{"id":87286,"date":"2022-11-28T12:26:44","date_gmt":"2022-11-28T17:26:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=87286"},"modified":"2022-11-29T23:15:58","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T04:15:58","slug":"scrutiny-three-toronto-concertmasters-create-thrilling-violinissimo-esprit-orchestra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2022\/11\/28\/scrutiny-three-toronto-concertmasters-create-thrilling-violinissimo-esprit-orchestra\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Three Toronto Concertmasters Create Thrilling Violinissimo With Esprit Orchestra"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Conductor
Conductor Alex Pauk and Esprit Orchestra perform with soloists Stephen Sitarski, Marie B\u00e9rard, and Aaron Schwebel (Photo: Karen Reeves)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Evangelista: Violinissimo; Staniland: Six Enigmas; Rea: Figures h\u00e2tives; Louie: Triple Concerto. Esprit Orchestra, Alex Pauk conducting; Aaron Schwebel, Stephen Sitarski, Marie B\u00e9rard, violinists. November 27, 2022, Koerner Hall, Toronto.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In an article in the current issue of The WholeNote<\/em> magazine, composer Alexina Louie described what she called the \u201cwild idea\u201d behind last night\u2019s Esprit Orchestra concert at Koerner Hall. Credit Louie\u2019s husband, Esprit Music Director Alex Pauk, with the “wild” decision to present three Canadian violin concertos, each featuring a different Toronto concertmaster, before bringing the three soloists together for a performance of Louie\u2019s Triple Concerto<\/em> for three violins and orchestra.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s most important \u2014 it worked!<\/p>\n

For a concert of contemporary classical music, this one made for surprisingly comfortable listening, eschewing the prolonged stasis or electronically-derived textures too often heard these days, much less the now-obsolescent caustic dissonances of atonality. These pieces were tonal and rhythmically forward-moving, the violinists never required to resort to extended techniques or special effects.<\/p>\n

Leading off was Jos\u00e9 Evangelista\u2019s Violinissimo<\/em> (1993) with Aaron Schwebel, Concertmaster of the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra. This was the only work on the program in the traditional concerto format of three movements, fast-slow-fast, and it was the least \u201cmodern\u201d sounding as well. The opening Acrobatico is a sprightly dance and the concluding Vertiginoso an even more energetic, syncopated folk-dance. But it\u2019s the central Meditazione that stands out. Here, Schwebel sustained an intense, melancholy, lyrical line, at times in the violin\u2019s highest register, over the orchestra\u2019s disjunct, heavily metallic, percussive chords, a haunting highlight of the evening.<\/p>\n

Next up was the world premiere of Six Enigmas<\/em> by Andrew Staniland, commissioned by Esprit, with Esprit Concertmaster Stephen Sitarski as soloist. In his program notes, Staniland wrote of \u201creferences\/quotes, compositional devices and homage to great works of the past. These little mysteries are embedded throughout the work.\u201d (I confess I failed to recognize any of Staniland\u2019s \u201creferences\/quotes.\u201d)<\/p>\n

In six connected movements, the episodic music features fast, even furious, repeated violin passagework, fortissimo orchestral blasts, restless woodwinds and brass, rippling arpeggios from Esprit pianist Talisa Blackman, a heavily accented section in which the music steadily rises in pitch, volume and velocity, generating real excitement, a lengthy, dreamy passage building to yet another violent outburst, all ending as the violin gently fades over sweetly chiming piano and percussion.<\/p>\n

At 14 minutes, John Rea\u2019s Figures h\u00e2tives<\/em> (2006), commissioned by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, was the shortest work on the program. (The concertos by Evangelista and Staniland clocked in at 19 minutes; Louie\u2019s Triple Concerto<\/em> at 16 minutes.) It was also the most adventurous \u2014 melodically, rhythmically and harmonically. Marie B\u00e9rard, Concertmaster of the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, shared the spotlight with Esprit harpist Sanya Eng, conspicuously positioned in the centre of the stage. It was Eng who began the piece with a six-note phrase that reverberated throughout the work. In his pre-concert comments, Rea described this piece as \u201cshadows chasing each other\u201d and the music is indeed elusive. Its shifting meters, shimmering percussion and disjointed orchestral mutterings, often unrelated to the violin\u2019s busy figurations, make this concerto even more enigmatic than Staniland\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Finally, the three concertmasters assembled for Louie\u2019s Triple Concerto<\/em> (2017), a work jointly commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra and Montreal Symphony Orchestra for Canada\u2019s 150th birthday and premiered by the concertmasters of the three orchestras.<\/p>\n

In two connected movements, the music reflects Louie\u2019s penchant for glittering, bell-like percussion, continuously tolling throughout the first movement. Marked Tranquillo, it\u2019s in fact quite energized. At one point, each violinist, in turn, became a soloist, playing alone while the other two remained silent. The brief Interlude \u2013 Sospirando featured prominent harp arpeggios over gentle percussion, while the final Con veloce e forza \u2013 Scintillante ended the concerto and the concert, with an outpouring of jubilation.<\/p>\n

In addition to the accessible, colourfully scored concertos, all thrillingly performed by the three soloists and the Esprit Orchestra conducted by Alex Pauk, what made this concert particularly refreshing is that unlike most Canadian works, doomed to be forgotten, often unfairly, after their premieres, the concertos by Evangelista, Rea and Louie evidently continue to have a life after birth. Staniland\u2019s kaleidoscopic Six Enigmas<\/em> might well become another survivor.<\/p>\n

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Accessible, colourfully scored concertos, were all thrillingly performed by three Toronto concertmasters and the Esprit Orchestra conducted by Alex Pauk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":87289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[39907,19,38,52,63],"tags":[221,231,282,621,4393,40356,40357],"yst_prominent_words":[24931,7587,7566,7584,6606,16964,19768,6613,35109,6826,10211],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/Esprit-Review-Nov-2022.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-mHQ","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87286"}],"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\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87286"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87430,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87286\/revisions\/87430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87286"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=87286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}