Hamelin & Beethoven's “Emperor”

& Storgårds conducts the Enigma Variations

2025-02-05 20:00 2025-02-06 23:00 60 Canada/Eastern 🎟 NAC: Hamelin & Beethoven's “Emperor”

https://nac-cna.ca/en/event/36131

In-person event

Three things to know: One of today’s most prolific pianists, Marc-André Hamelin, has recorded over 70 albums spanning four centuries of music. Beethoven composed much of his “Emperor” Concerto for piano and orchestra in Vienna while war raged outside his doorstep. In his “Enigma” Variations, Edward Elgar offers tender musical portraits of friends and loved ones.  Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin — whose “demon...

Read more

Southam Hall,1 Elgin Street,Ottawa,Canada
February 5 - 6, 2025
February 5 - 6, 2025

February 2025

  1. Feb 5 2025
    Today

    8:00pm

  2. Feb 6 2025
    Tomorrow

    8:00pm

Close schedule
Music Classical music Piano
“The demon speed of Montreal-born pianist Marc-André Hamelin’s finger work, along with his passionate musicianship, have earned him seven Juno Awards and 11 Grammy nominations.”
  • VICTORIA POLEVÁ Symphony No. 3, “White Interment”
  • LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, “Emperor”
  • EDWARD ELGAR Variations on an Original Theme (“Enigma”), Op. 36

Featured artists

  • storgards8-high
    Conductor John Storgårds
  • hamelin-sim-cannety-clarke-16-20-1900x1265-cropped
    Piano Marc-André Hamelin
  • National Arts Centre Orchestra
  • In-person event
  • Bilingual
  • ≈ 2 hours · With intermission

Three things to know:

  1. One of today’s most prolific pianists, Marc-André Hamelin, has recorded over 70 albums spanning four centuries of music.
  2. Beethoven composed much of his “Emperor” Concerto for piano and orchestra in Vienna while war raged outside his doorstep.
  3. In his “Enigma” Variations, Edward Elgar offers tender musical portraits of friends and loved ones. 

Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin — whose “demon speed” (Boston Symphony Orchestra) and “near-superhuman technical prowess” (The New York Times) have earned him seven Juno Awards — returns to the NAC Orchestra for what will undoubtedly be a powerhouse performance of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto. Written while the composer’s hearing loss grew worse and the Napoleonic Wars raged outside his door in Vienna, Beethoven’s commanding work for solo piano and orchestra speaks to the strength of the human spirit in times of darkness and despair.  

How does a composer depict their loved ones in music? Find out as you experience Edward Elgar’s “Enigma” Variations — music of tenderness, humour, and devotion in which the composer weaves together 14 musical portraits of friends and family (and one scrappy English bulldog).  

And Ukrainian composer Victoria Polevá’s Third Symphony, “White Interment,” draws upon themes of spirituality, nature, and isolation to create a haunting musical landscape evoking thick blankets of deep mid-winter snow. 

Artists

  • storgards8-high
    Conductor John Storgårds
  • hamelin-sim-cannety-clarke-16-20-1900x1265-cropped
    Piano Marc-André Hamelin
  • National Arts Centre Orchestra