Last updated: February 8, 2023
Program
SAMY MOUSSA Symphony No. 2* (20 min)
ÉDOUARD LALO Symphonie espagnole for violin and orchestra, Op. 21 (31 min)
I. Allegro non troppo
II. Scherzando: Allegro molto
III. Intermezzo: Allegretto non troppo
IV. Andante
V. Rondo: Allegro
INTERMISSION
SERGEI PROKOFIEV (comp. Gustavo Gimeno) Suite from Romeo and Juliet (43 min)
I. Montagues and Capulets (Suite No. 2 – No. 1)
II. The Child Juliet (Suite No. 2 – No. 2)
III. Dance (Suite No. 2 – No. 4)
IV. Masques (Suite No. 1 – No. 5)
V. Romeo and Juliet Balcony Scene (Suite No. 1 – No. 6)
VI. Death of Tybalt (Suite No. 1 – No. 7)
VII. Romeo and Juliet Before Parting (Suite No. 2 – No. 5)
VIII. Romeo at the Grave of Juliet (Suite No. 2 – No. 7)
IX. The Death of Juliet (Suite No. 3 – No. 6)
*Commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Note from TSO Chief Executive Officer
Welcome: It is always a pleasure to welcome a Southam Hall audience to a Toronto Symphony Orchestra performance, this year doubly so, because your own NAC Orchestra is taking the stage at the same time on our home stage at Roy Thomson Hall (RTH). So, this exchange is truly reciprocal. At RTH our audience will hear the program you heard February 9 and 10. You will be listening to the program our audience heard on February 8 and 9. But while our audiences will be renewing their acquaintance with Alexander Shelley, who has led the NAC Orchestra into Toronto since 2016, you will be hearing a Gustavo Gimeno–led TSO for the very first time!
Orchestras necessarily take on the dynamic colouration of their home halls and take that unique sound with them on the road. As well, over time, when the chemistry is right, their personalities come to reflect the relationship between the orchestra and its Music Director—and here too, both audiences are in for a treat.
Tonight’s program includes Canadian composer Samy Moussa’s Symphony No. 2 (a TSO Commission), virtuosic Spanish violinist María Dueñas playing Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole, and Gimeno’s own compilation of a suite from Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet. You will be hearing a newly commissioned work from a dynamic and endlessly inventive Canadian composer whose international star is on the rise; a beloved violin classic in the hands of an extraordinary, and extraordinarily young, soloist making her Canadian debut; and an opportunity to hear a masterpiece of the orchestral canon with fresh ears.
From here we head on to Carnegie Hall for the 21st time since 1968, and then to Symphony Center, Chicago (on Valentine’s Day), for the first time in our orchestra’s 100-year history. So, thank you for joining us here tonight.
Mark Williams
Chief Executive Officer, TSO
Repertoire
Symphony No. 2 (TSO Commission)
The world premiere, this past May, of Samy Moussa’sSymphony No. 2 wasone of thehigh points of his year-long 2020–21 residency as the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s first Spotlight Artist—an appointment that provided unprecedented access to the Orchestra’s artistic resources. “One interesting thing about the piece is the instrumentation,” the Montreal-born, Berlin-based Moussa said at the time. “The TSO allowed me anything I wanted for the commission, which was wonderful, both for things I wanted to do and wanted not to do. As well, composing for the TSO, whatever I had in mind I knew they could do. And this was liberating for me.”
And the things he didn’t want? “For one thing, no trombones,” he said. “For two reasons: to break the habit of relying on particular instruments for a certain kind of power, and, because I am working on a trombone concerto next, so I wanted to allow myself to crave the trombone for that!”
Other choices flowed from that. Trumpets are replaced with flugelhorns; and a euphonium has been added to the usual roster of symphonic instruments. As he explained: “I had the unique opportunity to create a new brass section sound. Unlike trumpets and trombones, flugelhorns have a conical bore; euphonium and tuba are conical bore instruments too. And for percussion I also wanted a grouped sound, so only pitched instruments—no bass drum, castanets, cymbals or gongs. Instead, marimba, xylophone, vibraphone, crotales, glockenspiel. That was very important for my aesthetic of the piece.
