THE SCOOP | The Toronto Symphony Orchestra hits the road to Montreal and Ottawa with Juno-winning Canadian mezzo-soprano Emily D'Angelo.

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra performs at the National Center for the Performing Arts on its centennial tour (Photo: Curtis Perry)

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra will host Brahms No. 1 with music director Gustavo Gimeno and welcome mezzo Emily D'Angelo on tour to the Mason Symphony in Montreal and the National Arts Center of Canada in Ottawa on May 4 and 5.

The tour program will include the North American premiere of enargeia, the world premiere of Light by TSO RBC affiliate composer Alison Yun-Fei Jiang, and Brahms' First Symphony. Toronto audiences will have a chance to see the same program on May 1 and 2 at Roy Thomson Hall.

“When we talk about Canadian music and musicians, we often emphasize the importance of international exposure and recognition, but it's just as important to support this country's cultural creations and institutions right here at home. That's what we'll be doing on our upcoming tour, and we're proud to represent Toronto in Montreal and Ottawa, bringing a piece of this city with us – something that can't be found anywhere else,” explained TSO's Beck Family. CEO Mark Williams said in a statement.

Music

“The orchestra and I are thrilled to bring this wonderfully rich and incredibly nuanced program to Montreal and Ottawa after performing it to our hometown audiences in Toronto,” says the conductor. Gustavo Gimeno.

“I've always believed that when it comes to programming, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts – and this concert is a quintessential example. It contains both new compositions and old compositions, but by bringing them all together, a sense of interdependence and synthesis emerges. It's probably the most obvious in energy and I'm excited to work with it. Brilliant artist Emily D'Angelo in this live adaptation of his landmark album. Emily has a wonderful voice and I look forward to working with her for years to come.”

energetic

The title of the scripture comes from ancient Greek and comes from the tradition of rhetoric. Loosely translated, it refers to the concept of using words in a vivid recreation of someone or something. Written by Emily D'Angelo On the Deutsche Grammophon label, enargeia is a suite of works by female composers written primarily for voice. Composers and their works span more than eight centuries, from medieval composer and saint Hildegard von Bingen to contemporary composers Hildur Guðnadóttir, Missy Mazzoli, and Sarah Kirkland Snyder. Among other awards, the release won the 2022 JUNO Award for Classic Album of the Year (Solo Artist) and the 2022 Gramophone Concept Album Award.

This marks his second appearance of the season as a TSO 2023/24 Spotlight Artist.

Lighting by Alison Yun-Fei Jiang (World Premiere)

The TSO assigned the piece to RBC Associate Composer Alison Yun-Fei Jiang. Jiang earned a PhD in composition from the University of Chicago and is currently based in North York. He is completing a two-year stint on the TSO artistic leadership team.

His music is melodious and full of drama, with influences ranging from French Impressionists to cinematic music and traditional Chinese opera. Jiang is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2016 IAWM (International Alliance for Women in Music) Libby Larsen Award for Search for New Music Competition and the 2015-2016 JCC Manhattan/NYU Tisch Call for Music Commission. His work has been performed by the American String Quartet, the Cassatt String Quartet, Quartetto Apeiron, the Manhattan School of Music Orchestra, and the New York University Symphony, among others.

His Enlightenment was inspired by the light forms and natural phenomena depicted in the Diamond Sutra and the influential East Asian text translated from the original Sanskrit into Chinese. The light of the symbolic diamond is like the power of wisdom that shatters illusions and reveals the truth.

year Montrealthe audience experiences Beethovendramatic Coriolanus Overture. The work was written by Heinrich Joseph von Collin as a revival of Shakespeare's tragedy about a Roman general who is doomed to death.

Brahms Symphony No. 1

Brahms wrote his Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 in a few years, more than 20 on his own account. His sketches date back to 1854 and it was exhibited in Germany in November 1876. Some of those early sketches made their way around to become his first piano concerto in D minor. The long development of the symphony probably arose from the composer's perfectionism and habit of destroying early works.

Brahms was well received at its premiere, although he resented constant comparisons to Beethoven. Today it is regarded as one of the great symphonies in the Western classical repertoire, but some still refer to it as “Beethoven's Tenth”.

They will perform the program on May 1st and 2nd in Toronto, details (HERE).
The tour heads to Montreal on May 4, details (HERE) and Ottawa's National Arts Center on May 5, details (HERE).

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