≈ 2 hours · With intermission
Repertoire
Symphony No. 3, "White Interment"
In one movement
Victoria Vita Polevá (b. 1962) is a Ukrainian pianist and composer. Born in Kyiv to a family of musicians, she studied with Ivan Karabyts and Levko Kolodub, respectively, at the Kyiv Conservatory, where she herself taught composition from 1990 to 2005. Her earlier works, such as the ballet Gagaku, Transform for large orchestra, and Anthem for chamber orchestra, favour avant-garde and polystylistic aesthetics. From the late 1990s, she became ever more drawn to spiritual themes and musical simplicity, and so she developed a style which has lately been identified as “sacred minimalism”. Polevá’s works have been commissioned by numerous exponents of new music, including Gidon Kremer in 2005 for Sempre Primavera and in 2010 for The Art of Instrumentation, and the Kronos Quartet for Walking on Waters in 2013. In 2009, her Ode to Joy was heard at a concert to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Victoria Polevá is a Laureate of the Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine.
Polevá composed “White Interment” in 2002 for oboe and strings; the following year, she created a version of it for orchestra and gave it the title of Symphony No. 3. The central motif of the work is a rhythm based on the words “teper`vsegda snega”, meaning “now always snows”, from a poem by the Russian Chuvash poet Gennady Aygi (1934–2006). Comprised of slow-moving large blocks of sound, the single-movement symphony is, according to the composer, meant to evoke the “psychedelic emotional effects” of being physically and metaphorically enveloped by snow: from the pull of a snowstorm to being buried under a snowdrift and “falling into the abyss of a gentle sleep” as the surrounding space collapses.
The structure and musical content of Symphony No. 3 is shaped by Polevá’s use of rhetorical gestures with classical references: “Circulatio” (Latin: circle), the symbol of eternity represented by “the whirling motion of the melody”; “Catabasis” (Greek: descent, such as into the underworld); “Aposiopesis” (Greek: suddenly stopping in mid-sentence or mid-thought to conceal or disguise), a general pause depicting death and eternity; and “Anabasis” (Greek: climbing). The piece opens with layered sonorities swelling and receding; from out of this stark sonic landscape, a haunting theme on oboe emerges. Later, the oboe introduces a new circling melody which is picked up by other instruments but then peters out and stops. After a brief silence, a new section begins; it has a busy surface texture (like instrumental flurries in an aural snowscape), but the overall impression is that of a protracted descent. It culminates mid-way in an intense, almost oppressive climax, which gradually subsides. The whirling melody then returns on icy woodwinds over sonorous strings, and the music begins to climb upward, eventually breaking through to punchy chirps on flutes and a closing trumpet salvo.
Composer bio adapted from Donemus; program note by Hannah Chan-Hartley, PhD
Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, “Emperor”
I. Allegro
II. Adagio un poco mosso –
III. Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo
Of the published concertos by Beethoven (1770–1827), his Fifth Piano Concerto, which he composed during the winter of 1808–1809, was the last one he completed in that genre. (He started to write a sixth piano concerto in 1815 but abandoned the project with only part of the first movement written.) Beethoven dedicated Op. 73 to Archduke Rudolph, who is also the dedicatee of the Fourth Piano Concerto, among many other works. By then, Rudolph, who was a formidable pianist and Beethoven’s sole composition pupil, had become a devoted patron and friend of the composer—in February 1809, he was one of three sponsors who helped set up an annuity for Beethoven. Between the concerto’s completion in 1809 and Breitkopf & Härtel’s publication of the score in February 1811, there was at least one private performance given of it by Rudolph himself; on January 13, 1811, Johann Nepokmuk Chotek reported hearing the Archduke perform at Prince Leibowitz’s “an extraordinarily difficult and artful but not at all pleasing concerto by Beethoven…with very much technique and expression.” The first public performance of the concerto occurred later that year, on November 28, by Friedrich Schneider in Leipzig; Carl Czerny gave the first Viennese performance in February 1812 (evidently, Beethoven’s deafness was now too advanced for him to appear as soloist in his own concertos).
The nickname of “Emperor” for Op. 73 is not Beethoven’s; it seems to have been applied predominantly in English-speaking countries to signify the work’s special grandeur. Compared to the composer’s earlier concertos, Piano Concerto No. 5, as Beethoven scholar William Kinderman observes, “is cast in a more brilliant, heroic mould. Its outer movements assume a character, with rhythmic figures evocative of military style and a formal breadth reminiscent of the Eroica Symphony,” which is also in the key of E-flat major. Notably, the innovations in concerto writing that Beethoven brought to Op. 73—particularly a new brilliance in the solo part combined with symphonic procedures—would go on to influence the grand piano concertos of the later 19th century by Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, and many others.