The 20-minute score is divided into three movements, Moussa said, but the music never stops except for a very small moment near the end. “Watch for the chorale in the brass at the start. It comes back frequently, and of course at the end.”
His use of the word “watch” is illuminating, speaking to his awareness of how live symphonic music speaks to the eyes as well as the ears. “The euphonium is beautiful, in sound, shape and position—the little tuba and the big tuba side by side, in a chorus of eight instruments from the same conical brass family. And when strings and brass interact like a double chorus, it’s aural but also visual, which is both beautiful and informative.”
Moussa’s distinctiveness as a composer is marked by bold approaches to harmony and timbre coupled with a seemingly boundless refusal to repeat himself, resulting in a stream of ever-changing and uniquely vivid sound worlds, and a succession of commissions by such wide-ranging presenters and ensembles as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, DSO Berlin, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Orchestresymphonique de Montréal, and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
His catalogue of published compositions (40 at last count) ranges from opera and oratorio to solo works for accordion, piano, and cello. Among these compositions are a dozen pieces for orchestra alone, and a further five for orchestra and soloist. Works underway in his composition diary include commissions for the Wiener Philharmoniker and for the Dutch National Opera & Ballet. (As for the aforementioned concerto for trombone and orchestra, it is scheduled for an April 14, 2023 première with the Orchestre national de Lyon, with Jörgen van Rijen, trombone, and Gemma New, conductor.)
Moussa is an accomplished conductor, and his current engagements include the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Opera, Haydn Orchestra (Bolzano), and Les Violons du Roy.
Program note by David S. Perlman
Symphonie espagnole for violin and orchestra, Op. 21
I. Allegro non troppo
II. Scherzando: Allegro molto
III. Intermezzo: Allegretto non troppo
IV. Andante
V. Rondo: Allegro
Édouard Lalo belongs to a group of composers who, for better or worse, are widely known by a single work—in his case, the spectacular showpiece for violin and orchestra that you will hear at this concert.
His talent found favour only in the final 25 years of his life, due most of all to French musical tastes of the day which favoured lightness and grace over depth and seriousness, and preferred vocal music, especially opera, over the purely instrumental kind. He was greeted with indifference for so long that he actually gave up composing for almost ten years during the 1860s and early 1870s.
Inspiration to resume came largely from violinist Pablo de Sarasate, Spanish-born but a resident of Paris since the age of 11. In 1874, Lalo, who could trace his own Spanish ancestry back to the 15th century, composed his Violin Concerto in F major for Sarasate, after which they immediately began work together, this time on the Symphonie espagnole, which Sarasate premiered in Paris and then subsequently toured, establishing the composer’s reputation abroad for the first time.
The Symphonie espagnole was an instant success, credited with launching a trend in French works that pay tribute to Spain: Bizet’s opera Carmen (which debuted less than a month later); Ravel’s Rapsodie espagnole, Alborada del gracioso, and Boléro; and Debussy’s Ibéria.
As for the work’s title, the original version had four movements, one more than the typical form of a 19th-century concerto, which was one of the reasons Lalo chose to call it a symphony, rather than a concerto or a suite. “Artistically, a title means nothing, but commercially, a tainted, discredited title is never a good thing,” he wryly observed. “I kept the title because it conveyed my thought—that is to say, a violin solo soaring above the rigid form of an old symphony—and because it was less dull than those proposed to me.”
The first movement is the most substantial and traditionally symphonic of the four original movements (the Intermezzo was added later). A brief orchestral introduction sets up the first entry of the soloist. The rhythm of a fiery Spanish dance then establishes itself. The second theme brings a taste of melancholy without slowing the music down at all.
The second movement is a lively, playful, almost waltz-like scherzo, in which the spicy flavour of Spanish folk style becomes stronger. The delicate orchestral textures include pizzicato (plucked) strings, cleverly imitating the sound of a Spanish guitar.
