Join the National Arts Centre Orchestra's Marjolaine Fournier and one of Canada's foremost music journalists, Jean-Jacques van Vlasselaer, as they explore the symphonic form from Haydn to Shostakovich.
Robert Schumann[1] (8 June 1810 – 29 July 1856) was a German composer and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic...
Richard Georg Strauss (11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which...
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century. Pulcinella is a ballet by...
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer of the late-Romantic period, some of whose works are among the most popular music in the classical repertoire. He was the first Russian...
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is primarily known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the...
"Treating each film as an 'opera without singing' (each character has his or her own leitmotif) Korngold created intensely romantic, richly melodic and contrapuntally intricate scores, the best of which...
By far the bulk of Gershwin’s output is devoted to songs – more than five hundred of them, most of which come from his more than four dozen works for...
In the first of the 2015-16 season's "Explore the Symphony" podcasts, the NAC Orchestra's assistant principal double bass Marjolaine Fournier and one of Canada's foremost music journalists Jean-Jacques van Vlasselaer...
Words like “epic” and “timeless” are regularly applied to Bruckner symphonies. They have a pace of their own. But let yourself get in synch with their pulse, and you’ll be...
Join Marjolaine Fournier and Jean-Jacques Van Vlasselaer for an intriguing look into Maurice Ravel's life and his two piano concertos.
A conversation with Josée Beaudet, the author of Jean-Marie Beaudet, l'homme orchestre. Beaudet was the very first music director at the NAC - he founded the orchestra, secured its...
Marjolaine and Jean-Jacques reveal Schumann's relationship with the Rhine.
In this week’s Explore the Symphony, Marjolaine and Jean-Jacques dig into not one, but all four of Brahms’ symphonies! Musical Excerpt: NAC Orchestra Brahms, Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 Performance...
In this episode of Explore the Symphony, Marjolaine and Jean-Jacques discuss Symphonic Metamorphoses of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber by Paul Hindemith. Musical excerpts: Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes of Carl Maria...
In this Explore the Symphony, Marjolaine Fournier and Jean-Jacques van Vlasselaer talk about Shakespeare, Nicolai, Korngold and Mendelssohn.