Vivaldi’s magnificent The Four Seasons is interpreted by four separate violin soloists and the National Arts Centre Orchestra under conductor Pinchas Zukerman in the season’s fourth Ovation Series concert on April 13-14
In the fourth Ovation Series concert of the NAC’s 2010-2011 season, Vivaldi’s Baroque masterpiece Le Quattro stagioni (The Four Seasons) will be performed by the NAC Orchestra and four separate violin soloists, all under the baton of Music Director Pinchas Zukerman. The soloists are Caitlin Tully (who performs the ‘Spring’ movement), Bella Hristova (Summer), Jesus Reina (Autumn), and NAC Orchestra Associate Concertmaster Jessica Linnebach (Winter). The concerts are at 8 p.m. in Southam Hall on Wednesday April 13 and Thursday April 14, 2011.
The NAC Orchestra concerts on April 13-14 celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Mitchell Sharp Endowment for Young Musicians and its support of the NAC’s Summer Music Institute
The program for the evening includes:
BRAHMS Serenade No. 2 in A major, Op. 16
VIVALDI The Four Seasons
Johannes Brahms’s Serenade No. 2 in A major, Op. 16 (1859) has numerous felicities of orchestration, wonderful charm and a generous number of singable tunes. It reflects a relaxed, intimate world of genial sentiments and warm sonorities, violas being the highest voice in the strings, with clarinets and bassoons the predominant wind colors. It breathes a world more of studied elegance and moderation of the eighteenth century than of the heady romanticism of the nineteenth. Brahms himself had high regard for the work – saying “I have seldom written music with greater delight; it seemed to sound so beautiful that I was overjoyed.” -- which is significant in light of his severe self-criticism.
PRE-CONCERT CHAT
by Jonathan Shaughnessy, Assistant Curator, National Gallery of Canada
April 13 (in English): “Misled By Nature: Baroque Tendencies in Contemporary Art”
April 14 (in French): « Nature trompeuse : le baroque s’affiche dans l’art contemporain »
FOYER EXHIBITION
Four large Vivaldi’s Four Seasons paintings from a past NAC Orchestra Tour will be displayed on the West wall of the main foyer for the Vivaldi and The Four Seasons student matinees (April 5-6) as well as for the Vivaldi’s Four Seasons evening concerts (April 13-14)
The Four Seasons is a set of four violin concertos composed by Antonio Vivald in 1723. Certainly Vivaldi's best-known work, it is among the most popular pieces of Baroque music ever written. The texture of each concerto is varied, each resembling its respective season. For example, ‘Winter’ is peppered with silvery pizzicato notes from the high strings, calling to mind icy rain, whereas ‘Summer’ evokes a thunderstorm in its final movement. In addition to brilliant writing for violin, the concertos are graphically descriptive, incorporating numerous delightful sound effects -- meteorological, animal, vegetable, and human.
At the head of each “season” in the score, Vivaldi has inscribed a sonnet, probably by himself, with cue marks to indicate precisely where in the music each image of the text occurs.
- ‘Spring’:
I. Spring arrives, greeted by happy birds, bubbling brooks and gentle breezes.
II. A goatherd lies asleep in the flowery meadow amidst murmuring grasses, his dog beside him. III. Nymphs and shepherds celebrate the brilliance of a new-found spring in a peasant dance, accompanied by bagpipes. - ‘Summer’:
I. Man and beast languish beneath the scorching sun. A shepherd senses an approaching storm.
II. The shepherd is further troubled by the rumblings of distant thunder, as well as by angry insects.
III. A full-blown storm movement, replete with graphic pictorial devices to represent thunder, lightning, hai, and sheets of wind-driven rain. - ‘Autumn’:
I. A merry celebration of the harvest in song and dance, leading to a drunken stupor.
II. Cool breezes waft over the peasants in their blissful, carefree slumber after the revelry.
III. A hunting scene. - ‘Winter’:
I. Icy sound effects, shivering from the cold, the chattering of teeth, the stamping of feet to keep warm, and the howling of the frozen wind are all portrayed in this realistic mood piece.
II. A scene of quiet contentment before the warm fireplace.
III. Walking cautiously on the ice, then running recklessly and falling repeatedly; a brief, welcome return of the summer wind; ferocious raging winter winds resume with a vengeance, offering a unique entertainment for the time of year.
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons will be performed in Southam Hall of the National Arts Centre on Wednesday April 13 and Thursday April 14, 2011 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20.45, $31.21, $42.51, $53.81, $64.57, $75.33, and $94.17, for adults and $11.38, $16.76, $22.41, $28.06, $33.44, $38.82, and $48.24 for students (upon presentation of a valid student ID card). Tickets are available at the NAC Box Office (in person) and through Ticketmaster (with surcharges) at 1-888-991-2787; Ticketmaster may also be accessed through the NAC’s website www.nac-cna.ca.
Subject to availability, full-time students (aged 13-29) with valid Live Rush™ membership (free registration at www.liverush.ca) may buy up to 2 tickets per performance at the discount price of $12 per ticket. Tickets are available online (www.nac-cna.ca) or at the NAC box office from 10 a.m. on the day before the performance until 6 p.m. on the day of the show or 2 hours before a matinee. Groups of 10 or more save 15% to 20% off regular ticket prices to all NAC Music, Theatre and Dance performances; to reserve your seats, call 613-947-7000, ext. 634 or e-mail grp@nac-cna.ca.
Our latest web offering -- coming soon -- NACmusicbox TIMELINE 200 orchestral works, 80 Canadian compositions, 1 interactive TIMELINE. Explore unlimited music connections and discover Canada's contribution to orchestral history. The interactive TIMELINE includes the addition of 65 Canadian works thanks to financial investment by the Virtual Museum of Canada at the Department of Canadian Heritage. We also acknowledge our partner CBC Radio 2 for providing broadcast-quality recordings of the NAC Orchestra’s archival performances.
For additional information, visit the NAC website at www.nac-cna.ca
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Information:
Gerald Morris
Communications Officer, NAC Music
613-947-7000, ext. 335
gmorris@nac-cna.ca" href="mailto:Gerald%20Morris,%20Marketing%20and%20Media%20Relations,%20NAC%20Dance%20Programming(613)%20947-7000,%20ext.%20249%5be-mail%5d%20%20gmorris@nac-cna.ca">[e-mail] gmorris@nac-cna.ca