The intermezzo that follows in this performance of the work was, curiously, left out of most concert performances for 60 years. (The earliest reference we have found is a 1933 Victor recording of Yehudi Menuhin, then 17 years old, including it in a recording with the Paris Symphony under Georges Enesco.) Its re-inclusion doubtless does further injury to the “rigid symphonic form” Lalo was pushing against, but, in the right soloist’s hands, provides a compelling narrative bridge between the playful scherzo and the movements that follow.
The fourth movement opens with a serious, almost hymn-like theme in the orchestra, which the soloist takes up and carries forward with ever-increasing passion, before a relaxing calmness is reasserted by the end of the movement. In the finale that follows, the full virtuosic flair of the piece is unleashed—slowly at first, but ultimately outdoing the previous movements for catchy tunes, lavish colour, wit, spectacular solo fiddling, and sheer, joyful energy.
Program note by Don Anderson
Suite from Romeo and Juliet (compiled G. Gimeno)
I. Montagues and Capulets (Suite No. 2 – No. 1)
II. The Child Juliet (Suite No. 2 – No. 2)
III. Dance (Suite No. 2 – No. 4)
IV. Masques (Suite No. 1 – No. 5)
V. Romeo and Juliet Balcony Scene (Suite No. 1 – No. 6)
VI. Death of Tybalt (Suite No. 1 – No. 7)
VII. Romeo and Juliet Before Parting (Suite No. 2 – No. 5)
VIII. Romeo at the Grave of Juliet (Suite No. 2 – No. 7)
IX. The Death of Juliet (Suite No. 3 – No. 6)
It’s probably safe to say that the plays of William Shakespeare have inspired more music than any other body of literature, and none more so than Romeo and Juliet, his poignant story of the star-crossed lovers of old Verona, first staged during the 1590s. Over the following centuries, at least 60 other composers have written music directly inspired by the play.
A handful of these settings still receive regular performances, including Vincenzo Bellini’s opera I Capuleti e i Montecchi (The Capulets and the Montagues, 1830); Charles Gounod’s five-act Roméo et Juliette (1867); and Hector Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette (1839), a “dramatic symphony” that alternates vocal segments based on Émile Deschamps’s French translation of the play, with orchestral movements. Thirty years after Berlioz, a young Tchaikovsky side-stepped the thorny question of how to set Shakespeare’s words to music by creating a strictly orchestral setting, evoking the play’s basic emotions without attempting a direct, descriptive narrative.
Tchaikovsky’s three great ballet scores—Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker—came later, inspiring many latter-day Soviet practitioners, none devoting more effort to the task than Sergei Prokofiev. Early examples such as The Buffoon (1915) and The Steel Step (1927) are cold, motor-driven exercises in conscious modernity. With The Prodigal Son (1929), he began moving toward a warmer approach, and, in 1934, the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Company (later renamed the Kirov, then the Mariinsky) commissioned him to compose a ballet based on Romeo and Juliet.
Prokofiev decided to make it a full evening project on a scale to match Tchaikovsky, and he and the company’s director, Sergei Radlov, spent months working on the scenario, including, at one point, attempting to give it a happy ending. “In the last act, Romeo comes a minute too soon, finds Juliet alive and everything ends well,” Prokofiev wrote. “The reasons for this particular bit of barbarism were purely choreographic: live people can dance, but the dying can hardly be expected to dance in bed.”
The project’s path to fruition was fraught. Newly installed company management at the Kirov had doubts about Shakespeare as ballet, and withdrew from the project. Prokofiev then struck a deal to have it staged by Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre and completed the score, in five months’ worth of inspired effort ending in September 1935, only to have the Bolshoi directors also dismiss it as “unsuitable for dancing.”
Undaunted (and in hope of having a calling card to rekindle interest in the full ballet), Prokofiev arranged from it a set of ten piano transcriptions and two orchestral suites (a third followed in 1946). These were warmly received, leading to a partially successful staging of the complete work in 1938 in Brno, Czechoslovakia. A year later, the Kirov agreed to mount the first production within the Soviet Union, but the saga was not over. The Kirov’s star choreographer, Leonid Lavrovsky, visited Prokofiev, listened as the composer played through the entire score at the piano, liked what he heard immensely, but suggested changes—which Prokofiev, at first, flatly refused to consider. Then the company’s dancers and musicians, accustomed to virtually plotless divertissements set to loud, unsophisticated music, rebelled. Two weeks before the scheduled premiere, they met and voted to cancel the production, “to avoid a scandal,” in their words.
Despite these and further complications, the production’s debut on January 11, 1940, was a triumph, with the music instantly hailed as a masterpiece. As Lavrovsky described it: “Prokofiev developed and elaborated the principles of symphonism in ballet music. He was one of the first Soviet composers to bring to the ballet stage genuine human emotions and full-blooded musical images. The boldness of his musical treatment, the clear-cut characterizations, the diversity and intricacy of the rhythms, the unorthodoxy of the harmonies—all these elements serve to turn the performance into a dramatic entity.”
For each of the three individual suites that Prokofiev compiled while the full ballet was in limbo, he cherry-picked movements from the full ballet score, with concert logic taking precedence over dramatic sense. This performance draws on all three suites, thereby re-establishing the narrative throughline and emotional power of the magnificent full score.
Program note by Don Anderson
Artists
Gustavo Gimeno’s tenure as the tenth Music Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra began in 2020–2021.
Since his appointment, he has reinvigorated the artistic profile of the Orchestra, engaged with musicians and audiences alike, and brought performances of familiar works as well as some of today’s freshest sounds. Further, he has overseen renewed community engagement and sown the seeds for an ambitious program of commissioning new works from emerging and established composers.
During the 2023–2024 season, Gimeno and the TSO usher in a bold new beginning for the Orchestra in its 101st year, with major symphonic works—including Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, Brahms’s Symphony No. 1, Respighi’s Pines of Rome, and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Pulcinella—presented alongside an unprecedented number of pieces never before performed by the TSO. Gimeno will share the stage with, among other soloists, Daniil Trifonov, James Ehnes, Emily D’Angelo, Frank Peter Zimmermann, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet.
February 2024 will see the release of the first commercial recording Gimeno and the TSO made together, in May 2023, memorializing Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie under the Harmonia Mundi label. This builds on Gimeno’s relationship with the label, for which he has recorded Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria, and Stravinsky’s ballets The Firebird and Apollon musagète with Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg.
Gimeno has held the position of Music Director with Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg since 2015, and will become Music Director of Teatro Real in Madrid in 2025–2026—he currently serves as their Music Director Designate. As an opera conductor, he has appeared at renowned houses such as the Liceu Opera Barcelona; Opernhaus Zürich; Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, Valencia; and Teatro Real, Madrid. He is also much sought-after as a symphonic guest conductor worldwide: in 2023–2024 he returns to orchestras such as London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouworkest, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, NSO Washington, and Dallas and Cincinnati symphony orchestras.
Spanish violinist María Dueñas beguiles audiences with the breathtaking array of colours she draws from her instrument. Her technical prowess, artistic maturity, and bold interpretations have inspired rave reviews, captivated competition juries, and secured invitations to appear with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has hailed the “freedom and joyous individuality” of her playing, while The Strad described her rising-star status as “seemingly unstoppable” after she won a whole series of international violin competitions. Not least among these was her live-streamed run to victory at the 2021 Menuhin Violin Competition, at which she won not only the first prize and audience prize, but also a global online following and the loan of a golden-period Stradivarius from Jonathan Moulds’s private collection.
Dueñas signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon in September 2022 and will open her DG discography with Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. Recorded in Vienna with the Wiener Symphoniker and Manfred Honeck, and featuring the violinist’s own cadenzas, the debut album will be released in May 2023. A multi-faceted musician, Dueñas became fond of composing after she started writing cadenzas for Mozart’s violin concertos. A solo piano piece, Farewell, was awarded a prize in the 2016 “Von fremden Ländern und Menschen” Competition for Young Composers. Recorded by Evgeny Sinaiski, it was transformed into a music video filmed during the pandemic.
A dedicated chamber musician, Dueñas has performed with baritone Matthias Goerne and pianist Itamar Golan, among other artists. She has also premiered several works written for and dedicated to her by the late Catalan composer Jordi Cervelló, including the Milstein Caprice.
Born in Granada in 2002, María Dueñas fell in love with classical music via the recordings her parents played constantly at home and the concerts she attended in her native city. She started playing violin at six and enrolled at Granada’s Conservatory a year later. In 2014, she won a scholarship to study abroad by Juventudes Musicales in Madrid and moved to Dresden to study at the Carl Maria von Weber College of Music. There she was soon spotted by violinist Wolfgang Hentrich and conductor Marek Janowsky, at whose invitation she would later make her debut as soloist with the San Francisco Symphony.
In 2016, she and her family moved again, this time to Austria to enable her to study with the renowned violin teacher Boris Kuschnir, on the recommendation of her mentor Vladimir Spivakov, at the private Music and Arts University of Vienna and the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz. Her competition victories began with the 2017 Zhuhai International Mozart Competition and 2018 Vladimir Spivakov International Violin Competition. In addition to her success in the Menuhin Competition, 2021 saw her win first prize at the Getting to Carnegie Competition, the Grand Prize at the Viktor Tretyakov International Violin Competition, and the career-advancement prize at the Rheingau Music Festival. She was also named as a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist 2021–23.
For over a century, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) has played a fundamental role in shaping and celebrating Canadian culture. Now in our 101st year, the TSO’s commitment to musical excellence and ability to spark connection remain as strong as ever. With a storied history of acclaimed concerts and recordings, Canadian and international tours, and impactful community partnerships, we are dedicated to engaging and enriching local and national communities through vibrant musical experiences. Music Director Gustavo Gimeno brings an expansive artistic vision, intellectual curiosity, and sense of adventure to programming the 93-musician Orchestra that serves Toronto—one of the world’s most diverse cities. As a group of artists, teachers, and advocates who share the belief that music has the power to heal, inspire, and connect people from all walks of life, we engage audiences young and old through an array of education, community-access, and health-and-wellness initiatives. The 2023–2024 season marks the 50th anniversary of the TSO-affiliated Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra—a tuition-free training program dedicated to cultivating the next generation of Canadian artists.
Join us for a concert at Roy Thomson Hall, or experience the TSO in your neighbourhood. Visit TSO.CA or Newsroom.TSO.CA.
TORONTO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Gustavo Gimeno, Music Director
Violins
Jonathan Crow (concertmaster, Tom Beck Concertmaster Chair)
Mark Skazinetsky (associate concertmaster)
Marc-André Savoie (assistant concertmaster)
+Etsuko Kimura (assistant concertmaster)
Eri Kosaka (principal, second violin)
Wendy Rose (associate principal, second violin)
Atis Bankas
Yolanda Bruno
*Sydney Chun
Carol Lynn Fujino
Amanda Goodburn
Bridget Hunt
Amalia Joanou-Canzoneri
*Shane Kim
Leslie Dawn Knowles
Douglas Kwon
Luri Lee
Paul Meyer
Sergei Nikonov
Semyon Pertsovsky
Clare Semes
Peter Seminovs
Jennifer Thompson
Angelique Toews
James Wallenberg
Virginia Chen Wells
Violas
Michael Casimir (principal)
Rémi Pelletier (associate principal)
Theresa Rudolph (assistant principal)
Ivan Ivanovich
Gary Labovitz
Diane Leung
Charmain Louis
Mary Carol Nugent
Christopher Redfield
Ashley Vandiver
Cellos
Joseph Johnson (principal, Principal Cello Chair supported by Dr. Armand Hammer)
Emmanuelle Beaulieu Bergeron (associate principal)
Winona Zelenka (assistant principal)
*Alastair Eng
Igor Gefter
Roberta Janzen
Song Hee Lee
Oleksander Mycyk
Lucia Ticho
Double Basses
Jeffrey Beecher (principal)
Michael Chiarello (associate principal)
Theodore Chan
Timothy Dawson
Chas Elliott
*David Longenecker
Flutes
Kelly Zimba Lukić (principal, Toronto Symphony Volunteer Committee Principal Flute Chair)
Julie Ranti (associate principal)
Leonie Wall
Camille Watts
Piccolo
Camille Watts
Oboes
*Sarah Jeffrey (principal)
Alex Liedtke (associate principal)
Cary Ebli
*Hugo Lee
English Horn
Cary Ebli
Clarinets
Eric Abramovitz (principal, Sheryl L. and David W. Kerr Principal Clarinet Chair)
Miles Jaques (acting associate principal)
Joseph Orlowski
Bass Clarinet
Miles Jaques
Bassoons
Michael Sweeney (principal)
+Darren Hicks (associate principal)
Samuel Banks
Fraser Jackson
Contrabassoon
Fraser Jackson
Horns
Neil Deland (principal)
Christopher Gongos (associate principal)
Audrey Good
Nicholas Hartman
*Gabriel Radford
Trumpets
Andrew McCandless (principal, Toronto Symphony Volunteer Committee Principal Trumpet Chair)
*Steven Woomert (associate principal)
*James Gardiner
James Spragg
Trombones
Gordon Wolfe (principal)
*Vanessa Fralick (associate principal)
Bass Trombone
+Jeffrey Hall
Tuba
Mark Tetreault (principal)
Timpani
David Kent (principal)
Joseph Kelly (assistant principal)
Percussions
Charles Settle (principal)
Joseph Kelly
Harp
Heidi Elise Bearcroft (principal)
Librarians
Christopher Reiche Boucher (principal)
Andrew Harper (substitute librarian)
Sandra Pearson (substitute librarian)
Personnel Manager
David Kent
+On leave
*Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra alumni
Conductor Laureate
Sir Andrew Davis
Conductor Emeritus
Peter Oundjian
Principal Pops Conductor
Steven Reineke
Barrett Principal Education Conductor & Community Ambassador
Daniel Bartholomew- Poyser
RBC Resident Conductor
Trevor Wilson
TSYO Conductor
Simon Rivard (generously supported by the Toronto Symphony Volunteer Committee)
Composer Advisor
Gary Kulesha
RBC Affiliate Composer
Alison Yun-Fei Jiang
Music Director
Gustavo Gimeno
Chair, Board of Directors
Catherine Beck
Chief Executive Officer
Mark Williams
Co-Chairs, Honorary Governors
Robert W. Corcoran & George Lewis
Vice-President & Chief of Staff
Roberta Smith
Vice-President, Artistic Planning
Loie Fallis
Senior Director of Education & Community Engagement
Nicole Balm
Vice-President & General Manager
Dawn Cattapan
Chief Development Officer
Robert Dixon
Vice-President of Marketing & Communications
Patrick O’Herron
Chief Financial Officer
Ziyad Mansour
TSO.CA
@TorontoSymphony
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The TSO acknowledges Mary Beck as the Musicians’ Patron in perpetuity for her generous and longstanding support.
Canada Council for the Arts
Ontario Arts Council
Toronto Arts Council
Government of Canada
Government of Ontario
Gustavo Gimeno's appearances are generously supported by
Susan Brenninkmeyer in memory of Hans Brenninkmeyer.
We thank all of our Donors and Benefactors including our Music Director’s Circle, Maestro’s Club Donors, Corporate and Foundation Partners, and many individual donors, whose generous support provides a critically important base of funding for our work.
We acknowledge that Toronto, our home for the past century, lies within the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit River, the Anishinaabe, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples, within the territory governed by the Dish With One Spoon treaty into which we have been invited in the spirit of peace, friendship, and respect. As we celebrate 100 years of community-building and sharing the healing power of art, we are grateful to live and make music on this land.
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees