≈ 2 hours · With intermission
Last updated: November 14, 2024
PROGRAM UPDATE
British Columbia-born pianist Jaeden Izik-Dzurko, the 2024 winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition and the Concours musical international de Montréal, will make his debut with the NAC Orchestra, performing Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2.
Update from Hilary Hahn: Violinist Hilary Hahn must regrettably withdraw from all planned concerts through the end of November, including her performances with the NAC Orchestra, as she recovers from a double-pinched nerve. As part of her treatment, her medical team advised her to abstain from strenuous performance and travel for the time being.
Program
National Arts Centre Orchestra
John Storgårds, conductor
Jaeden Izik-Dzurko, piano
KAIJA SAARIAHO Ciel d’hiver (Winter Sky) (10 minutes)
CARL NIELSEN Symphony No. 2, Op. 16, “The Four Temperaments” (35 minutes)
I. Allegro collerico
II. Allegro comodo e flemmatico
III. Andante malincolico
IV. Allegro sanguineo
INTERMISSION
JOHANNES BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 83 (48 minutes)
I. Allegro non troppo
II. Allegro appassionato
III. Andante
IV. Allegretto grazioso
Repertoire
Ciel d’hiver (Winter Sky)
Kaija Saariaho (1952–2023) was a leading voice of her generation of composers, in her native Finland and worldwide. She studied composition in Helsinki, Freiburg, and Paris, where she lived from 1982 to her death. Her studies and research at IRCAM, the Parisian centre for electroacoustic experimentation, had a major influence on her music, and her characteristically luxuriant and mysterious textures were often created by combining live performance and electronics.
After her breakthrough piece Lichtbogen for ensemble and electronics in 1986, Saariaho gradually expanded her musical expression to a great variety of genres, and her chamber pieces and choral music have become staples of instrumental and vocal ensembles, respectively. She rose to international prominence as the composer of works taken up by orchestras around the world, including symphonic pieces, six concertos, and five major symphonic song cycles. Her broadest public and critical recognition came from her work in the field of opera, including most recently Innocence (2020), which was termed Saariaho’s “masterpiece” by The New York Times. Saariaho claimed major composing awards such as the Grawemeyer Award, the Nemmers Prize, the Sonning Prize, and the Polar Music Prize, and two of her recordings have received Grammy Awards.
Saariaho’s life was prematurely interrupted by a brain tumor in 2023. Her musical legacy is carried forward by a broad network of collaborators with whom she has worked closely over the years, and her publisher Chester Music Ltd.
Ciel d’hiver (Winter Sky) is an arrangement Saariaho made in 2013 of the second movement of her orchestral piece Orion, originally written for the Cleveland Orchestra in 2002. It was commissioned by the Musique Nouvelle en Liberté, and was premiered by the Orchestre Lamoureux conducted by Fayçal Karoui, at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on April 7, 2014.
Using unexpected and nuanced blends of the various timbres and effects of a large orchestra, Saariaho evokes the austere grandeur of a winter sky. The piece opens with a shivering backdrop created by harp, piano, and strings. Overtop, solo piccolo plays a haunting melody based on a three-note descending motive, which is then taken up in turn by solo violin, clarinet, oboe, and muted trumpet. Gradually, the backdrop begins to shift, as the texture thickens through the layering of the three-note motive played at varying speeds and melodies on other instruments. This culminates on a series of woodwind and brass chords, after which statements of the three-note motive trigger responses from the abyss. A large sound mass soon becomes more energetic, animated by tone colours fluctuating within its density. Later, the brass outlines several stacks of rising notes, as if climbing to the sky’s infinite heights. An icily ethereal soundscape emerges—harp, piano, celesta, and violins in their highest registers, plus the sparkling pings of crotales—against which solo cello plays fragments, before fading out with a shimmering cloud of sound.
