Details
Alexander Shelley leads the combined forces of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra and Orchestre symphonique de Québec, paying homage to one of Canada’s most original voices, Jacques Hétu, with a performance of his final work, the Fifth Symphony, originally commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. The four movements of Hétu’s Fifth portray 1940 before, during, and after the Nazi invasion of France, capped off by the poem “Liberté” set to music. Hétu passed just three weeks before the TSO’s première of his work in 2010. Opening the performance is Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 2, which, as one piano critic stated, “begins with Bach and ends with Offenbach”—a nod to the work’s contrasting themes and solo piano line, which is virtuosic yet not too flashy, performed by young artist Kevin Chen.
National Arts Centre Orchestra
Alexander Shelley, conductor
Orchestre symphonique de Québec, guest orchestra
Clemens Schuldt, Music Director
Kevin Chen, piano
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir
Jean-Sébastien Vallée, Artistic Director
Kelly-Marie Murphy: Dark Stars, Bright Nights, Vast Universe
Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 2
Hétu: Symphony No. 5 (TSO Commission)
Item details
Date
Saturday, March 2, 2024 8:00PM
Location
Roy Thomson Hall
Name
NACO + OSQ: Two Orchestras, One Symphony
Description
Alexander Shelley leads the combined forces of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra and Orchestre symphonique de Québec, paying homage to one of Canada’s most original voices, Jacques Hétu, with a performance of his final work, the Fifth Symphony, originally commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. The four movements of Hétu’s Fifth portray 1940 before, during, and after the Nazi invasion of France, capped off by the poem “Liberté” set to music. Hétu passed just three weeks before the TSO’s première of his work in 2010. Opening the performance is Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 2, which, as one piano critic stated, “begins with Bach and ends with Offenbach”—a nod to the work’s contrasting themes and solo piano line, which is virtuosic yet not too flashy, performed by young artist Kevin Chen.
National Arts Centre Orchestra
Alexander Shelley, conductor
Orchestre symphonique de Québec, guest orchestra
Clemens Schuldt, Music Director
Kevin Chen, piano
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir
Jean-Sébastien Vallée, Artistic Director
Kelly-Marie Murphy: Dark Stars, Bright Nights, Vast Universe
Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 2
Hétu: Symphony No. 5 (TSO Commission)
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