{"id":61723,"date":"2019-07-31T10:43:31","date_gmt":"2019-07-31T14:43:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=61723"},"modified":"2019-07-31T13:59:48","modified_gmt":"2019-07-31T17:59:48","slug":"scrutiny-nyo-canada-raises-the-roof-at-koerner-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2019\/07\/31\/scrutiny-nyo-canada-raises-the-roof-at-koerner-hall\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | NYO Canada Raises The Roof At Koerner Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"NYO
NYO Canada, Koerner Hall, Toronto, 2019. (Photo: David Popoff, NYO Canada)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The National Youth Orchestra of Canada: 2019 TD Tour \u201cOdyssey\u201d at Koerner Hall, Toronto,\u00a0July 29, 2019<\/p>\n

To paraphrase a pithy bon mot popularly attributed to Walt Kelly, \u201cWe have seen the future of Canadian classical music, and it is the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NYO under the baton of world-renowned British conductor Michael Francis stopped at Koerner Hall on Monday, July 29th as the last leg of its five-city Canadian tour that also included Ottawa, Montreal, Parry Sound and Stratford, before jetting off to Spain for three more festival concert dates that run through August 11th. It is humbling that 40% of Canadian orchestras are comprised of NYO alumni, with this ambitious program performed by 94 fearless players aged 16-28 giving a distinct sense of peering into a futuristic crystal ball, assuring this country\u2019s orchestral and chamber music scene is in very good hands, indeed.<\/p>\n

The near-capacity concert introduced by NYO President of the Board of Directors, James Hunter, and performed in the company of the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario Elizabeth Dowdeswell offered two centrepieces: Brahms\u2019s \u201cConcerto for Violin and Cello, Op. 102 in A Minor,\u201d colloquially known as the \u201cDouble Concerto,\u201d showcasing this year\u2019s Canada Council for the Arts Michael Measures Prize recipients<\/a> as soloists: cellist Matthew Christakos (first prize of $25K) and violinist Alison Kim (second prize $15K), as well as ten excerpts from Prokofiev\u2019s Romeo and Juliet, Suites Nos. 1 and 2, cobbled together into a pastiche score that (loosely) follows the narrative arc of Shakespeare\u2019s ill-fated lovers\u2019s tale of woe.<\/p>\n

The 58-year-old NYO boasts an impressive record of commissioning new works for its annual four to five-week summer intensives and subsequent international tours that nurture emerging artists’ appetites for cutting edge contemporary music, in addition to the more standard fare that will be their bread and butter for years to come \u2014 with this year no exception.<\/p>\n

\"NYO
(l-r) Alison Kim (violin) Matthew Christakos (cello),\u00a0Michael Francis (conductor). (Photo: David Popoff, NYO Canada)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A new partnership with The SOCAN Foundation\/NYO Emerging Composers\u2019 Mentorship Program bore its first fruit with inaugural recipient Canadian-American composer Jared Miller (in attendance). The UBC graduate and current Juilliard School Doctoral Fellow\u2019s \u201cUnder Sea, Above Sky\u201d is a personal love letter to Planet Earth imperilled by the throes of climate change, with his 11-minute work by turns thundering with bass drum strikes and fortissimo brass; or drawing listeners into its ghostly soundworld with glassy string harmonics and ethereal glissandi suggesting the wail of whales, or beckoning sirens of the sea. Miller\u2019s keen ear for orchestration also includes bowed crotales, whispers, and whistle tones \u2014 as well as actual whistling by the wind players \u2014 instilling an elegiac sensibility in the spirit of other environmentally-minded composers as John Luther Adams. Individual players are also wisely highlighted during short solo passages, including principal harpist\u00a0Nicole Lancaster<\/span>\u2019s plucking of her lowest strings to startling effect in this work ostensibly a cautionary tale.<\/p>\n

Following the premiere, Kim and Christakos then took the stage for the Brahms, with the latter immediately digging in hard with his opening thematic statement during first movement \u201cAllegro,\u201d before joined by Kim. Both players are confident, able soloists in their own right; however also proved their simpatico partnering skills with their tightly knitted contrapuntal lines and polyrhythms giving backbone to Brahms\u2019s \u201csuper-sized string instrument\u201d in his final orchestral work dedicated to violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim. Kim also displayed a remarkable poise underscored by her burnished tone during the \u201cAndante,\u201d performing her lyrical lines in a musical dialogue with Christakos until their final cadence. The duo took a lighter, more playful approach to the Gypsy-infused finale that (thankfully) grew in intensity after Francis picked up the pace during the orchestral tutti; ultimately driving forward with its jagged, angular syncopated rhythms crisply articulated in the acoustically rich hall able to withstand the gale force of a 94-piece orchestra.<\/p>\n

After a rousing standing ovation including three curtain calls, the couple delivered their encore of the Handel\/Halvorsen \u201cPassacaglia for violin and cello,\u201d their interpretation having notably grown stronger and more confident since I heard this performed at the Festival of the Sound\/Parry Sound on July 25th,\u00a0 that also featured a rafter-raising Mahler 5.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s noteworthy that, while most professional orchestras maintain a core nucleus for years, or even decades, the NYO re-invents itself each summer with a full 57% of an auditioned 519 aspiring musicians brand new to its ranks this year, including three exchange students from the European Union. The NYO also gains street cred as a billed national orchestra when players from each province are asked to rise following intermission \u2014 including 33 from Ontario alone \u2014 and it is a testament to NYO\u2019s organizational and musical leadership that a large group of ostensibly virtual strangers gel so cohesively, and musically during their relatively brief time together.<\/p>\n

\"NYO
NYO Canada, Koerner Hall, Toronto, 2019 ((Photo: David Popoff)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the NYO\u2019s range of eclectic repertoire this year spanning Brahms to Vivaldi; as well as a natural choice of de Falla for the Spanish performances being held at San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Alicante, and Granada, Prokofiev\u2019s Romeo and Juliet suites derived from his politically star-crossed score of 1934 for the Soviet \u201cdrambalet\u201d becomes another wise choice, creating variety and contrast while riding the coattails of youthful high spirits and contagious energy that fuels this ensemble.<\/p>\n

Never was this more apparent than during an all-guns-blazing \u201cDeath of Tybalt,\u201d a proverbial showstopper rendered as a testosterone-soaked street brawl including rugged downbows and snap pizzicati, leading to a stunned crowd bursting into applause including a few hushed \u201cwows\u201d by the end for its raw, visceral power. Francis (rightfully so), who last led the NYO in 2015 with this year his sophomore appearance on its podium, pushes his players like stallions; attacking this section, as well as \u201cMasks\u201d with its propulsive rhythms, and \u201cMinuet,\u201d performed not as a stately court dance, but full-blooded mating ritual rife with textural and timbral colour. And one is never quite the same again after hearing its two blood-curdling, dissonant shrieks at the top of opener \u201cMontagues and Capulets\u201d performed by nearly 100 musicians as if there were no tomorrow.<\/p>\n

The maestro paced the overall work well, with each selection organically bleeding into the next with (relatively) quieter movements including \u201cJuliet the Young Girl,\u201d and \u201cFriar Laurence\u201d providing welcomed repose, although more sweetness, and particularly with the strings now playing with an abundance of zeal during \u201cRomeo and Juliet,\u201d and \u201cRomeo and Juliet Before Parting\u201d would have helped balance the brute of the earlier movements. \u201cRomeo at Juliet\u2019s Grave\u201d that caps the entire work once again saw Francis wringing out every ounce of emotion from his players, who responded in kind until a final, breathless close that elicited another standing ovation from the crowd of family, friends and supporters with cries of bravo.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a longstanding NYO tradition to end with song, and in this case, hearing the blended voices of these suddenly morphed choristers coached by NYO Choir Director and Guest Conductor for the Elmer Iseler Singers, Mitchell Pady, stirred the soul with their final musical offerings sung in SATB: Matthew Emery\u2019s poignant \u201cLead Us Home,\u201d commissioned by NYO in 2018, and in Canada\u2019s other official language, this year\u2019s similarly commissioned “Garde ton r\u00eave” by Franco-Ontarian composer Marie-Claire Saindon. Both works will be toured to Spain this month, the latter\u2019s lyrical suspended harmonies rising and falling like waves on an ocean separating two continents \u2014 geographically far, yet united in music.<\/p>\n

[Correction: a previous version incorrectly named Lori Gemel as the harpist featured in\u00a0Jared Miller’s “Under Sea, Above Sky”.]<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

LUDWIG VAN TORONTO<\/i>
\n<\/b><\/h3>\n

Want more updates on classical music and opera news and reviews? Follow us on\u00a0<\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/a><\/span>,<\/i><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Instagram<\/span><\/a>, or\u00a0<\/i>Twitter<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/i>\u00a0for all the latest.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To paraphrase a pithy bon mot popularly attributed to Walt Kelly, \u201cWe have seen the future of Canadian classical music, and it is the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":61727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25164,76,19,36,52,59,63,1],"tags":[1876,2217,2350],"yst_prominent_words":[30473,30471,30474,30464,30462,30476,30468,30475,9035,30472,30470,30469,30463,30461,30460,30454,30453,12186,30455,9043],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/NYO-CANADA-TORONTO-2019.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-g3x","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61723"}],"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\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61723"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61737,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61723\/revisions\/61737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61723"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=61723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}