The first movement has an expansive structure with an opening that was novel for its time—a written-out cadenza of florid arpeggios and runs for the soloist triggered by imposing orchestral chords. Only after that does the orchestra start the exposition, with the first violins introducing the first main theme—a confidently striding tune. Not long after, the contrasting second theme unfolds in two parts, appearing initially in the minor mode, stated by the first violins in dainty tiptoe fashion, then in a major-mode, smooth-lined version intoned “sweetly” on horn. Later, following the piano’s gentle turn on the first theme and some ruminating flights, the second theme undergoes further transformation from a delicate triplet pattern in the minor to a beautiful meditative line in the major mode (foreshadowing the slow movement), after which the orchestra reinterprets it as a snappy march. In the movement’s central section, motifs from both themes are further developed, with a mighty passage of double octaves for the soloist in between. After a dramatic return to the bold cadenza of the beginning (though now shortened), the recap of themes proceeds as before. Near the end, at the conventional orchestral pause for an improvised cadenza, Beethoven subverts expectations by instructing the soloist not to make a cadenza (“non si fa una cadenza”) and to continue directly on to a written-out solo passage. It leads back to the second theme on horn over sparkling piano figures, which then take us into the final dazzling passages of the movement.
The second movement, with its serene atmosphere, seems to be from another world entirely. Set in the key of B major (harmonically remote from the concerto’s main key of E-flat major), it opens with muted strings singing a melody of devotional character. When the piano enters, this becomes a slow-moving hymn underneath the soloist’s contemplative fantasia. After a free variation and a cadenza-like passage, the piano returns to the opening melody, adding embellishments as it progresses. The tune is then picked up by the woodwinds and is further outlined by the first violins on the offbeats, while the piano decorates it with alternating notes. Eventually, the music settles to stillness on a B held on bassoons, then shifts downward a semitone to B-flat, now quietly suspended on horns. Over this, the piano tentatively tries out an ascending pattern of chords, which, after a brief pause, breaks out into the robust main theme of the finale. As per rondo form, this tune’s recurrences are interspersed with extended episodes featuring virtuosic elements both delicate and boisterous, all of it giving the movement a grandly sonorous effect through to its exuberant finish.
Program note by Hannah Chan-Hartley, PhD
Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36, “Enigma Variations”
Born at Broadheath, Worcestershire, England, June 2, 1857
Died in Worcester, February 23, 1934
The premiere of the Enigma Variations on June 19, 1899 marked the beginning of a new chapter in Elgar’s life. Already in his early forties, and with no reputation to speak of outside of his native England, Elgar was still regarded as “a man who hasn’t appeared yet” (his own words). The Enigma Variations changed that dramatically. Following the June premiere, Elgar slightly revised the score, extended the Finale, and saw the work played again and again to enthusiastic audiences not only in England but on the continent and in America as well. So quickly did Elgar’s fame spread now that he was knighted just five years after its premiere. He dedicated the score “to my friends pictured within.”
The identities of those “friends pictured within” constitute one aspect of the title’s enigma. Following the stately theme are 14 variations, the first and last of which depict Elgar’s wife and his own musical self-portrait, respectively. In between are found idiosyncratic orchestral descriptions of twelve men and women who played important roles in Elgar’s musical and/or social life. Each variation was prefaced with the character’s initials or nickname. Initially Elgar refused to disclose their identities, but later he published a detailed written explanation giving clues.
There is another enigma to the Variations. Elgar never revealed “its ‘dark saying’… through and over the whole set another and larger theme ‘goes’ but is not played.” This unplayed theme, a theme that “never appears,” has mystified the musical world for more than a century. Presumably Elgar’s wife and his friend August Jaeger knew the secret, but they carried it to their graves. Speculation has run to absurd proportions. Late in life the composer gave a clue: the theme was “so well known that it was strange no one had discovered it.” Musicologists tried mapping all kinds of songs and popular melodies onto the Variations, with varying degrees of failure. They tried programmatic and philosophical themes (“another and larger theme”) like intimacy, friendship and sincerity. They suggested maybe it was all a practical joke – that there was no theme at all of any kind. The enigma remains.
THEME (Enigma) – The theme appears immediately and consists of two phrases: the first, plaintive and sorrowful in G minor stated by violins in a gently climbing and falling line; the second, in G major, shared by strings and woodwinds.
VARIATION I – Without change of tempo, we are introduced to Caroline Alice Elgar, the composer’s wife, “one whose life was a romantic and delicate inspiration” in Elgar’s words.
VARIATION II – Hew David Steuart-Powell, a pianist with whom Elgar (as violinist) played chamber music, is humorously travestied as warming up.
VARIATION III – Elgar presents a caricature of actor Richard Baxter Townshend playing an old man in an amateur theatrical.
VARIATION IV – For the first time the full orchestral sonority is heard. William Meath Baker was described by an acquaintance as a “Gloucestershire squire of the old-fashioned type; scholar… a man of abundant energy.”
VARIATION V – Richard Penrose Arnold, son of Matthew Arnold, is portrayed as a man of depth and seriousness of purpose.
VARIATION VI – Miss Isobel Fitton, a violist, was another enthusiastic amateur who played chamber music with Elgar. Appropriately, her instrument is featured here, depicting a woman of romantic charm.
VARIATION VII – This variation shows architect Arthur Troyte Griffith’s clumsy attempts to play the piano and Elgar’s efforts to help him. The final slam suggests the frustration of it all.
VARIATION VIII – Here is depicted the tranquil lifestyle of a gracious lady, Miss Winifred Norbury of Worcester in her eighteenth-century home.
VARIATION IX – In the best-known of the variations, Elgar creates a moving tribute to August Jaeger. The nickname “Nimrod” refers to the biblical hunter, son of Cush (“Jaeger” is German for “hunter”). The soft glow that infuses this music grew out of a “record of a long summer evening talk,” reported Elgar, “when my friend Jaeger grew nobly eloquent – as only he could – on the grandeur of Beethoven, and especially of his slow movements.”
VARIATION X – Dorabella (later Mrs. Richard Powell) was a lady of hesitant conversation and fluttering manner. Elgar spoke of this music as “a dance of fairy-like lightness.”
VARIATION XI – It is traditional to hear in this music the capering of Sinclair’s bulldog Dan as he stumbles down the banks of the River Wye, paddles upstream to find a landing place and finally scrambles out barking.
VARIATION XII – Another amateur musician in Elgar’s circle was Basil G. Nevinson. His instrument, the cello, predictably has a featured role in this variation.
VARIATION XIII – This variation depicts Lady Mary Lygon, who was on a sea voyage to Australia at the time of composition. This gentle seascape includes quotations on the clarinet from Mendelssohn’s Overture Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage.
VARIATION XIV – Here is Elgar himself. The composer’s assertive, self-assured side is seen here (not his more typical reserved side), and the Variations end in exultant tones.
Pinchas Zukerman has long championed Elgar’s Enigma Variations with the NAC Orchestra, from their first performance in 2005, to the Orchestra’s most recent in 2013. Guest orchestras have frequently interpreted the work in Southam Hall, including the Orchestra of the BBC Wales, in 1983, and the Orchestre Métropolitain with Yannick Nézét-Seguin in 2015.
Program notes by Robert Markow
Artists
Pianist Marc-André Hamelin, a “performer of near-superhuman technical prowess” (New York Times), is known worldwide for his unrivalled blend of consummate musicianship. He continues to amass praise for his brilliant technique in the great works of the repertoire and for his intrepid exploration of the rarities of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.
Hamelin’s 2024–2025 season began with recitals in Asia at Beijing Concert Hall, Xi’an Concert Hall, and the Seoul Arts Center, and in duo recitals with Charles Richard-Hamelin in Tokyo, Yokohama and Fukuoka, with later solo recitals in Gulangyu, Chengdu, and at Shanghai Symphony Hall. European highlights include recitals in Warsaw, Ascona, Copenhagen, Toulouse, Cremona, Florence, Budapest, Detmold, Nijmegen, Hannover, Ruhr, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie and London’s Wigmore Hall. Orchestral appearances include the RTVE Symphony Orchestra, the Bruckner Orchester Linz, and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra.
He returns to Carnegie Hall for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and Bernard Labadie. Other appearances include the Cleveland Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa, the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, the Amarillo Symphony, and a complete Beethoven concerto cycle with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. Recital highlights include concerts at San Francisco Performances, Music Toronto, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Music Room at the Caramoor Center for the Music and the Arts. He also tours with the Dover Quartet in a program featuring his Piano Quintet.
An exclusive recording artist for Hyperion Records, Hamelin has released 89 albums to date, with notable recordings of a broad range of solo, orchestral, and chamber repertoire. In October 2024, Hamelin released his recording of Hammerklavier, Beethoven’s imposing Piano Sonata No. 9 in B-flat major, coupled with the composer’s earlier Piano Sonata No. 3 in C-major, Op. 2, No. 3.
Featuring nine original pieces, Hamelin’s 2024 album New Piano Works is a survey of some of his own recent works, exhibiting his formidable skill as a composer-pianist whose music imaginatively and virtuosically taps into his musical forebears. “His previous offerings of his music were rich, but his latest self-portrait album is on another level,” the New York Times wrote.
Born in Montreal, Hamelin is the recipient of a German Record Critics’ Award for lifetime achievement. He has also received seven Juno Awards, 12 Grammy nominations, and the 2018 Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance from Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. In December 2020, he was awarded the Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award for Keyboard Artistry from the Ontario Arts Foundation. Hamelin is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Chevalier of the Ordre national du Québec, and a member of the Royal Society of Canada.
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.
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 United Kingdom and Artistic and Music Director of Artis—Naples and the Naples Philharmonic in Florida. 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. Shelley’s leadership is complemented by Principal Guest Conductor John Storgårds, an internationally renowned conductor and violinist who has led some of the world’s finest ensembles, and Principal Youth Conductor Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser, known for creating innovative and engaging community programming. 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 Kindom, Europe, and Asia.
The NAC Orchestra has also established a rich discography, including many of the over 80 orchestral works it has commissioned over the years. These include:
- The 2024 album Two Orchestras, One Symphony, a grand-scale interpretation of the late Quebec composer Jacques Hétu’s monumental Symphony No. 5., produced in collaboration with the Orchestre symphonique de Québec and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir
- The 2024 album Truth in Our Time, including the premiere recording of Philip Glass’s Symphony No. 13, commissioned by the National Arts Centre Orchestra
- Clara - Robert - Johannes: a multi-year, multi-album exploration of the music of Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms, featuring pianists Angela Hewitt, Stewart Goodyear, and Gabriela Montero
- The groundbreaking Life Reflected, which includes “My Name is Amanda Todd” by the late Jocelyn Morlock (winner of the 2018 Juno for Classical Composition of the Year)
- Ana Sokolović’s “Golden Slumbers Kiss Your Eyes,” 2019 Juno Winner for Classical Composition of the Year (from the 2019 Juno-nominated New Worlds)
- The 2020 JUNO-nominated The Bounds of Our Dreams, featuring pianist Alain Lefèvre
- Angela Hewitt’s 2015 Juno Award-winning album of Mozart Piano Concertos
The NAC Orchestra’s Learning and Community Engagement initiatives are rooted in creating inclusive and accessible programs for audiences in the National Capital Region and across Canada. These initiatives include family-focused performances, Music Circle workshops specifically designed for individuals on the autism spectrum, and sensory-friendly concerts. Additionally, the Orchestra offers exceptional programming for students, teachers, and learners of all ages, including matinee performances, open rehearsals, instrumental workshops, and digital resources, ensuring that arts learning and engagement in music remain a priority for young audiences and the broader community. The Orchestra’s annual Mentorship Program brings 50 early-career orchestral musicians from around the world to Ottawa to participate in a three-week professional development experience with the world-class NAC Orchestra. Through these efforts, the NAC Orchestra continues to foster meaningful connections with diverse audiences, making music a shared and inclusive experience.
Tobi Hunt McCoy is enjoying another year as season Stage Manager with the National Arts Centre Orchestra. In past seasons, she stage-managed Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Christopher Plummer in 2001 and Colm Feore in 2014. She co-produced the 1940s Pops show On the Air with Jack Everly for the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, a show they co-produced in 2007 for the NAC Orchestra.
In 2018, McCoy made her Southam Hall acting debut in the role of Stage Manager in the Magic Circle Mime Co.’s production of Orchestra from Planet X. Additional professional duties have included aiding Susanna and the Countess in schooling the Count and Figaro on the finer points of marital love during The Marriage of Figaro, keeping her eyes open (for the first time ever) during the flying monkey scene in The Wizard of Oz, mistakenly asking Patrick Watson for proof of identity backstage, holding her breath while marvelling at the athletic ability of the cast during Cirque Goes Broadway, continuing to implement feedback on her British-Columbian French with the choruses of Ottawa, and cheering on Luke and Princess Leia with Charlie Ross, Émilie Fournier, and Eric Osner during the Star Wars Pops concert.
In her spare time, McCoy is the Head of Arts, Drama, English, and Library at Lisgar Collegiate Institute.
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Official Car of the NAC Orchestra
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees