≈ 2 hours · With intermission
Last updated: March 10, 2020
Reflection
Peter Paul Koprowski’s violin concerto consists of four movements Ballade-Caprice-Berceuse-Burlesque. I love that he names these movements in this fashion. Normally classical musicians get indicators like Allegro (fast) and Adagio (slow) which refers to tempos. Occasionally we’ll get something more descriptive like Allegro con spirito (fast with spirit) and Adagio mesto (slow and sad) which sheds some light on the overall character. Peter Paul eliminates any debate about the nature of these movements. The music already reflects this but to actually know that I’m engaged in performing a Berceuse for example is very reassuring. The relation between the movements is slow-fast-slow-fast. There’s a small cadenza between the Berceuse and Burlesque which Peter Paul added months after he completed the work, saying, “…I feel the piece was so much calling for!”
When I play this concerto, my general feeling is that it’s very beautifully lyrical and bittersweet. Audience members that have watched me play may have the impression that I’m excitable and happy because I’m very animated (jumping out of my chair) but I musically connect better to feelings of sadness. I don’t know if Peter Paul sensed this many years ago but I would say that this concerto and me are, dare I say, “molto simpatico”!
In 1972, Mario Bernardi was on the podium for the NAC Orchestra’s first performance of Haydn’s Military Symphony. The ensemble gave their most recent interpretation of this work in 2012, under the direction of José Luis Gomez.
This is the first time the NAC Orchestra has performed Carl Nielsen’s Symphony No. 2.
Repertoire
Symphony No. 100, “Military”
Born in Rohrau, Austria, March 31, 1732
Died in Vienna, May 31, 1809
When Haydn’s “New Grand Ouverture,” as Symphony No. 100 was initially called by the English, was first performed at the Hanover Square Rooms in London on March 31, 1794 (Haydn’s 62nd birthday), it was an immediate and enormous success. The work quickly became his most popular symphony throughout Europe, and it remained so for years to come. It even found its way to the New World as early as 1825, when it was performed in Boston.
The subtitle “Military” did not come from Haydn. Shortly after the work was introduced, this apt sobriquet was already in common use as a shortened form of “the symphony with the military movement” (the second). In fact, though, military influences can be found throughout the entire symphony.
The slow introduction contains several portentous moments for that most military of instruments, the drums (timpani), which remain prominent throughout. Both principal themes of the first movement’s main Allegro section have a military flavour: the first (flute, two oboes) humorously suggestive of toy soldiers, the second (violins) so swaggering and confident that Johann Strauss I used it as the basis of his Radetzky March in 1848.
The second movement is not the traditional slow movement, but rather an Allegretto (moderately lively) consisting of a theme and variations based on what sounds like a folk tune. In fact, the theme is original on Haydn’s part, and only later assumed the added role of a folk song. Audiences in Haydn's time normally expected trumpets and drums to remain silent in a symphony’s second movement. Here Haydn, always ready to surprise the listener, not only retains these instruments, but adds a “Turkish” component of bass drum, cymbals and triangle as well as a pair of clarinets. The coda begins with a brash bugle call, presumably used by the Austrian army.
The Menuetto is sturdy and forthright, with a gracious central Trio section. Even here the military element intrudes, with a “dum-da-dum-da-dum” rhythmic pattern hammered out by the full orchestra, led by trumpets and drums.
The exhilarating finale is one of Haydn’s most substantial (334 measures), and incorporates any number of surprises, mysteries and musical jokes. The full percussion department returns, and the symphony ends in as splendid a display of sound as Haydn ever conjured from an orchestra.
– Program note by Robert Markow
Violin Concerto
Born in Łódź, Poland, August 24, 1947
Now living in London, Ontario
Peter Paul Koprowski’s early musical training took place initially in Krakow, followed by studies in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, England and finally the University of Toronto. He became a naturalized Canadian in 1976. Among his many awards, which he has been gathering since he was a teenager, are the prestigious Jules Léger Prize (on two occasions, in 1989 and 1994), and the 1997 Jean A. Chalmers National Music Award. In 2005, he was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order Polonia Restituta from his natal country. He retired last year from his position of professor of composition at Western University in London, Ontario.
Koprowski’s prolific output includes more than 50 commissioned compositions from ensembles such as the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Polish Chamber Orchestra, the Esprit Orchestra (Toronto), the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. The NAC Orchestra has been performing Koprowski’s music since 1982. These compositions include In Memoriam Karol Szymanowski, Epitaph for Strings, Sweet Baroque, Songs of Forever, Sinfonia Mystica, Sinfonia Concertante, Ancestral Voices, Intermezzo and Capriccio.
His most recent works, Podhale and the Chamber Concerto for Contrabass Solo, Timpani, Percussion and Strings, were commissioned by the NAC Orchestra as part of the NAC Award for Composers. The Violin Concerto is his third and final commission under this Award.
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Violin Concerto
World premiere: March 25, 2020 | NAC Commission
Peter Paul Koprowski’s latest work for the NAC Orchestra is the 20-minute Violin Concerto, written for tonight’s soloist, Yosuke Kawasaki. Koprowski describes it as “unabashedly tonal, melodic, and full of contrasts.”
“The first movement,” he writes, “is moderate in tempo, poetic and lyrical. It opens with a solo clarinet in partnership with a delicate sound of glass wind chimes. Various instruments from the orchestra join the solo violin in chamber settings. Approximately midway through there is a sudden but brief, rather aggressive brass episode, which gives way to lyrical, slowly unfolding poetic music.
“The second movement arrives without pause and brings a sudden contrast to the music. It is fast, relentless, and challenging for the soloist.
“The third movement opens with a short introduction for the winds, building on the clarinet solo which opened the composition. Although slow and rhythmically persistent, it brings a touch of humour to the work. The music is somewhat relaxed after the tumultuous second movement.
“Without a break, the movement rolls into a cadenza and then into the final movement. Light-hearted, at times aggressive and at others full of humour and vigour, the movement sums up the whole composition and brings it to a buoyant conclusion.”
– Program note by Robert Markow
Symphony No. 2, “The Four Temperaments”
Born in Sortelung, near Nørre Lyndelse on the island of Funen, Denmark, June 9, 1865
Died in Copenhagen, October 3, 1931
Denmark’s most famous composer, Carl Nielsen, like his Finnish counterpart Sibelius, ranks as one of the leading symphonists of the early twentieth century. Nielsen had a voice all his own, but he grew up in an era that included so many attention-grabbing personalities – Debussy, Bartók, Mahler, Ravel, Satie, Schoenberg, Busoni, Strauss, Stravinsky, Varèse – that there was little room left in the international consciousness for conservative music written by a quiet, simple man in Copenhagen.
But times change, and the Nielsen ratings are now significantly higher than they were just a few decades ago. His music, especially the six symphonies and three concertos (clarinet, flute, violin), is now encountered frequently and appreciated for its fresh approach to old forms, for its deeply ingrained spirit of humanity, its vital energy and ingratiating charm.
Human conditions are very much at the heart of Symphony No. 2. In 1901, during a visit to a village pub in Zealand, Nielsen saw hanging on the wall a four-part series of pictures depicting the four temperaments. His first reaction was to laugh derisively, along with all his friends. But later he found his thoughts “constantly returning to them, and one fine day it was clear to me that these simple paintings contained a core of goodness and – even – a musical possibility.” These reflections evolved into a four-movement symphony, which Nielsen completed in 1902. The premiere, conducted by the composer, was given in Copenhagen on December 1 of that year.
The “four temperaments” have occupied the minds of physicians, philosophers and psychologists since pre-Christian times. Essentially, they were thought to be the basic liquids in the human body that contributed to forming an individual’s personality: blood, phlegm (from the throat), black bile (congealed blood from the spleen) and yellow bile (gall secreted by the liver). The first was responsible for enthusiasm and excitability, the second for apathy and indolence, the third for melancholia, and the fourth for anger and irritability.
The sonata-form first movement bursts forth with all the vigour and vitality befitting a “choleric” temperament, but later there are also moments of calm and restraint (notably the sunny, genial second theme presented by woodwinds in turn). As Nielsen said, “the impetuous man can have his milder moments, the melancholy man his impetuous or brighter ones, and the boisterous, cheerful man can become a little contemplative, even quite serious – but only for a little while.”
Nielsen did not generally like the idea of writing program music, but he made an exception for the second movement of this symphony. “I visualized a young fellow [who] was uncommonly lovable. … It was impossible to scold him, for everything idyllic and heavenly in nature was to be found in this young lad. His inclination was to lie where the birds sing, where the fish glide noiselessly through the water. I have never seen him dance; he wasn’t active enough for that, though he might easily have got the idea to swing himself in a gentle slow waltz rhythm, so I have used that for the movement.” In contrast to the mood swings found in the other movements, Nielsen here affirmed that “the lazy, indolent man… only emerges from his phlegmatic state with the greatest of difficulty, so this movement is both brief (he can’t be bothered) and uniform in its progress.”
The movement marked Andante malincolico (Nielsen misspelled the Italian “malinconico”) is indeed, heavy, dour and laden with the darkly-coloured key of E-flat minor (six flats). To Nielsen, there is expressed here “a strong outcry of pain” (strings), a “plaintive, sighing motif [oboe] that slowly develops, ending in a climax of lamentation and suffering. After a short transition there is a quieter, resigned episode in E-flat major.”
In the sanguine finale, Nielsen “tried to sketch a man who storms thoughtlessly forward in the belief that the whole world belongs to him. … The final march, though joyous and bright, is yet more dignified and not so silly and self-satisfied as in some of the previous parts of his development.”
– Program notes by Robert Markow
Artists
Principal Guest Conductor of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa and Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, John Storgårds has a dual career as a conductor and violin virtuoso and is widely recognized for his creative flair for programming as well as his rousing yet refined performances. As Artistic Director of the Lapland Chamber Orchestra, a title he has held for over 25 years, Storgårds earned global critical acclaim for the ensemble’s adventurous performances and award-winning recordings.
Internationally, Storgårds appears with such orchestras as the Berliner Philharmoniker, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Vienna Radio Symphony, and the London Philharmonic, as well as all of the major Nordic orchestras, including the Helsinki Philharmonic where he was Chief Conductor from 2008 to 2015. He also regularly returns to the Münchener Kammerorchester, where he was Artistic Partner from 2016 to 2019. Further afield, he appears with the Sydney, Melbourne, Yomiuri Nippon and NHK Symphony Orchestras as well as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and New York Philharmonic.
Storgårds’s award-winning discography includes not only recordings of works by Schumann, Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn, but also rarities by Holmboe and Vask, which feature him as violin soloist. Cycles of the complete symphonies of Sibelius (2014) and Nielsen (2015) with the BBC Philharmonic were released to critical acclaim by Chandos. November 2019 saw the release of the third and final volume of works by American avant-garde composer George Antheil. Their latest project, recording the late symphonies of Shostakovich, commenced in April 2020 with the release of Symphony No. 11. In 2023, Storgårds and the BBC Philharmonic were nominated for Gramophone magazine’s Orchestra of the Year Award.
Storgårds studied violin with Chaim Taub and conducting with Jorma Panula and Eri Klas. He received the Finnish State Prize for Music in 2002 and the Pro Finlandia Prize 2012.
Yosuke Kawasaki currently serves as Concertmaster of the NAC Orchestra. His versatile musicianship allows him to pursue a career in orchestra, solo, and chamber music. His orchestral career began with the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra and soon led to the Mito Chamber Orchestra, Saito Kinen Orchestra, and Japan Century Orchestra, all of which he led as concertmaster. His solo and chamber music career spans five continents, collaborating with artists such as Seiji Ozawa, Pinchas Zukerman, and Yo-Yo Ma, and appearing in the world’s most prestigious halls such as Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall, and the Royal Concertgebouw.
Kawasaki’s current regular ensembles are Trio Ink and the Mito String Quartet. His passion for chamber music led to his appointment as Music Director to the Affinis Music Festival in Japan. He is also an artistic advisor to a new chamber music festival, Off the Beaten Path, in Bulgaria.
As an educator Kawasaki has given masterclasses and performed side by side with students in schools across Canada. Well-versed in the string quartet literature he was entrusted by Seiji Ozawa as the youngest faculty member of the Ozawa International Chamber Music Academy at the age of 26. He was also an adjunct professor of violin at the University of Ottawa School of Music from 2013 to 2022 alongside the beloved pedagogue Yehonatan Berick.
Kawasaki began his violin studies at the age of six with his father Masao Kawasaki and Setsu Goto. He was subsequently accepted into The Juilliard School Pre-College Division and further continued his education and graduated from The Juilliard School in 1998 under the tutorship of Dorothy DeLay, Hyo Kang, Felix Galimir, and Joel Smirnoff.
Since its debut in 1969, the National Arts Centre 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 Orchestra performs a full series of subscription concerts at the National Arts Centre each season, featuring world-class artists such as James Ehnes, Angela Hewitt, Joshua Bell, Xian Zhang, Gabriela Montero, Stewart Goodyear, Jan Lisiecki, and Principal Guest Conductor John Storgårds.
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.
National and international tours have been a hallmark of the National Arts Centre Orchestra from the very beginning. The Orchestra has toured 95 times since its inauguration in 1969, visiting 120 cities in Canada, as well as 20 countries and 138 cities internationally. In recent years, the orchestra has undertaken performance and education tours across Canada, as well as the U.K. and China. In 2019, the Orchestra marked its 50th anniversary with a seven-city European tour that included performances and education events in England, France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, and that showcased the work of six Canadian composers.
The NAC Orchestra has recorded many of the more than 80 new works commissioned since its inception, for radio and on over 40 commercial recordings. These include Angela Hewitt’s 2015 JUNO Award-winning album of Mozart Piano Concertos; the groundbreaking Life Reflected, which includes My Name is Amanda Todd by Jocelyn Morlock, winner of the 2018 JUNO for Classical Composition of the Year; and from the 2019 JUNO nominated New Worlds, Ana Sokolović’s Golden Slumbers Kiss Your Eyes, 2019 JUNO Winner for Classical Composition of the Year.
The NAC Orchestra reaches a national and international audience through touring, recordings, and extensive educational outreach. The Orchestra performed on Parliament Hill for the 2019 Canada Day noon concert in a live broadcast for CBC Television.
"Prolific, pensive and articulate," the prize-winning Peter Paul Koprowski was born in Lodz, Poland, in 1947. Noted for his early compositions as an “outstanding talent”, he attended and graduated in nearly half the required time from the Krakow Academy of Music, earning awards and having his works broadcast and performed in concerts. Starting with his orchestral In Memoriam Karol Szymanowski, written when he was only sixteen, Mr. Koprowski has gone through a musical evolution of an unusual breadth. As a child prodigy he absorbed the advanced harmonic languages of Scriabin and Szymanowski and was profoundly influenced by the polyphony of the Renaissance. During this time he was also exposed to a wide range of contemporary music presented at the annual Warsaw Autumn Festival -- Poland in the 1960s being like Paris fifty years earlier, in the vanguard of European music.
After a period in England, where he received further awards, Mr. Koprowski moved to Canada in 1971 and completed his doctorate at the University of Toronto. Since then his prolific output has continued with a canon extending from songs to symphonies -- all commissioned works exceeding 50 in number, from orchestras, ensembles and distinguished artists such as the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet. Mr. Koprowski’s works have been presented by many noted artists, such as Pinchas Zukerman, Trevor Pinnock, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Okko Kamu, and Wojciech Michniewski. In November 2006, his Elegiareceived its American premiere at Carnegie Hall, New York, by the New York Grand Opera Orchestra, with Maria Knapik as a soloist under Maestro Vincent La Selva. Five months later, his Tapestries for Soprano Solo and Orchestra received a world premiere with Maria Knapik and the Kingston Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Glen Fast, and was subsequently recorded for CD. Many other works received performances in North America and in Europe in the intervening months.
In 1983, Mr. Koprowski returned to Poland as a guest of the Warsaw Autumn Festival. In 1988, he was a Composer in Residence with the Canadian Opera Company. Twice, in 1989 and in 1994, he was recipient of the Canada Council for the Arts’s Jules Leger Prize and in 1990 he was awarded the interdisciplinary Victor Martyn Lynch-Stanton Award. In 1997, he received the Jean A. Chalmers National Music Award for four orchestral compositions: Viola Concerto, Symphony of Nordic Tales, Ancestral Voices and Saga(the only such occurrence in the history of the award). In 2002 his Viola Concertoreceived a JUNO nomination. In 2005, Peter Paul Koprowski was bestowed the Knight’s Cross of the Order Polonia Restituta.
Currently, Dr Koprowski resides in Canada, near Ottawa. He is also a professor of composition at the University of Western Ontario, and divides his time between European and North American engagements as a composer and conductor.
- Listen to Peter Paul Koprowski's Ancestral Voices and Epitaph for Strings throughNACmusicbox.ca, part of the National Arts Centre's performing arts educational website ArtsAlive.ca.
