Brahms\u2019s First Symphony. Toronto audiences will get a chance to experience the same program on May 1 and 2 at Roy Thomson Hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we talk about Canadian music and musicians, we often emphasize the importance of international exposure and recognition\u2014but equally crucial is the championing of this nation\u2019s cultural creations and institutions right here at home. This is precisely what we\u2019ll do on our upcoming tour, and we\u2019re proud to represent Toronto in Montr\u00e9al and Ottawa by bringing a piece of this city\u2014something that doesn\u2019t exist anywhere else\u2014with us,\u201d comments TSO Beck Family CEO Mark Williams in a statement.<\/p>\n

The Music<\/h2>\n

\u201cThe orchestra and I are thrilled to bring this wonderfully rich and incredibly nuanced program to Montreal and Ottawa after we perform it for our hometown audiences in Toronto,\u201d says conductor Gustavo Gimeno<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have always believed that, when it comes to programming, the whole is indeed greater than the sum of its parts\u2014and this concert is the quintessential example. Though it features compositions both brand new and time honoured, by bringing them all together, a sense of interdependence and synthesis is generated. This is perhaps most strikingly evident in enargeia, and I\u2019m delighted to collaborate with Spotlight Artist Emily D\u2019Angelo<\/strong> on this live adaptation of her extraordinary album. Emily\u2019s voice is simply sublime, and I\u2019ve been eager to work with her for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

enargeia<\/h3>\n

The title of the recording comes from ancient Greek, and comes from the tradition of rhetoric. Loosely translated, it refers to the concept of using words to in a vivid recreation of someone or something. Recorded by Emily D\u2019Angelo<\/strong> on the Deutsche Grammophon label, enargeia is a suit of works by women composers, written largely for voice. The composers and their pieces span more than eight centuries, from the medieval composer and saint Hildegard von Bingen to contemporary composers Hildur Gu\u00f0nad\u00f3ttir, Missy Mazzoli, and Sarah Kirkland Snider. Among other accolades, the release won the 2022 JUNO Award for Classical Album of the Year (Solo Artist) and the 2022 Gramophone Concept Album Award.<\/p>\n

This marks her second appearance of the season as a TSO 2023\/24 Spotlight Artist.<\/p>\n

Alison Yun-Fei Jiang’s Illumination (World Premi\u00e8re)<\/h3>\n

The TSO commissioned this piece from RBC Affiliate Composer Alison Yun-Fei Jiang. Jiang earned a PhD in composition from the University of Chicago, and is currently based in North York. She is completing her two-year tenure on the TSO\u2019s Artistic Leadership team.<\/p>\n

Her music is melodic and infused with drama, and her influences range from the French Impressionists to cinematic music and Chinese traditional opera. Jiang is a multiple award winner, including a 2016 Libby Larsen Prize from the IAWM (International Alliance for Women in Music) Search for New Music Competition, and a 2015\u20142016 JCC Manhattan\/NYU Tisch Call for Music commission. Her work has been performed by the American\u00a0String\u00a0Quartet,\u00a0Cassatt String Quartet,\u00a0Quartetto Apeiron, Manhattan School of Music\u00a0Composers’ Orchestra, and NYU Symphony, among others.<\/p>\n

Her piece Illumination was inspired by light forms and natural phenomena, as depicted in the Diamond Sutra, and influential East Asian text translated from the original Sanskrit into Chinese. The light of the symbolic diamond is like the power of wisdom to shatter illusions and reveal the truth.<\/p>\n

In Montr\u00e9al<\/strong>, audiences will experience Beethoven<\/strong>\u2019s dramatic Coriolan Overture<\/strong>. The piece was written for a revival of Shakespeare\u2019s tragedy about the doomed Roman general by Heinrich Joseph von Collin.<\/p>\n

Brahms’ Symphony No. 1<\/h3>\n

Brahms wrote his\u00a0Symphony No. 1 in C minor,\u00a0Op.\u00a068 over a period of several years, more than 20 by his own account. Sketches of it date back to 1854, and it premiered in November 1876 in Germany. Some of those initial sketches took a detour to become his first piano concerto, written in D minor. The symphony\u2019s long development probably stemmed from the composer\u2019s perfectionism, and his habit of destroying early works.<\/p>\n

It was well received on its premiere, although Brahms was said to be annoyed at constant comparisons to Beethoven. Today, it\u2019s viewed as one of the great symphonies of the Western classical repertoire \u2014 although some still do call it \u201cBeethoven\u2019s Tenth\u201d.<\/p>\n