≈ 90 minutes · No intermission
Last updated: October 19, 2021
Repertoire
Three Shanties, Op. 4a, arr. Philip Lane
I. Allegro con brio
II. Allegretto semplice
III. Allegro vivace
Malcolm Arnold wrote Three Shanties, originally for wind quintet, in 1942, around the beginning of what would be a rich and eclectic career as a composer, which is being celebrated worldwide this year to mark the centenary of his birth. At the time, he had recently joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra as second trumpet player and created this piece for his colleagues there. They premiered Three Shanties at an aircraft hangar near Bristol in August 1943, and today, it remains one of Arnold’s best-known chamber works. Tonight, you’ll hear an arrangement of this piece for chamber orchestra completed by Philip Lane in 2003.
Already in this early work, written when the composer was 21 years old, we can hear the depth of Arnold’s musical imagination—including a fondness for humour—and the sophistication of his craftmanship. For each movement, he’s taken the tune of a popular sea shanty (songs originally sung by sailors in the 19th century as they worked on their ships out at sea) and subjected it to inventive variations and quirky distortions, shifts in mood and timbre, and scintillating contrapuntal textures. In the first movement, the tune “What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor?” is the basis for a set of flash “episodes”, portraying the intoxicated sailor in various states: chasing fellow sailors or being chased by them (the theme in canonic imitation), darkening confusion (murmuring figures), hiccups, rowdy defiance. Later, there’s a tango of remorse, after which he’s roused to pull himself together in a galloping Presto.
For the Allegretto semplice, Arnold transformed the song “Boney was a Warrior” (an ode to Napoleon Bonaparte) into a tender, somewhat introspective melody. Its sweet strains are passed around the ensemble, supported by close-knit harmonies and delicate counterpoint. In the third movement, the shanty “Johnny Come Down to Hilo” appears in various colourful guises—vivacious and sparkling, sharply rhythmic with jazzy syncopations, bold and brash—thus closing the work with an ebullient crowd-pleaser.
Program notes by Dr. Hannah Chan-Hartley
Symphony No. 100 in D major, “Military”
I. Adagio – Allegro
II. Allegretto
III. Minuet and Trio: Moderato
IV. Finale: Presto
Franz Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 100 (1793–1794) is one of 12 symphonies the composer wrote for the major concert series in London that was organized by German violinist and impresario Johann Peter Salomon. The concerts were an enormous success, further boosting Haydn’s status as one of Europe’s most celebrated composers.
Appearing in the eight concert of the season, Symphony No. 100 was first performed in March 1794 at the Hanover Square Rooms, with Haydn leading from the keyboard along with Salomon as concertmaster, as was customary at the time. The work is, by turns, dramatic and full of wit and surprise, while also being intellectually stimulating (this was the age of “connoisseur” audiences for orchestral music). It caused a sensation and was one of the biggest triumphs of Haydn’s career.
The slow introduction begins with the violins presenting a theme of relaxed elegance, as if narrating the context for what is to come; a drum roll intrudes briefly, like a warning. The ensuing G major Allegro proceeds sunnily, with a charming first theme initially presented by flute and oboes; the second theme, consisting of playful repeated phrases, is later introduced by the first violins. Before returning to this music, the development section unfolds with many surprises, including opening with an abrupt silence, before the strings “restart” on the second theme in the remote-sounding key of B-flat major.
The second movement is the reason this symphony bears the title “Military”, for in it, Haydn adds the triangle, cymbal, and bass drum to trumpets and timpani to create a percussion section evoking Janissary bands of the Ottoman Empire. Having not appeared in orchestral music before, these sounds, as music scholar Robert Philip has pointed out, would have shocked audiences of Haydn’s time. (At the first performances, they were so enthralled they asked for encores.) Today, this music still astonishes, not least near the movement’s close when the proceedings are interrupted dramatically by a trumpet fanfare and orchestral “crash”.
The Minuet and Trio are both dances of stately character, underscored by the stentorian use of trumpets and drums at certain moments. A lively and vigorous finale rounds out the Symphony, with a journey of unexpected changes in key, dynamics, and interesting orchestral details. Near the end, the Turkish percussion from the second movement returns to close the piece with boisterous flair.
Program notes by Dr. Hannah Chan-Hartley
Violin Concerto
I. —
II. Chaconne: ‘Body through which the dream flows’
III. Toccare
John Adams composed his Violin Concerto in 1993. “The proposal to write a violin concerto came from the violinist Jorja Fleezanis, a close friend and enthusiastic champion of new music,” he notes in his description to the piece. Since its premiere, the Concerto has been absorbed into the repertory of many violinists, including Leila Josefowicz, who has performed it numerous times and recorded it with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Robertson.
Adams was intent on writing a piece that was truly violinistic and he consulted Fleezanis throughout the compositional process. Moreover, “the violin commands incredible lyric intensity and has a fantastic capacity to deliver a white-hot message,” so, “a concerto without a strong melodic statement is hard to imagine. I knew that if I were to compose a violin concerto, I would have to solve the issue of melody.”
As Adams describes, “The Violin Concerto emerged as an almost implacably melodic piece—a example of ‘hypermelody.’ The violin spins one long phrase after another without stop for nearly the full 35 minutes of the piece. I adopted the classic [three-movement] form of the concerto as a kind of Platonic model, even to the point of placing a brief cadenza for the soloist at the traditional locus near the end of the first movement. The concerto opens with a long, extended rhapsody for the violin, a free, fantastical ‘endless melody’ over the regularly pulsing staircase of upwardly rising figures in the orchestra.”
The second movement is a chaconne, a type of musical piece that uses a recurring melodic pattern in the bass line, or a ground bass. The ground bass Adams uses here is a near-exact quotation of the one used in Pachelbel’s Canon. Typically, the pattern stays the same in terms of pitch and rhythmic shape throughout the piece, but in this movement, it “gently stretches, compresses, and transfigures its contours and modalities while the violin floats like a disembodied spirit around and about the orchestral tissue.” As for the chaconne’s title, “‘Body through which the dream flows’ is a phrase from a poem by Robert Haas, words that suggested to me the duality of flesh and spirit that permeates the movement. It is as if the violin is the ‘dream’ that flows through the slow, regular heartbeat of the orchestral ‘body’.” The final “Toccare” is a virtuosic display piece for the violin of “surging motoric power.”
Program notes by Dr. Hannah Chan-Hartley
Artists
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.
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.
Leila Josefowicz, violin
Leila Josefowicz’s passionate advocacy of contemporary music for the violin is reflected in her diverse programs and enthusiasm for performing new works. In recognition of her outstanding achievement and excellence in music, she won the 2018 Avery Fisher Prize and was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 2008, joining prominent scientists, writers, and musicians who have made unique contributions to contemporary life.
Most recent highlights include opening the London Symphony Orchestra’s season with Sir Simon Rattle and returning to San Francisco Symphony with the incoming Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen to perform his Violin Concerto, concerts with Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras. Further engagements include returns to Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
A favourite of living composers, Josefowicz has premiered many concertos, including those by Colin Matthews, Steven Mackey, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, all written specially for her. Recent premieres include John Adams’s Scheherazade.2 (Dramatic Symphony for Violin and Orchestra) in 2015 with the New York Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert, and Luca Francesconi’s Duende – The Dark Notes in 2014 with Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Susanna Mälkki. Josefowicz enjoyed a close working relationship with the late Oliver Knussen, performing various concerti, including his violin concerto, together over 30 times.
Josefowicz has released several recordings, notably for Deutsche Grammophon, Philips/Universal, and Warner Classics, and was featured on Touch Press’s acclaimed iPad app, The Orchestra. Her latest recording, released in 2019, features Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Violin Concerto with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu. She has previously received nominations for GRAMMY Awards for her recordings of Scheherazade.2 with the St. Louis Symphony conducted by David Robertson, and Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Violin Concerto with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer.
John Adams
(Born in 1947)
Composer, conductor, and creative thinker—John Adams occupies a unique position in the world of American music. His works stand out among contemporary classical compositions for their depth of expression, brilliance of sound, and the profoundly humanist nature of their themes.
Among Adams’s works are several of the most performed contemporary classical pieces today: Harmonielehre, Shaker Loops, Chamber Symphony, Doctor Atomic Symphony, Short Ride in a Fast Machine, and his Violin Concerto. His stage works, in collaboration with director Peter Sellars, include Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer, El Niño, Doctor Atomic, A Flowering Tree, and the Passion oratorio The Gospel According to Mary. Adams’s most recent opera, Girls of the Golden West, set during the 1850s California Gold Rush, was premiered by the San Francisco Opera in 2017.
In 2019, Adams received Holland's prestigious Erasmus Prize, “for contributions to European culture,” the only American composer ever chosen for this award. Adams has additionally received honorary doctorates from Harvard, Yale, Northwestern University, Cambridge University, and the Juilliard School. Since 2009 he has held the position of Creative Chair with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. A provocative writer, he is author of the highly acclaimed autobiography Hallelujah Junction and is a contributor to The New York Times Book Review.
As a conductor of his own works and wide variety of repertoire, Adams has appeared with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the orchestras of Seattle, Cincinnati, Atlanta, and Toronto.
Adams’s 2019 piano concerto Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? was recently recorded by pianist Yuja Wang with the LA Phil and Gustavo Dudamel, and released by Deutsche Grammophon.
Reprinted by kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes
Malcolm Arnold
(1921–2006)
Sir Malcolm Arnold was an English composer, and one of British music’s best-known figures of the 20th century. He wrote prolifically across an eclectic variety of musical genres: orchestral works including nine symphonies and over 20 concertos, pieces for brass band and wind band, ballets, operas, chamber music, songs and choral works, and 130-plus film scores, including the one for The Bridge on the River Kwai, for which he won an Oscar in 1958. Arnold’s music is distinguished for its strikingly bold and colourful orchestration (Sibelius, Mahler, and Berlioz were cited by him as major influences), the use of conventional tonal harmony inflected with modernisms, and inventive melodies. The interplay of sounds in his scores serve highly dramatic purposes that are notable for their direct emotional appeal.
Born in Northampton on October 21, 1921, Arnold had his musical talent nurtured early through private composition lessons; at age 12, he began to play the trumpet. He won a scholarship to study trumpet and composition at the Royal College of Music, and before graduating, was already playing in the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1941, he became the orchestra’s second trumpet, eventually rising to principal trumpet two years later. He played in the LPO until 1948 (save for two years when he served in the war), during which he continued to compose. Although an exceptional trumpet player, Arnold turned to composing full-time in 1948, after he was awarded the Mendelssohn Scholarship.
For the next 20 years, Arnold had a phenomenally busy career as a composer; he became highly sought after for his concert works—he wrote his third, fourth, and fifth symphonies during this period as well as many concertos for star performers he admired—and was producing up to six film scores a year. He was also active in conducting his own compositions, whether in the concert hall or in the film studio.
Inevitably, this intense schedule took a toll on his increasingly troubled mental and physical health; he stopped writing for film by 1970 and ceased composing all together from the late 70s to the early 80s. A return to health enabled him to resume his creative activities in the mid-1980s, but after completing his ninth symphony, he retired from composition in 1991. Arnold’s musical achievements were widely recognized during his lifetime with numerous honours and awards, including a knighthood in 1993. He died in Norwich, on September 23, 2006.
By Dr. Hannah Chan-Hartley
Franz Joseph Haydn
(1732–1809)
Franz Joseph Haydn was an Austrian composer. During his lifetime, he achieved renown across Europe, and he continues to be venerated today for his contributions to Western art music. His vast compositional catalogue encompasses works of every significant musical genre of the 18th century. He is often regarded as the “father” of the symphony and the string quartet (he wrote 104 and 68 of these, respectively), for having elevated the quality and importance of these forms of music alongside the development of public concert life. Stylistically, Haydn composed with the 18th century principle in mind that music’s main purpose was to move the listener. Consequently, his works are characterized by an emphasis on depth of feeling (through memorable melodies) and wit (via a sense of play on expectations of aspects of form and musical rhetoric), to be appealing to amateurs and connoisseurs alike.
Born in Rohrau, Lower Austria on March 31, 1732, Haydn, from a young age, studied harpsichord, violin, and singing, in Hainburg. He later became a choir boy at the Stephansdom in Vienna. Following his education, Haydn’s career—and the types of compositions he wrote—was shaped extensively by the circumstances of his employment, which ranged from being a court composer and musician to an artist of relative independence earning income on commissions and the publication of his works. He began as a freelance musician, teacher, and composer, eventually landing his first appointment as director of music for Count Morzin in 1757. In 1761, the wealthy and influential Esterházy family of Hungarian nobility employed Haydn as their Vice Kapellmeister, in charge of all the instrumental, secular, and stage music of their court. When he was elevated to the position of Kapellmeister five years later, he became responsible for church music as well. At this time, prince Nicolaus established his summer palace, Eszterháza, where, over the following two decades, opera became the dominant musical activity and Haydn increasingly spent time there to oversee its production.
In 1779, Haydn entered into a new contract with his employer that allowed him to continue writing instrumental music and earn income from its publication and performance in Vienna and abroad. Within a few years, Haydn’s music became genuinely popular, including in France and England, from where he received several prestigious commissions for symphonies from Count d’Ogny in Paris (1785–1786) and from concert impresario Johann Peter Salomon in London (1791–1795).
Upon returning to Vienna from London in 1795, Haydn shifted almost entirely to composing sacred vocal music: masses for the Esterházy court, and oratorios, such as The Creation, for the city’s Gesellschaft der Associirten. From 1799, his musical activities gradually waned due to physical and mental decline; his last completed work, the Harmoniemesse, was given in September 1802, and his final public appearance, conducting Seven Last Words, was in December 1803. He spent his remaining years at home in Gumpendorf, receiving friends and continuing to mentor younger musicians (Beethoven among them). Haydn died, highly decorated with honours, in Vienna on May 31, 1809.
By Dr. Hannah Chan-Hartley
NAC Orchestra
FIRST VIOLINS
Yosuke Kawasaki (concertmaster)
Jessica Linnebach (associate concertmaster)
Noémi Racine Gaudreault (assistant concertmaster)
Elaine Klimasko
Marjolaine Lambert
Jeremy Mastrangelo
Manuela Milani
Leah Roseman
Erica Miller*
Martine Dubé*
Marc Djokic*
SECOND VIOLINS
Mintje van Lier (principal)
Winston Webber (assistant principal)
Mark Friedman
Carissa Klopoushak
Frédéric Moisan
Edvard Skerjanc
Karoly Sziladi
Emily Westell
Andréa Armijo-Fortin*
Renée London*
Sara Mastrangelo*
Heather Schnarr*
Sarah Williams*
VIOLAS
Jethro Marks (principal)
David Marks (associate principal)
David Goldblatt (assistant principal)
Paul Casey
Ren Martin-Doike
David Thies-Thompson
Sonya Probst*
CELLOS
Rachel Mercer (principal)
Julia MacLaine (assistant principal)
Timothy McCoy
Marc-André Riberdy
Leah Wyber
Thaddeus Morden*
DOUBLE BASSES
Hilda Cowie (acting assistant principal)
Marjolaine Fournier
Vincent Gendron
Paul Mach*
FLUTES
Joanna G'froerer (principal)
Stephanie Morin
OBOES
Charles Hamann (principal)
Anna Petersen
CLARINETS
Kimball Sykes (principal)
Sean Rice
BASSOONS
Christopher Millard (principal)
Vincent Parizeau
HORNS
Lawrence Vine (principal)
Julie Fauteux (associate principal)
Elizabeth Simpson
Louis-Pierre Bergeron
TRUMPETS
Karen Donnelly (principal)
Steven van Gulik
Michael Fedyshyn*
TROMBONES
Donald Renshaw (principal)
Colin Traquair
BASS TROMBONE
Douglas Burden
TUBA
Chris Lee (principal)
TIMPANI
Feza Zweifel (principal)
PERCUSSION
Jonathan Wade
Louis Pino*
Matthew Moore*
HARP
Angela Schwarzkopf*
KEYBOARD
Olga Gross*
Frederic Lacroix*
PRINCIPAL LIBRARIAN
Nancy Elbeck
ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN
Corey Rempel
PERSONNEL MANAGER
Meiko Lydall
*Additional musicians
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Official Car of the NAC Orchestra
