{"id":113576,"date":"2025-04-16T13:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T17:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=113576"},"modified":"2025-04-17T08:00:02","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T12:00:02","slug":"preview-rising-star-pianist-sunny-ritter-returns-perform-sinfonia-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/04\/16\/preview-rising-star-pianist-sunny-ritter-returns-perform-sinfonia-toronto\/","title":{"rendered":"PREVIEW | Rising Star Pianist Sunny Ritter Returns To Perform With Sinfonia Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_113578\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-113578\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-113578\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/04\/Copy-of-PREVIEW-10.jpg\" alt=\"Pianist Sunny Ritter (Photo: Julia Wesely)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/04\/Copy-of-PREVIEW-10.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/04\/Copy-of-PREVIEW-10-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/04\/Copy-of-PREVIEW-10-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/04\/Copy-of-PREVIEW-10-768x402.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-113578\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pianist Sunny Ritter (Photo: Julia Wesely)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Maestro Nurhan Arman and Sinfonia Toronto present Sunny\u2019s Beethoven, a concert that puts pianist Sunny Ritter under the spotlight in her return to the city. The concert takes place on May 3 at George Weston Recital Hall.<\/p>\n<p>Sunny will perform Beethoven&#8217;s 3rd Piano Concerto. Dmitri Shostakovich&#8217;s Chamber Symphony Opus 73 will round out the program.<\/p>\n<h2>Pianist Sunny Ritter<\/h2>\n<p>Born in Vienna, Austria, Sunny Ritter won her first gold medal for piano performance at age five, and began professional level training at seven at the Universit\u00e4t f\u00fcr Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien (MDW). After the family moved to Canada, she continued studying at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto with Dr. Michael Berkovsky under a full scholarship.<\/p>\n<p>At the Kiwanis Festival, she broke Glenn Gould\u2019s old record to become the Festival\u2019s youngest ever first prize winner. She\u2019s since gone on to take home first honours at more than 30 competitions in North America and across Europe.<\/p>\n<p>These days, she\u2019s back in Europe and studying with Pietro De Maria in the bachelor\u2019s degree program at the Universit\u00e4t Mozarteum Salzburg.<\/p>\n<p>Studies, of course, take place alongside a growing performing career that has taken her from Montr\u00e9al\u2019s Place des Arts and Toronto\u2019s Meridian Arts Centre to the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Wiener Konzerthaus and the Golden Hall of Wiener Musikverein.<\/p>\n<p>Sunny Ritter (13) plays Bach Partita No. 2 in C-minor, BWV 826 on December 13, 2024:<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hXR-oEQepxg?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<h2>The Music<\/h2>\n<h3>Beethoven&#8217;s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37<\/h3>\n<p>Ludwig van Beethoven began working on his Piano Concerto No. 3 in 1797 or so. While he\u2019d push to finish it during 1800, in the end, it wasn\u2019t quite completed for the premiere in April 1803. Ludwig himself was the soloist for the performance, and his part wasn\u2019t quite fully written out. His friend friend Ignaz von Seyfried served as page turner for the occasion, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classicfm.com\/composers\/beethoven\/guides\/beethoven-piano-concerto-no3-c-minor-full-works-co\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">he later wrote<\/a>,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI saw almost nothing but empty pages; at the most, on one page or another a few Egyptian hieroglyphs wholly unintelligible to me were scribbled down to serve as clues for him; for he played nearly all the solo part from memory since, as was so often the case, he had not had time to set it all down on paper.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Beethoven also improvised a cadenza for the premiere; he\u2019d later write one for posterity.<\/p>\n<p>Musically, the work represents something of a turning point between his earlier and later compositional styles.<\/p>\n<h3>Dmitri Shostakovich: Chamber Symphony, Op. 73a<\/h3>\n<p>Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his String Quartet in F major, Op. 73, in 1946. It was a work heavily influenced by the terrors and uncertainties of war and its immediate aftermath. Although WWII was officially over, Russia experienced a drought that led to famine for the better part of two years. The work\u2019s movements reflect his emotions and thoughts on the conflict: I. Blithe ignorance of the future cataclysm; II. Rumblings of unrest and anticipation; III. Forces of war unleashed; IV. In memory of the dead; V. The eternal question: why? and for what?<\/p>\n<p>Along with the dismal aftermath of war, and the famine, the Soviet government was beginning to turn against the composer.<\/p>\n<p>Much later, in 1990, prominent violist and conductor Rudolf Barshai arranged Shostakovich\u2019s String Quartets Nos. 3 and 4 for a chamber orchestra. The result was a deepened perspective on the original works.The chamber orchestra arrangement emphasizes dramatic contrasts to underscore the sombre contemplation of war and its aftermath. Shostakovich himself was said to have declared that they \u201csounded better than the original\u201d.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Find more details about the concert, and tickets, [<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sinfoniatoronto.com\/2024-2025-season\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HERE<\/a><\/strong>].<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>Are you looking to promote an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/advertising\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0e101a\"><u>event<\/u><\/span><\/a>? Have a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/masthead\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>news tip<\/u><\/a>? Need to know the best\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/events\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>events<\/u><\/a>\u00a0happening this weekend? Send us a\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"mailto:anya@ludwig-van.com?subject=Let's%20chat\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em><u>note<\/u>.<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"western\"><em><b>#LUDWIGVAN<\/b><\/em><\/h3>\n<p class=\"western\"><em>Get the daily arts news straight to your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"western\"><em>Sign up for the Ludwig Van Toronto e-Blast! \u2014 local classical music and opera news straight to your inbox <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/583e6ce0-dfd0-48be-8a33-61256b3c58e3.mlbtlr.com\/p2\/Fbd8jWoWQQ6CdBcLIvut3Q\/02E3cYaETqaj4Xm087cpSg?contactid=S3HHYfHY5rZv5f94S15MnA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/583e6ce0-dfd0-48be-8a33-61256b3c58e3.mlbtlr.com\/p2\/Fbd8jWoWQQ6CdBcLIvut3Q\/02E3cYaETqaj4Xm087cpSg?contactid%3DS3HHYfHY5rZv5f94S15MnA&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1695737525351000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0QTqKRwRJQFGK3KoJYigxX\">HERE<\/a>.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maestro Nurhan Arman and Sinfonia Toronto present Sunny\u2019s Beethoven, a concert that puts pianist Sunny Ritter under the spotlight in her return to the city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":113578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41660,10,76,19,47,4557,63],"tags":[4531,40495],"yst_prominent_words":[12458,6739,7512,8261,7202,7915,9875,8649,7141,8079,6741,12932],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/04\/Copy-of-PREVIEW-10.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-txS","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113576"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113660,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113576\/revisions\/113660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113576"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=113576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}