Ehnes and Beethoven’s Fifth

with the NAC Orchestra

Music Classical music

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NAC Orchestra

Sep 18 - Oct 9, 2021 90 minutes with no intermission.

Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 5 CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS Introduction and Rondo capriccioso in A minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 28 Lili Boulanger Nocturne for Violin and Orchestra, arr. Sarah Slean JESSIE MONTGOMERY Strum SARASATE Zigeunerweisen for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 20 (Gypsy Airs)

Beethoven’s glorious Symphony No. 5 is music that gets under your skin, still inspiring and delighting more than two centuries after its first performance in 1808.

NACO Artist-in-Residence, James Ehnes, returns to Southam Hall to perform Camille Saint-Saëns’s spirited Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, boldly commissioned at age 15 by violin prodigy Pablo de Sarasate. Then James embraces Lili Boulanger’s delicately tender and sweet Nocturne, originally written for violin and piano, and arranged specially for this performance by the incomparable Sarah Slean.

Next, Jessie Montgomery’s Strum, for string orchestra, explodes with spirit and life, borrowing from American folk idioms to create a nostalgic narrative that turns to colourful celebration. James Ehnes closes the program with Sarasate’s own Zigeunerweisen, by turns melodramatic and devil-may-care.

Please note the earlier start time of 6:00 PM.

This livestream performance will be available as a ticketed Video on Demand, and will be available for ticket buyers to re-watch, until October 9, 2021.

Learn more in the program notes ›

Artists

Featuring NAC Orchestra
Featuring NAC Orchestra

Since its debut in 1969, the National Arts Centre (NAC) Orchestra has been praised for the passion and clarity of its performances, its visionary educational programs, and its prominent role in nurturing Canadian creativity. Under the leadership of Music Director Alexander Shelley, the NAC Orchestra reflects the fabric and values of Canada, reaching and representing the diverse communities we live in with daring programming, powerful storytelling, inspiring artistry, and innovative partnerships.

Alexander Shelley began his tenure as Music Director in 2015, following Pinchas Zukerman’s 16 seasons at the helm. Principal Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and former Chief Conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra (2009–2017), he has been in demand around the world, conducting the Rotterdam Philharmonic, DSO Berlin, Leipzig Gewandhaus, and Stockholm Philharmonic, among others, and maintains a regular relationship with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and the German National Youth Orchestra.

Each season, the NAC Orchestra features world-class artists such as the newly appointed Artist-in-Residence James Ehnes, Angela Hewitt, Joshua Bell, Xian Zhang, Gabriela Montero, Stewart Goodyear, Jan Lisiecki, and Principal Guest Conductor John Storgårds. As one of the most accessible, inclusive, and collaborative orchestras in the world, the NAC Orchestra uses music as a universal language to communicate the deepest of human emotions and connect people through shared experiences.
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Conductor Alexander Shelley
Conductor Alexander Shelley

Alexander Shelley succeeded Pinchas Zukerman as Music Director of Canada’s NAC Orchestra in September 2015. The ensemble has since been praised as being “transformed... hungry, bold, and unleashed” (Ottawa Citizen) and Shelley’s programming credited for turning the orchestra into “one of the more audacious in North America” (Maclean’s).

Shelley is a champion of Canadian creation; recent hallmarks include the multimedia projects Life Reflected and UNDISRUPTED,and three major new ballets in partnership with NAC Dance for Encount3rs. He is passionate about arts education and nurturing the next generation of musicians. He is an Ambassador for Ottawa’s OrKidstra, a charitable social development program that teaches children life skills through making music together.

Alexander Shelley is also the Principal Associate Conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and, starting with the 2024–2025 season, Artistic and Music Director of Artis-Naples and the Naples Philharmonic in Florida, USA. In the spring of 2019, he led the NAC Orchestra on its critically acclaimed 50th Anniversary European tour, and in 2017, he led the Orchestra in a tour across Canada, celebrating Canada’s 150th anniversary. Most recently, he led the Orchestra in its first performance at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 30 years.

He has made seven recordings with the NAC Orchestra, including the JUNO-nominated New Worlds, Life Reflected, ENCOUNT3RS, The Bounds of Our Dreams, and the acclaimed Clara, Robert, Johannes four-album series, all with Canadian label Analekta.

The Music Director role is supported by Elinor Gill Ratcliffe, C.M., O.N.L., LL.D. (hc)
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Violin James Ehnes
Violin James Ehnes

James Ehnes has established himself as one of the most sought-after musicians on the international stage. Gifted with a rare combination of stunning virtuosity, serene lyricism, and an unfaltering musicality, Ehnes is a favourite guest at the world’s most celebrated concert halls.

