National Arts Centre Orchestra Music Director Pinchas Zukerman leads the NAC Orchestra – and is viola soloist – in a concert on Saturday April 21 at 7:30 p.m. at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall. Well-known writer-broadcaster Eric Friesen hosts the concert.

PearTree Financial Services is the NAC Orchestra Toronto Touring Partner.

This concert marks the NAC Orchestra’s fifteenth visit to Toronto, where the Orchestra has been performing regularly since 1989. The Toronto Symphony Orchestra reciprocates with an annual concert at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa; TSO concerts are popular with audiences and always sell out.

The program for the concert on April 21 includes:
HÉTU   Antinomie, Opus 23
TELEMANN  Concerto in G major for Viola and Orchestra
BACH   Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B-flat major, BWV 1051
SCHUBERT  Symphony No. 3 in D major, D. 200

CASUAL CONCERT SERIES
This concert is part of the TSO’s series of Casual Concerts, which are performed without an intermission and are followed by a party for the whole audience in the lobby. Meet and mingle with NACO and TSO musicians in a relaxed setting and enjoy live music by local bands.

Pinchas Zukerman is magnificent as viola soloist in Georg Philipp Telemann’s Viola Concerto in G major. Of his surviving concertos, this is among his most famous, and still regularly performed today. It is the first known concerto for viola and was written circa 1716–1721. The 14-minute Viola Concerto consists of four movements -- largo, allegro, andante, and presto.

One of Canada’s most esteemed and frequently performed composers, the catalogue of Jacques Hétu (1938-2010) includes some 80 works, including symphonies, opera, choral and chamber music, and concertos for numerous instruments. Jacques Hétu’s relationship with the National Arts Centre began in the late 1970s, when the NAC commissioned Antinomie. This 8-minute work was performed by the NAC Orchestra under the baton of Mario Bernardi on October 4, 1977. “Antinomie” may be defined as the opposition between one law, principle or rule and another, and Hétu has applied this concept to his musical composition. He has said, “The work is in two parts presenting contrasting views of the same musical idea. The first part, slow and sustained, consists essentially of melodic elements, presented first by the oboe and a bit later by the horns. These expressive elements are brought to a climax dominated by the trumpet before resumption of the initial mood in the lower strings. The second part, fast and nervous, begins suddenly with two fast timpani notes. Then, in a play of sonorities distributed among the various instrumental groups, all the previously heard material is transformed, dislocated, scattered in all directions in preparation for an attempt to regroup around the initial oboe motif, but without the calmness of the opening. Antinomie was basically conceived with a view towards utilizing instrumental colors, both expressively and virtuosically.”

Few musical works are as loved -- and as often performed -- as the six Brandenburg Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach. These lively concertos (based on an Italian concerto grosso style) display a lighter side of Bach’s genius. The composer presented them to the Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt in March 1721, though they were probably composed earlier. In the late Baroque era, the concerto was the most popular form of instrumental music and the primary vehicle of expression for grand, sublime feeling, a role later to be assumed by the symphony. In Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B flat major, BWV 1051, the absence of violins is unusual. Two violas start the first movement with a vigorous subject in close canon, and as the movement progresses, the other instruments are gradually drawn into the seemingly uninterrupted steady flow of melodic invention, which shows the composer’s mastery of polyphony. The two violas da gamba are silent in the second movement, leaving the texture of a trio sonata for two violas and continuo, although the cello has a decorated version of the continuo bass line. In the last movement, the spirit of the gigue underlies everything.

Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 3 in D major, D. 200 was written between 24 May and 19 July 1815, a few months after his eighteenth birthday. The first movement, allegro con brio, is remarkable for its charm and the interplay of solo clarinet with syncopated strings, which developed from within the bounds of the style of chamber music to the larger sphere of the symphonic form. This is an extremely dramatic movement in sonata form. It owes much to the influence of Rossini, whose music was quite popular at the time, particularly evident in the overture-like structure. A delightful allegretto in ternary form follows, full of grace and humor. Then comes a high-spirited Minuet, which, with its accented upbeats, suggests a scherzo and a popular flavor due to this low and popular gesture, and is contrasted by a graceful Ländler-like trio. The concluding presto in tarantella rhythm is remarkable for its bold harmonic progressions and for its wealth of dynamic contrast. This movement is in sonata form with a looser conception.

The National Arts Centre Orchestra performs at Roy Thomson Hall on Saturday April 21 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $33, $38, $44, $54, $65, $71, $75, $79, $84, $89, and $98 for adults. Tickets are available at the Roy Thomson Hall Box Office (in person) at 60 Simcoe St (corner of King St.); by telephone at 416-872-4255; or online (wwwroythomson.com).

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Information:  
Gerald Morris
Communications Officer, NAC Music
613-947-7000, ext. 335
[e-mail]  gmorris@nac-cna.ca