Composer biography edited from saariaho.org/about; program note to Ciel d’hiver by Hannah Chan-Hartley, PhD
Symphony No. 2, Op. 16, “The Four Temperaments”
I. Allegro collerico
II. Allegro comodo e flemmatico
III. Andante malincolico
IV. Allegro sanguineo
Carl Nielsen (1865–1931) is Denmark’s most recognized musical figure and is one of his generation’s significant composers; he was also active as a conductor and violinist. His music, while often based on the traditional forms and processes of Western art music, displays a highly individual style of writing that did not follow or conform to a particular school or prevailing fashion of his time. Among his works best known today are his six symphonies, which exhibit his uniquely bold and inventive approaches to the genre.
Nielsen began the creation of his Second Symphony in 1901, the year he started to receive a modest state stipend to give him time to compose as he continued his job as a violinist in Copenhagen’s Royal Theatre Orchestra. He completed the work in late November 1902 and conducted its first performance on December 1. Soon after the symphony’s premiere, his friend Henrik Knudsen made a two-piano arrangement of it, which they took to Berlin to play for Ferruccio Busoni, the renowned Italian pianist and composer. Impressed, Busoni subsequently featured it in one of his “Orchestral Evenings for new and rarely performed works” on November 5, 1903; in gratitude, Nielsen dedicated the piece to him. The Second Symphony initially received mixed reactions from critics and audiences, but by the third decade of the 20th century, it had increased in popularity and has since become a favourite of the orchestral repertory.
In 1931, Nielsen wrote a substantial program note about the Second Symphony, in which he discussed its origins. While visiting a village pub in Zealand, he encountered “a most comical picture” that depicted the four fundamental human temperaments, as derived from the Ancient Greek concept of “humours”—choleric (impetuous, angry), phlegmatic (lazy, laid-back), melancholic, and sanguine (cheerful, naïve). So taken was Nielsen by the picture, that he felt inspired to create a symphony on the subject, with each movement a musical portrait of a temperament. He achieves this to powerful effect, by using distinctive melodies and motives as well as innovative harmonic processes to characterize each personality type. He also develops these elements through different moods, thus giving the more realistic impression that a person is not solely of a single temperament. “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,” he explained. “The lazy, indolent man, on the other hand, only emerges from his phlegmatic state with the greatest difficulty, so this movement is both brief (he can’t be bothered) and uniform in its progress.”
The first movement explores all the facets of the choleric temperament, from impulsive rage to righteous indignation and noble passion. After an initial outburst, the first theme is introduced, proceeding with furious energy. For a moment, the storm subsides as the clarinet spins out a delicate melody, but this soon rises to a glorious eruption. It then dies away, leading into a tranquil episode, with an expressive second theme first intoned by the oboe. Before long, though, the serenity is disturbed by “violently shifting figures and rhythmic jerks” (in Nielsen’s words) that intensify to a series of brusque chords. Following a pause, the second theme returns, now expanded into a majestic song (the noble side of the choleric type). In the ensuing development section, initiated by a crescendo of timpani taps, Nielsen states that “the above-mentioned material is worked, now wildly and impetuously, like one who nearly forgets himself, now in a softer mood, like one who regrets his irascibility.” Yet again, it isn’t long before the choleric resumes his usual ways—listen out for the varied recap of the main themes, with the second reaching a somewhat anxious climax this time. From here, a passage of insistent swells on the woodwinds and brass combined with aggressive leaps in the strings build to a fury that picks up speed in the coda, bringing the movement to a ferocious conclusion.
In stark contrast, the second movement opens with placid music that is an unmistakable depiction of the phlegmatic temperament. According to his program note, Nielsen had imagined a young man, whose “real inclination was to lie where the birds sing, where the fish glide noiselessly through the water, where the sun warms, and the wind strokes mildly round one’s curls. […] His expression was rather happy, but not self-complacent, rather with a hint of quiet melancholy, so that one felt impelled to be good to him,” as suggested by the gently rocking motives and flowing phrases poignantly tinged with chromatic notes. Later, the man’s state of inertia is evoked in repeated notes that seem to go nowhere. His idyllic state is disturbed once—a loud thwack of the timpani—but “in a moment, everything is quiet again.” With the return of the opening music, the young chap has resumed his lazing and drifts off without a care in the world.
