{"id":119779,"date":"2025-11-26T15:42:01","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T20:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=119779"},"modified":"2025-11-27T13:00:02","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T18:00:02","slug":"preview-kindred-spirits-orchestra-offers-sounds-of-the-season-with-a-twist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/11\/26\/preview-kindred-spirits-orchestra-offers-sounds-of-the-season-with-a-twist\/","title":{"rendered":"PREVIEW | Kindred Spirits Orchestra Offers Sounds Of The Season With A Twist"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Maestro
Maestro Kristian Alexander and the Kindred Spirits Orchestra (Photo courtesy of KSO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On December 6, the Kindred Spirits Orchestra will present Sounds of the Season, a holiday concert with a twist. Kristian Alexander conducts, with soloists Harrison Yang Meng, viola, and Daniel Vnukowski, piano.<\/p>\n

Alexander, KSO\u2019s Music Director, is known for his imaginative programming, and the orchestra\u2019s holiday concert is no different.<\/p>\n

The Program<\/h2>\n

The program opens with Tchaikovsky<\/strong>\u2019s classic Nutcracker Suite<\/strong> in a kind of mash up with some of The Beatles\u2019 popular songs. It\u2019s a marriage of beloved works by musicians of different eras.<\/p>\n

Violist Harrison Yang Meng will perform William Walton\u2019s Viola Concerto<\/strong>, a work that was written in 1929, and at the suggestion of conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, it was intended for violist Lionel Tertis. Walton was considered an avant garde composer in his time, and Tertis rejected the work at first sight. It premiered in 1929 with Paul Hindemith as the soloist at the Queen’s Hall, London.<\/p>\n

Tertis would later write,<\/p>\n

\u201cWith shame and contrition I admit that when the composer offered me the first performance, I declined it. \u2026 I had not learnt to appreciate Walton\u2019s style. The innovations in his musical language which now seem so logical and so truly in the mainstream of music then struck me as far-fetched. It took me time to realize what a tower of strength in the literature of the viola is this concerto.\u201d<\/p>\n

The work went on to great success, and established the British composer\u2019s reputation. It has become part of a violist\u2019s standard repertoire.<\/p>\n

The program closes with Symphony in C by French composer Paul Dukas<\/strong>, who dedicated the work to fellow musician Paul Vidal. Dukas wrote the work between 1894 and 1896, and it premiered in 1897 at the Concerts de l’Op\u00e9ra in Paris, conducted by Vidal.<\/p>\n

While it garnered mixed reviews initially, the piece has come to be considered as one of the key works of the French fin de si\u00e8cle period. Dukas was part of C\u00e9sar Franck’s inner circle, and he saw the older composer as a model. Like C\u00e9sar Franck’s one and only symphony, Dukas’ Symphony in C is written in three movements rather than the customary four. They are:<\/p>\n