Repertoire
New work for TSO
Song cycle for Emily D’Angelo
Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68
I. Un poco sostenuto – Allegro
II. Andante sostenuto
III. Un poco allegretto e grazioso
IV. Adagio – Allegro non troppo ma con brio
In 1862 Clara Schumann received from Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) a sketch for the first movement of a symphony. The music “is rather tough,” she reported to a friend, “but I soon got used to it.” As Clara knew, the musical world was waiting for a symphony from Brahms. As it turned out, the world had to wait until 1876 to hear it.
In its final form the First Symphony begins with a towering tragic introduction, grounded on the throbbing timpani that was the Brahmsian fate-motif. Then begins a driving “Allegro” whose churning intensity never flags.
In form, the second movement is a conventional ABA “Andante,” but the voice is inimitably Brahms in its lyricism and intimacy. Instead of the usual scherzo, next comes a kind of symphonic movement that he invented, a blithe and breezy “intermezzo.”
The finale completes the symphony’s course from darkness and tragedy to joy and triumph. It begins in a cloudy and searching C minor. The end of the search arrives in a burst of C major sunshine, with a soaring alpenhorn theme in the horn. That leads to the movement proper, founded on an unforgettable chorale melody. The coda is a sustained exaltation.
Program note by Jan Swafford
Artists
Gustavo Gimeno’s tenure as Music Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) began in 2020–21. He has also held the position of Music Director with Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg (OPL) since 2015, and will assume it in 2025–26 with Teatro Real, Madrid, where he is currently Music Director Designate.
In the 2022–23 season, continuing their 100th anniversary, Gimeno and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra celebrate with major symphonic works including Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4, Prokofiev’s Suite from Romeo and Juliet, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. They also share the stage with, among other soloists, Yo-Yo Ma, Yuja Wang, Yefim Bronfman, and Jean-Guihen Queyras. Further, the Orchestra will embark on its first tour with Gimeno in winter 2023, including a return visit to New York’s Carnegie Hall, their annual orchestra exchange with Ottawa’s NAC Orchestra, and the TSO’s debut at Chicago’s Symphony Center.
With Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Gimeno explores repertoire including Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben, Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 “Tragic”, Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. In 2022–23, he tours with the OPL to Switzerland, Austria, and Hungary, and together they tour South Korea for the first time.
This season, Gimeno and the TSO will record, for Harmonia Mundi, Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie, with pianist Marc-André Hamelin and ondes Martenot player Nathalie Forget. This builds on Gimeno’s new relationship, since April 2022, with the HM label, which commenced with a recording of Rossini’s Stabat Mater, featuring OPL with Maria Agresta (soprano), Daniela Barcellona (mezzo-soprano), René Barbera (tenor), Carlo Lepore (bass), and the Wiener Singverein. In August 2022, the OPL’s second album for HM was devoted to two ballets by Stravinsky (L’oiseau de feu and Apollon Musagète). Gimeno and OPL also have an extensive discography with Pentatone. Releases include a Francisco Coll monography featuring the Violin Concerto with Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 1, Bruckner’s Symphony No. 1, Ravel’s complete ballet music to Daphnis et Chloé, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle, and César Franck’s Symphony in D Minor.
As an opera conductor, he is invited for major titles at great 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: debuts in 2022–23 include Staatskapelle Berlin and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Gimeno is also regularly reinvited to the Concertgebouworkest, and touring projects have included concerts as far afield as Japan and Taiwan.
Challenging conventions and pushing boundaries, Emily D’Angelo is a musical force to be reckoned with. With her striking stage presence, vocal authority and expressive artistry, the singer has taken the opera and concert world by storm in recent years. For Montreal’s French-language newspaper Le Devoir, and for a growing army of fans, she is quite simply “a phenomenon”.
D’Angelo signed an exclusive agreement with Deutsche Grammophon in May 2021 and her debut album, enargeia, is set for release in October 2021. The recording was initially inspired by the medieval abbess and polymath Hildegard of Bingen, whose music D’Angelo sings here in new arrangements by leading American composers Missy Mazzoli and Sarah Kirkland Snider. enargeia also features original pieces by both Mazzoli and Snider, together with two works by the Grammy-winning Hildur Guðnadóttir.
Although she is known for her wide-ranging repertoire and for championing contemporary composers, D’Angelo has a special relationship with the music of Mozart. Her innate feeling for his roles was clear from the moment of her stage debut as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro at the Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi in 2016, and has subsequently deepened with strikingly successful debut performances at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Milan’s Teatro alla Scala and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The London Telegraph hailed her interpretation of Sesto in La clemenza di Tito for the Royal Opera’s first post-lockdown staging in May 2021 as a “barnstorming role and house debut”, echoing the critical acclaim given four months earlier to her portrayal of Dorabella for La Scala’s live-streamed staging of Così fan tutte, as summed up by OperaLibera: “D’Angelo brought the beautiful dark colours of her voice to the role of Dorabella and is clearly at home in Mozart’s writing.”
Emily D’Angelo was born in Toronto in 1994 to a musical family. Encouraged to sing from an early age by her parents and pianist grandmother, she built a solid foundation for her musicianship as a member of the Toronto Children’s Chorus. She studied cello in secondary school before completing her bachelor’s degree in Music at the University of Toronto, after which she joined the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio. In the summers of 2014 and 2015 D’Angelo completed a Fellowship at the Ravinia Steans Institute, where she honed her interpretation of and dedication to recital and concert repertoire.
She became a member of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artists Development Program in 2017, and made her debut on the Met stage in 2018. That same year, she made her decisive international breakthrough when she became the first contestant to win all four top prizes at the Operalia competition in the event’s 26-year history.
In 2019 D’Angelo became the first vocalist ever to receive the Leonard Bernstein Award from the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and was chosen by New York’s Lincoln Center as one of its 2020 Emerging Artists. Beyond the opera stage, her credits include engagements with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the world premiere of a song cycle by Ana Sokolović and performances of new music by, among others, Unsuk Chin and Matthew Aucoin.
Recent and forthcoming engagements reflect her status as one of the most exciting performers on today’s opera scene. D’Angelo is set to make her debut at the Munich Opera Festival in July 2021 as Idamante in Idomeneo before turning to Ottavia in L’incoronazione di Poppea for Zurich Opera in September. Her 2021–22 season also includes a return to the Met to sing Prince Charming in Massenet’s Cendrillon and a first outing at the Opéra de Paris as Siébel in Gounod’s Faust.
One of Canada’s most respected arts organizations, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) has played a vital role in the city’s cultural life for 100 years. Music Director Gustavo Gimeno brings an expansive artistic vision, intellectual curiosity, and sense of adventure to programming the 93-musician Orchestra. This season, through Centennial commissions from emerging composers, marquee events, and an incredible lineup of world-renowned guest artists, the TSO continues to celebrate a century of music-making, paying homage to the Orchestra’s illustrious past while ushering in a dynamic future.
The TSO is committed to serving local and national communities through vibrant performances, extensive educational activities, and community-access and wellness initiatives intended to reach more age groups, people with different abilities, and diverse communities in Toronto. These include open houses and free concerts at the TSO’s home, Roy Thomson Hall; Relaxed Performances designed to be more welcoming for neurodiverse patrons; and a partnership with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health that supports First Nations, Inuit, and Métis patients through musical storytelling and composition.
With a notable recording history—including, most recently, five acclaimed recordings on the prestigious Chandos label—complementing international touring engagements in the U.S., Europe, Israel, and Asia, the TSO is a musical ambassador for Canada and remains synonymous with musical versatility, growth, and artistic distinction.
- Official Car of the NAC Orchestra