The third movement depicts a person heavy with melancholy. After an introductory descent, the first violins sing the lamenting main theme with its characteristic rising third (like a plea of “why me?”), which, as Nielsen describes, is “drawn heavily towards a strong outcry of pain”. The oboe then presents “a plaintive sighing motive” that gradually develops as it is taken up in turn by other instruments, building to a climax of heaving orchestral sobs. A transition combining the rising motive and the sighs leads to a “quieter, resigned episode” with the woodwinds and strings alternating on smooth phrases. The winds continue in a long imitative passage, during which their parts become intertwined “like the mesh of a net,” and then stop in defeat. With renewed intensity, the lament returns; the ensuing sighs, now on violins, rise to an anguished outburst that is repeated a step down, followed by a series of detached harmonies on full orchestra. It subsides to a calm, and the movement closes, hovering on a note of optimism.
“A man who storms thoughtlessly forward in the belief that the whole world belongs to him, that fried pigeons will fly into his mouth without work or bother,” is how Nielsen characterizes the sanguine temperament of the finale. The movement starts up with a robust theme on flutes, clarinets, and violins, which progresses cheerfully, then becomes recklessly bullish on brass and lower strings, as violins play scurrying passages. Amidst this exultant chaos, something seems to scare the man, “and he gasps all at once for breath in rough syncopations.” Gradually, he recovers—a jaunty tune with chromatic “sighs” (a touch of the melancholic) is introduced by violins tentatively at first, then gathers energy to reach a boisterous self-satisfied climax. The initial mood then returns; the robust theme proceeds as earlier, but this time, it appears the man has “met with something really serious”—listen for rumbling timpani alternating with loud orchestral chords. After a pause, the second tune reappears—no longer jaunty but contemplative at a much slower tempo—and is developed into a searching contrapuntal episode for strings. Soon, though, the music brightens, and the orchestra erupts into a rousing march—the man’s brash optimism now evolved into a dignified confidence—to complete this vibrant musical picture of The Four Temperaments.
Program note by Hannah Chan-Hartley, PhD
Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 83
I. Allegro non troppo
II. Allegro appassionato
III. Andante
IV. Allegretto grazioso
The Second Piano Concerto of Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) has symphonic ambitions uncommon in a concerto—its unusual four-movement form is proof of that—though Brahms, with characteristic self-deprecation, called it “a tiny, tiny concerto with a tiny, tiny wisp of a scherzo.” The work has a noble bearing, and its ample proportions are apparent already in the leisurely opening dialogue of horn and piano. The dramatic range is extraordinary. When not scaling Olympian heights, the music is often relaxed, lyrical, charming, sometimes delicately scored, yet there are dark and turbulent moments, too, and strange digressions.
The broadly scaled first movement sets the tone for the whole concerto—it is brimming with melodies and motives, all of which Brahms, with seemingly limitless imagination, extends and links, varies and develops, in ever-shifting piano-orchestra settings. In all four movements, clear, solid structures contain but do not quell the wonderful sense of colour and fantasy and perpetual metamorphosis in this music. For all its debts to Classical models, this is a Romantic concerto par excellence.
The orchestral part is powerfully conceived, and by no means subservient, as it is in so many Romantic concertos, yet it never overwhelms the piano part, which is unusually brilliant, rhapsodic—and monstrously difficult. This is one of the most difficult piano concertos in the repertory, full of treacherous technical hurdles: fast, leaping staccato octaves, double thirds in both hands at once, massive chords in quick succession. The piano part is so virtuosic that formal cadenzas are moot—the piece itself is a cadenza!
The “tiny, tiny wisp of a scherzo” is in reality a fierce and hard-driven movement, developed at length though adhering in broadest outline to three-part Classical minuet-and-trio form. Brahms wrote it, he said, because the first movement was “too harmless” on its own; the scherzo further sets the heartbreaking beauty of the slow movement in maximum relief.
The Andante opens with a broad, luscious cantilena played by solo cello. The piano never plays this melody; instead, it comments on the melody in a kind of extended recitative, which grows anguished and dissonant in the middle of the movement. After a hushed, deeply moving transition, the great melody returns in the cello; the piano ornaments it, and the two instruments come together tenderly at the end.
The finale of this mighty concerto comes as a surprise, for though spacious it is light and witty, gracious and relaxed, free of storm and stress—at times even childlike, kittenish (the trumpets and drums are silent throughout.) The form is a clear, simple rondo, with half a dozen distinct, mostly lighthearted themes. As in the finales of Brahms’s other three concertos, the Roma idiom is prominent—most obviously in the one theme in a minor key, which would be right at home in a Hungarian Dance.
Program note by Kevin Bazzana, courtesy of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Artists
Principal Guest Conductor of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa and Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, John Storgårds has a dual career as a conductor and violin virtuoso and is widely recognized for his creative flair for programming and 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, the Munich Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France, the Vienna Radio Symphony, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, 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 and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the 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 Orchestra 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 in 2012.
Winner of the 2024 Leeds International Piano Competition and recipient of the Dame Fanny Waterman Gold Medal, Jaeden Izik-Dzurko became the first Canadian Grand Prize Laureate at an instrumental edition of the Concours musical international de Montréal in May 2024. His triumphs at landmark competitions have quickly established himself as one of his generation’s most exciting and creative talents.
Jaeden is celebrated for his remarkable communicative power, artistic maturity, and refined technical command, and his performances continue to captivate audiences, critics, and conductors alike with their depth and insight.
Jaeden has performed in prestigious venues and festivals worldwide, including Weill Recital Hall, the Vancouver Recital Society, and Mexico’s Festival Internacional Cervantino, as well as with major orchestras such as the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. His playing has been broadcast on CBC Radio’s In Concert, WQXR’s Young Artists Showcase, American Public Media’s Performance Today and medici.tv.
This season’s performances include appearances with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the Oxford Philharmonic, Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, the International Chopin Festival in Duszniki-Zdrój, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at Illinois, and the Fondation Louis Vuitton.
Jaeden has won several prestigious awards, including First Prize, the Canon Audience Prize, and the Chamber Music Award at the 20th Paloma O’Shea Santander International Piano Competition, First Prize at both the 2022 Maria Canals International Music Competition and the 2022 Hilton Head International Piano Competition. In March 2024, he was awarded a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship.
A thoughtful interpreter of Canadian composers’ works, he received the André-Bachand Prize for the best performance of an imposed Canadian work at the Concours Musical International de Montréal and has recorded Ernst Schneider’s The Romantic Piano Concerto with the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra (Canadian Soundscapes). More recently, he gave the world premiere of Somnis Radiants (Radiant Dreams, 2022) by Spanish composer Elisenda Fábregas at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr.
Born in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, Jaeden earned his Bachelor of Music at The Juilliard School under Yoheved Kaplinsky and his Master of Music at the University of British Columbia with Corey Hamm. He is also a former student of Ian Parker. Currently, he studies with Jacob Leuschner at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold and Benedetto Lupo at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.
Canada’s National Arts Centre (NAC) Orchestra is praised for the passion and clarity of its performances, its visionary learning and engagement programs, and its unwavering support of Canadian creativity. The NAC Orchestra is based in Ottawa, Canada’s national capital, and has grown into one of the country’s most acclaimed and dynamic ensembles since its founding in 1969. Under the leadership of Music Director Alexander Shelley, the NAC Orchestra reflects the fabric and values of Canada, engaging communities from coast to coast to coast through inclusive programming, compelling storytelling, and innovative partnerships.
Since taking the helm in 2015, Shelley has shaped the Orchestra’s artistic vision, building on the legacy of his predecessor, Pinchas Zukerman, who led the ensemble for 16 seasons. Shelley’s influence extends beyond the NAC. He serves as Principal Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the UK and Artistic and Music Director of Artis—Naples and the Naples Philharmonic in the United States. In addition to his other conducting roles, the Pacific Symphony in Los Angeles’s Orange County announced Shelley’s appointment as its next Artistic and Music Director. The initial five-year term begins in the 2026-2027 season, with Shelley serving as Music Director-Designate from September 2025. Principal Guest Conductor John Storgårds and Principal Youth Conductor Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser complement Shelley’s leadership. In 2024, the Orchestra marked a new chapter with the appointment of Henry Kennedy as its first-ever Resident Conductor.
The Orchestra has a rich history of partnerships with renowned artists such as James Ehnes, Angela Hewitt, Renée Fleming, Hilary Hahn, Jeremy Dutcher, Jan Lisiecki, Ray Chen, and Yeol Eum Son, underscoring its reputation as a destination for world-class talent. 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.
A hallmark of the NAC Orchestra is its national and international tours. The Orchestra has performed concerts in every Canadian province and territory and earned frequent invitations to perform abroad. These tours spotlight Canadian composers and artists, bringing their voices to stages across North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia.
NAC Orchestra
First Violins
Yosuke Kawasaki (concertmaster)
Jessica Linnebach (associate concertmaster)
Noémi Racine Gaudreault (assistant concertmaster)
Jeremy Mastrangelo
Marjolaine Lambert
Jeffrey Dyrda
Carissa Klopoushak
Manuela Milani
*Renée London
*Heather Schnarr
*Oleg Chelpanov
*John Corban
*Erica Miller
*Sarah Williams
Second Violins
Emily Kruspe (principal)
Emily Westell
Frédéric Moisan
Leah Roseman
Jessy Kim
Mark Friedman
Edvard Skerjanc
**Winston Webber
Karoly Sziladi
*Andrea Armijo Fortin
*Martine Dubé
*Sara Mastrangelo
*Veronica Thomas
Violas
Jethro Marks (principal)
David Marks (associate principal)
David Goldblatt (assistant principal)
David Thies-Thompson
Paul Casey
**Tovin Allers
*Sonya Probst
*Pamela Fay
*Brenna Hardy-Kavanagh
Cellos
Rachel Mercer (principal)
Julia MacLaine (assistant principal)
Leah Wyber
Timothy McCoy
Marc-André Riberdy
*Desiree Abbey
*Karen Kang
*Thaddeus Morden
Double Basses
Sam Loeck (principal)
Max Cardilli (assistant principal)
Vincent Gendron
**Marjolaine Fournier
*Paul Mach
*Doug Ohashi
*Elan Simon
Flutes
Joanna G’froerer (principal)
Stephanie Morin
*Dakota Martin
Oboes
Charles Hamann (principal)
Anna Petersen
*Melissa Scott
English Horn
Anna Petersen
Clarinets
Kimball Sykes (principal)
Sean Rice
Bassoons
Darren Hicks (principal)
Vincent Parizeau
Horns
*Patty Evans (guest principal)
Julie Fauteux (associate principal)
Lauren Anker
Louis-Pierre Bergeron
*Olivier Brisson
*Micajah Sturgess
Trumpets
Karen Donnelly (principal)
Steven van Gulik
*Michael Fedyshyn
*Amy Horvey
Trombones
*Jose Milton Vieira (guest principal)
*Nate Fanning
Bass Trombone
Zachary Bond
Tuba
Chris Lee (principal)
Timpani
*Michael Kemp (guest principal)
Percussion
Jonathan Wade
Andrew Johnson
Harp
*Angela Schwarzkopf (guest principal)
Piano
*Olga Gross
*Frédéric Lacroix
Principal Librarian
Nancy Elbeck
Assistant Librarian
Corey Rempel
Personnel Manager
Meiko Lydall
Assistant Personnel Manager
Ruth Rodriguez Rivera
Orchestra Personnel Coordinator
Laurie Shannon
*Additional musicians
**On leave
The National Arts Centre Foundation would like to thank Mark Motors Group, Official Car of the NAC Orchestra, and Earle O’Born & Janice O’Born, C.M., O.Ont.
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Official Car of the NAC Orchestra
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees