The National Arts Centre Orchestra’s 2010-2011 Ovation Series continues with Music Director Pinchas Zukerman conducting and internationally celebrated artist Radu Lupu at the piano. The concert also features music by NAC Award-winning Canadian composer Peter Paul Koprowski.
The second Ovation concerts of the season – Radu Lupu … Rapture and Fire on Wednesday January 26 and Thursday January 27 at 8 p.m. in Southam Hall – feature Music Director Pinchas Zukerman on the conductor’s podium and world-renowned pianist Radu Lupu in the spotlight. Also featured is In Memoriam Karol Szymanowski, composed by Peter Paul Koprowski, who received an NAC Award for Canadian composers in November 2009.
The concert features:
PETER PAUL KOPROWSKI In Memoriam Karol Szymanowski
SCHUMANN Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.54
BRAHMS Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98
In addition to the work by Koprowski, this concert brings together works by two Romantic composers who were close friends -- Schumann and Brahms. Schumann’s Piano Concerto was premiered in 1845 by his beloved wife Clara, a piano virtuoso in her own right, who championed this musical amalgamation of rapture and fire. Though Brahms jokingly called his 1885 Fourth Symphony “another collection of polkas and waltzes,” he used noble forms to convey deep emotions in this autumnal work – his final symphony and the pinnacle of his symphonic output.
PRE-CONCERT CHAT (January 26 in English, January 27 in French)
“Constant farewells”/ « Présences et adieux » with Jean-Jacques Van Vlasselaer
Romanian-born Radu Lupu is firmly established as one of the most important musicians of his generation. Widely acknowledged as a leading interpreter of the piano repertoire, he has been described as “one of those rare pianists who can be identified from a mere handful of notes. His distinctive soft-edged sound is like a cat padding across velvet.” Since winning the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (1966) and Leeds International Pianoforte Competition (1969), Mr. Lupu has regularly performed as soloist and recitalist in musical capitals and at major festivals worldwide. In his concert performances, Lupu is famous for using a sawn-off office chair rather than a traditional piano bench.
Radu Lupu remains a somewhat reclusive figure. He has refused to talk to journalists for over 30 years, but in one rare published interview (1991), he expressed his philosophy of music-making: “Everyone tells a story differently, and that story should be told compellingly and spontaneously. If it is not compelling and convincing, it is without value.” Mr. Lupu has made more than 20 recordings for London/Decca and has won both a Grammy Award and an Edison Award.
In 2007, writing in Montreal’s La Scena Musicale, Lucie Renaud said, “Unclassifiable, incomparable, unforgettable, Radu Lupu has been thrilling audiences around the world for over 40 years with music making that is anchored at one and the same time in the depths of the instrument and in the soul of the composer, with an exceptional musical sensitivity, an unsettling yet discreetly presented technical facility, a rarefied inwardness and a sure gift for painting sonic landscapes. His qualities as a pianist and the aura of the secret artist he gives off put him in a class of his own.”
“Prolific, pensive and articulate”, multi-award winning Polish-born Peter Paul Koprowski is primarily as a composer of orchestral music, having produced a body of work that goes back to his teenage years. A number of his compositions bear the scars of political conflict and strife in his homeland, among them In Memoriam Karol Szymanowski. The composer writes, “When I wrote In Memoriam in 1963, I was sixteen years old, living in a society oppressed by an imposed communist regime and still depressed by the recent memory of the ravages and depredations of World War II. …It was in this context that I wrote a composition marking my protest against any war and any type of oppression -- in memoriam of those that perished. … In 1977, fourteen years after its completion, Orchestra London Canada [performed the work].” The first performance in Poland was not given until 2007. Peter Paul Koprowski’s most recent award came in November of 2009, when the National Arts Centre conferred $75,000 awards on three Canadian composers (John Estacio and Ana Sokolovic were the others) to write three works each, which will be performed by the NAC Orchestra over the next several years.
The NAC Orchestra and Radu Lupu perform Rapture and Fire in Southam Hall of the National Arts Centre on Wednesday January 26 and Thursday January 27 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 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.
Our latest web offering -- coming soon – the 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 will offer a visual mapping of our rare online collection. It also 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:
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