Ottawa’s own Angela Hewitt performs Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G in Hewitt’s Ravel, the third Bostonian Bravo Series concert of the season at the National Arts Centre on November 3-4

PRE-CONCERT CHAT ON NOVEMBER 3-4 – Southam Hall,
7 p.m.
“Ravel: The Man Behind the Masks” (in English)
with author and Maclean’s writer Paul Wells and Angela Hewitt

POST-CONCERT CD SIGNING
Angela Hewitt will sign CDs in the foyer of Southam Hall after both concerts

The NAC Orchestra will perform Symphony No. 4 in A minor, Op. 63 by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) for the first time at this concert. It has been described as highly imaginative, challenging, and profoundly compelling. Many consider it to be by far the best of Sibelius’s seven works in the genre, and one of the greatest written in the twentieth century. Sibelius was just about at the mid-point of his long life of 91 years when he wrote his Fourth Symphony. It was greatly influenced by a trip the composer made to the rather bleak forested mountains in northeast Finland in the fall of 1909. The mood of the Fourth Symphony can also be traced to Sibelius’s emotional trauma about his throat cancer (which was successfully treated) and the frightening prospect of death. Premiered on April 3, 1911, the Fourth Symphony exudes gaunt power, strength, intensity of musical thought, and extreme economy of expression. 

Angela Hewitt was born and raised in Ottawa and still has family here. She is phenomenally popular in this city and her concerts consistently draw sellout crowds. Ms Hewitt made her National Arts Centre debut in 1977 performing chamber music, and her first appearance with the NAC Orchestra was in October of that same year. Now back at the NAC after her sold-out concert last season, Ms Hewitt brings her rich artistry and extraordinary interpretive skills to Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, a work full of colourful harmonies and scintillating rhythms.  

The Piano Concerto in G major by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was composed between 1929–1931 after the Boston Symphony Orchestra invited several important composers -- among them Ravel, Stravinsky, Roussel, Honegger and Prokofiev -- to write compositions for the BSO fiftieth anniversary season (1930-31). The concerto is heavily influenced by jazz, which Ravel had encountered on a 4-month, 25-city concert tour of the U.S. in 1928. Ravel had met George Gershwin in New York and accompanied him to hear jazz in Harlem. There is a story that when Gershwin met Ravel, he mentioned that he would like to study with the French composer. According to Gershwin, the Frenchman retorted, "Why do you want to become a second-rate Ravel when you are already a first-rate Gershwin?" The first performance of the Piano Concerto was given in Paris on January 14, 1932, with Ravel conducting. Music of the Basque region, one of the most prominent influences in this work, is immediately evident, as is the influence of neighboring Spain. Although Ravel had been incorporating jazz idioms into his compositions for the past decade, here it especially animates the final movement, as do snatches of marches, folk tunes, brilliant dances and musical highjinks recalling a raucous circus atmosphere. Ravel professed that ‘the music of a concerto should, in my opinion, be lighthearted and brilliant, and not aim at profundity or at dramatic effects.”

Angela Hewitt says, “There are certain pieces in my repertoire that are so much a part of me that I could (and sometimes actually do) play in my sleep. This is one of them. That doesn¹t mean that I don¹t approach it each time with a new outlook and fresh ideas. On the contrary, knowing something so well gives me even greater freedom to go further with my interpretation. The pianist is not the only virtuoso, though, in this work. The whole orchestra has to be on its toes as there are very demanding solos for everyone from the harp to the trumpet, not forgetting the English horn. The slow movement for me is one of the wonders of the world. It is Ravel at his most eloquent, with a poignancy that is almost unbearable.”

The Slavonic Dances are a series of 16 orchestral pieces composed by Antonín Dvo?ák (1841-1904) in 1878 and 1886 and published in two sets as Opus 46 and Opus 72 respectively. Originally written for piano four hands, the Slavonic Dances were inspired by Johannes Brahms's own Hungarian Dances and were orchestrated at the request of Dvo?ák's publisher soon after composition. The pieces, lively and overtly nationalistic, are a deft combination of folklore, spontaneous inspiration and masterful composition. They were well received at the time and their appeal remains universal. Today they are among the composer's most memorable works.

Hewitt’s Ravel will be performed in Southam Hall of the National Arts Centre on on Thursday November 3 and Friday November 4, 2011at 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 613-755-1111; 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.

Discover the new NACmusicbox TIMELINE: 200 orchestral works, 80 Canadian compositions, 1 interactive TIMELINE that provides a visual representation of our rare online archival collection and encourages the exploration of music connections. The NACmusicbox TIMELINE has been specifically designed to showcase the works of Canadian composers within the history of orchestral music and offers cross-curricular content with classroom-ready activities and lesson plans developed by teachers for teachers. Visit NACmusicbox.ca today.

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   
[e-mail]  gerald.morris@nac-cna.ca