NAC Orchestra

Wed, January 29, 2020
10:00 AM
Bryan Cheng © Nikolaj Lund
Bryan Cheng © Swanhild Kruckelmann
Peter Oundjian © Sian Richards
Music Classical music Masterworks Cello
  • ANNA CLYNE Within Her Arms
  • EDWARD ELGAR Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85
  • Antonín Dvořák Symphony No. 6 in D major, Op. 60
  • ≈ 2 hours · With intermission

In recognition and thanks for invaluable donor support, the NAC Orchestra and NAC Dance grants insider access to donors to audit a working rehearsal in Southam Hall. Often, an artist or member of the artistic team gives insights into the creative process and invites questions from donors. Seating is limited.

Esteemed conductor emeritus of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra Peter Oundjian returns to conduct the NAC Orchestra in Southam for the first time in over two decades.

To hear Ottawa-born solo cellist Bryan Cheng perform is to witness the deep connection between a new generation of superb performers and the great composers of the last five centuries. At 18, Bryan was the 2016 recipient of the National Arts Centre Orchestra’s Bursary Competition. Now barely in his twenties, Bryan returns to the NAC, and a better vehicle for his extraordinary talent than the burning intensity of Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto could hardly be found. Elgar’s concerto is a lament for a world changed by an apocalyptic war, and he composed the work at his cottage where, just a few years earlier, he could hear the sounds of artillery across the English Channel in France. 

Czech composer Antonin Dvořák’s Symphony No. 6 is filled with beautiful melodies that radiate spirit and intimacy, and rightly established him as one of the foremost composers of his generation. If you know it, you still won’t want to miss this extraordinary performance of a work that only gets better with each hearing.

GRAMMY-nominated composer Anna Clyne’s Within Her Arms is a poignant work for 15 strings that has drawn inevitable comparisons to Barber’s Adagio. Composed in response to the unexpected death of Clyne’s mother, Within Her Arms shines with an inner radiance while looking squarely into the eyes of unexpected grief.

Performance is approximately 2 hours including intermission

Artists

  • peter-oundjian-credit-dale-wilcox
    Conductor Peter Oundjian
  • Cello Bryan Cheng
  • bio-orchestra
    Featuring National Arts Centre Orchestra
  • anna-clyne-photo-by-christina-kernohan-691px-cropped
    Composer Anna Clyne