Recent orchestral highlights include the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, San Francisco Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, and the Munich Philharmonic. Throughout the 2023–2024 season, Ehnes continues as Artist in Residence with the NAC Orchestra and as Artistic Partner with Artis–Naples.

Alongside his concerto work, Ehnes maintains a busy recital schedule. He performs regularly at Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Verbier Festival, and Festival de Pâques in Aix. A devoted chamber musician, he is the leader of the Ehnes Quartet and the Artistic Director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society.

Ehnes has an extensive discography and has won many awards for his recordings, including two GRAMMYs, three Gramophone Awards, and 11 JUNO Awards. In June 2020 Ehnes launched a new online recital series entitled “Recitals from Home” in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent closure of concert halls. These recordings have been met with great critical acclaim by audiences worldwide and Ehnes was described by Le Devoir as being "at the absolute forefront of the streaming evolution.”

Ehnes studied with Sally Thomas at the Meadowmount School of Music and The Juilliard School, winning the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music upon his graduation in 1997. He is a Member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Manitoba, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and an honorary fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he is a Visiting Professor.

Ehnes plays the “Marsick” Stradivarius of 1715.
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Composer Camille Saint-Saëns

Composer Camille Saint-Saëns

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)

Camille Saint-Saëns was a French composer, and was active as a pianist, organist, and writer. A formidable figure in 19th century French music, he composed works in every genre, including operas, ballet music, sacred and secular choral works, songs and solo piano pieces, chamber music, symphonies and concertos…even a film score. His music is often described as “neoclassical”, exhibiting qualities such as clarity, balance, order, and precision (considered hallmarks of the French art music tradition), combined with his distinctive use of harmonic colour and mastery of counterpoint. Among his works best-known to audiences today are the “Organ” Symphony, Third Violin Concerto, Fourth Piano Concerto, the suite Le carnaval des animaux, and the opera Samson et Dalila.

Born in Paris on October 9, 1835, Saint-Saëns was a musical child prodigy, making his public début at the Salle Pleyel as the soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 15. He entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1848, studying piano and later, composition and orchestration. In 1853, he became the organist at the Church of Saint-Merri, eventually moving on to La Madeleine in 1857, where he remained for 20 years. From the 1860s until the end of his life, he established an international reputation as a highly regarded composer and virtuoso pianist, performing on concert tours in England, southern Europe, Scandinavia, South America, East Asia, and the United States.

Saint-Saëns’s talents attracted the admiration and friendship of many notable musicians and composers, including Pauline Viardot, Gioachino Rossini, Hector Berlioz, and Franz Liszt. Beyond his own works, the composer actively promoted—through performance and his writings—the music of several of his contemporaries, including Robert Schumann and Liszt. He was also instrumental in the revival of French interest in the music of J.S. Bach and Mozart. In 1871, Saint-Saëns founded, with his colleague Romain Bussine, the Société Nationale de Musique, to support and perform the music of living French composers.

A life-long traveller, Saint-Saëns had a special fondness for Algiers and spent much time there and in Egypt in the early 20th century. Meanwhile, he continued to compose, conduct, and perform, receiving many honours for his contributions. In August 1921, he gave his final public performances as a pianist and as a conductor. A few months later, on December 16, he died in Algiers.

By Dr. Hannah Chan-Hartley

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Composer Lili Boulanger

Composer Lili Boulanger

Lili Boulanger (1893–1918) was a French composer. An immense musical talent from a young age, she became the first woman to win the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1913. Despite suffering chronic illness, she composed prolifically, creating substantial, potently expressive works for choir, voice, piano, chamber ensemble, and orchestra, and was at work on an opera when intestinal tuberculosis claimed her life at only 24 years old. Her distinctive style bears qualities typical of early 20th century French music, influenced, notably, by Gabriel Fauré and Claude Debussy in her synthesis of tonal and modal harmony, combined with her imaginative use of instrumental colour and layered textures.

Born Marie-Juliette Olga in Paris, August 21, 1893, Lili Boulanger grew up in an eminent musical family; her father was French composer Ernest Boulanger and her older sister Nadia, also a composer, later became a significant teacher to many of the 20th century’s leading composers (and a tireless advocate for Lili’s music). Her musical talent showed at age two and was nurtured with lessons in violin, piano, voice, and harp. Although her fragile health condition (due to a weakened immune system from bronchial pneumonia contracted in 1895) precluded her from receiving a complete education at the Paris Conservatoire, she studied composition privately with Georges Caussade. In January 1912, she was admitted to Paul Vidal’s composition class, and after failing to win the Prix de Rome that year, won it in 1913 with her cantata Faust et Hélène. This led to her signing a contract with the publisher Ricordi, who, guaranteeing her a monthly income, enabled her to focus entirely on composing.

During her first residency in Rome, Lili completed several works, including the song cycle Clarières dans le ciel. The outbreak of World War I forced her to return to Paris, where she and Nadia established the Comité Franco-Américain du Conservatoire National to provide support—sending material goods and forwarding mail—to musician soldiers. She went back to Rome in February 1916, where she made progress on several large-scale works, including her opera La princesse Malein. However, by the end of the year, she was greatly weakened by illness and was home in Paris again, where she spent her final years finishing compositions she had begun earlier. She died on March 15, 1918, in Mézy-sur-Seine.

By Dr. Hannah Chan-Hartley

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Composer Jessie Montgomery
Composer Jessie Montgomery

Jessie Montgomery is an acclaimed composer, violinist, and educator. She is the recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation, the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, and her works are performed frequently around the world by leading musicians and ensembles. Her music interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, poetry, and social consciousness, making her an acute interpreter of 21st-century American sound and experience. Her profoundly felt works have been described as “turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life” (The Washington Post).

Jessie was born and raised in Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the 1980s during a time when the neighborhood was at a major turning point in its history. Artists gravitated to the hotbed of artistic experimentation and community development. Her parents – her father a musician, her mother a theater artist and storyteller – were engaged in the activities of the neighborhood and regularly brought Jessie to rallies, performances, and parties where neighbors, activists, and artists gathered to celebrate and support the movements of the time. It is from this unique experience that Jessie has created a life that merges composing, performance, education, and advocacy.

Since 1999, Jessie has been affiliated with The Sphinx Organization, which supports young African-American and Latinx string players. She currently serves as composer-in-residence for the Sphinx Virtuosi, their Organization’s flagship professional touring ensemble. She was a two-time laureate of the annual Sphinx Competition and was awarded their highest honor, the Sphinx Medal of Excellence. She has received additional grants and awards from the ASCAP Foundation, Chamber Music America, American Composers Orchestra, the Joyce Foundation, and the Sorel Organization.

The New York Philharmonic has selected Jessie as a featured composers for their Project 19, which marks the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, granting equal voting rights in the United States to women. Other forthcoming works include a nonet inspired by the Great Migration, told from the perspective of Montgomery’s great-grandfather William McCauley and to be performed by Imani Winds and the Catalyst Quartet; a cello concerto for Thomas Mesa jointly commissioned by Carnegie Hall, New World Symphony, and The Sphinx Organization; and a new orchestral work for the National Symphony.
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Composer Pablo de Sarasate

Composer Pablo de Sarasate

Pablo de Sarasate (1844–1908)

Pablo de Sarasate was a Spanish violinist and composer. He was one of the 19th century’s most famous virtuoso violinists, performing regularly throughout Europe, North America, and South America. His friendship and close association with notable composers led to new works written for him to perform, which he popularized, along with concert pieces he composed, on his various tours. These works—charming and colourful, while also demanding technical brilliance—have since become a core part of the violin repertory, and continue to be beloved by violinists and audiences today.

Sarasate (christened Martín Melitón Sarasate y Navascuéz) was born in Pamplona on March 10, 1844. A child prodigy, he made his first public performance at age eight, and his talents attracted the attention and support of the Spanish elite and royalty. Following his studies with Jean-Delphin Alard at the Paris Conservatoire, Sarasate toured extensively as a concert violinist. By the early 1870s, he was famous in France, Belgium, England, the United States, and Argentina. In 1876, he gave his first performance in Vienna, an important debut in the German-speaking lands, where he eventually established his reputation and would visit annually.

According to critical reports, Sarasate’s violin playing was distinguished by a purity and sweetness in tone, and an astounding technical facility that he made to look effortless. Inspired by his abilities and showmanship, several composers wrote and dedicated works to him, including Max Bruch (Violin Concerto No. 2, Scottish Fantasy), Camille Saint-Saëns (Violin Concerto Nos. 1 and 3, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso), Éduoard Lalo (Violin Concerto in F major, Symphonie espagnole), and Henryk Wieniawski (Violin Concerto No. 2). Sarasate himself composed 54 works, many of them based on popular and folk melodies, all of them vehicles for his virtuosic style.

In 1904, Sarasate became one of the first violin virtuosos to make gramophone recordings, releasing nine of them, including one of him playing an abridged version of Zigeunerweisen, one of his most popular showpieces. Beyond his solo career, he was an avid player of string quartets. Sarasate died in Biarritz on September 20, 1908, from chronic bronchitis.

By Dr. Hannah Chan-Hartley

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