NSO Masterworks 1: Into the Deep by NSOmusic

Message from the Premier

Congratulations to the esteemed Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra (NSO) on the launch of their 2024-2025 season. The NSO remains a cornerstone of Newfoundland and Labrador’s cultural arts scene, captivating with diverse programming that embraces pop culture, broadening appeal across generations. In 2023-24, the NSO engaged communities by offering in-school and virtual programs for students and free online concerts for seniors, enriching lives through music. As they begin this new season, the NSO honours maestro Marc David for his remarkable 30-year career, shaping the orchestra’s legacy and leaving a lasting impact on Newfoundland and Labrador’s cultural landscape. The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador proudly supports the NSO, recognizing its pivotal role in enriching our province’s arts and culture sector.

Message from the Mayor

On behalf of the City of St. John’s, I extend warm greetings to the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra as you embark on your 2024/2025 season with the inspiring theme of “Resonance.” This season holds special significance as you celebrate the remarkable 30-year career of Maestro Marc David. His dedication, passion, and leadership have left a lasting mark on the NSO, resonating deeply with audiences in our city and beyond. The arts play a crucial role in enriching our lives, fostering creativity, and bringing people together. The NSO’s commitment to delivering exceptional musical experiences reflects the vibrant cultural landscape we’re fortunate to have in St. John’s. Your performances not only entertain but also inspire and uplift, creating lasting moments. As we celebrate this milestone season, my sincere gratitude goes to the musicians, staff, volunteers, and supporters of the NSO. Your tireless efforts ensure the symphony thrives and resonates with audiences of all ages. I’m confident that this season will be filled with memorable performances that leave a lasting impact. Congratulations to Maestro Marc David on his illustrious career, and best wishes to the NSO for a successful and resonant 2024/2025 season.

Joan Marie J. Aylward, O.N.L., B.N., R.N. Lieutenant Governor of NL

Danny Breen Mayor of St. John’s

Message from the Lieutenant Governor

As Honorary Patron, it is my pleasure to extend best wishes to the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra for the 2024/2025 season. Once again, the NSO will delight audiences with a season full of performances for many different musical tastes. This year’s theme is “Resonance”. Indeed, the NSO resonates throughout our province and contributes much to our rich artistic culture. Now with 84 members, the NSO has come a long way since its inception as a fledgling ensemble in 1962. This season also marks the final one for Principal Conductor Maestro Marc David. For 30 years the Orchestra has been guided by his steady hand. We join with you in celebrating his contributions, and his leadership with the NSO. Thank you Maestro Marc David for all the joy you have brought for audiences over your years with the NSO. I hope you will enjoy each performance this year. To the musicians, staff, crew, and all who play a part within the NSO, I wish you the best for your season, which I am confident will resonate with pride for audiences throughout the province. We are so proud of you, and we celebrate your continued success as you begin your new season in the Year of the Arts. Bravo!

Hon. Dr. Andrew Furey Premier

MASTERWORKS 1: INTO THE DEEP

Friday, September 27, 2024 • St. John’s Arts & Culture Centre

Isabella d’Éloize Perron, violin • Simon Rivard, conductor

PROGRAMME

María H.M. Sigfúsdóttir Oceans

Sergei Prokofiev

Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 19

I. Andantino

II. Scherzo: Vivacissimo

III. Moderato - Allegro moderato

INTERMISSION

Jean Sibelius

Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39 38

I. Andante, ma non troppo - Allegro energico

II. Andante (ma non troppo lento)

III. Scherzo: Allegro

IV. Finale (Quasi una fantasia): Andante - Allegro molto

We acknowledge the province of Newfoundland and Labrador as the traditional territory of diverse Indigenous groups, and we acknowledge with respect the diverse histories and cultures of the Beothuk, Mi’kmaq, Innu, and Inuit of this province. We strive for respectful relationships with all the peoples of this province as we search for collective healing and true reconciliation and honour this beautiful land together.

GUEST ARTIST

Isabella d’Éloize Perron, violin

Isabella began playing the violin when she was two years old and gave her first concerts at the age of five. She performed as soloist with the Orchestre Métropolitain and the I Musici String Orchestra before the age of ten. Since then, she has been a guest artist with several orchestras such as the Peninsula Symphony (San Francisco, CA), the National Theater Orchestra (Prague National Theater, Czech Republic), the Vancouver Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Lethbrige Symphony and l’Orchestre Symphonique de Sherbrooke.

Between 2022 and 2024, during tours as a guest soloist with the FilmHarmonique Orchestra under the direction of conductor Francis Choinière, Isabella d’Éloize Perron has given more than 25 concerts (mostly sold out) in the most prestigious venues in Canada and the East Coast of the United States, including the Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Verizon Hall in Philadelphia, the Boston Symphony Hall, the Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, the Maison Symphonique in Montreal, the Palais Montcalm in Quebec and many other venues, totaling nearly 50,000 listeners.

Isabella has a charisma that captivates her audience. When she was only ten years old, playing a concert at the Centre Pierre-Charbonneau for an audience of more than a thousand people, the critic emeritus Claude Gingras of La Presse (Montreal) described her as “a violinist who plays with the assurance of professional musicians, with passion and precision”.

During her years of study, she won numerous prizes and distinctions: First prize in the International Radio Competition for Young Performers Concertino Praga organized by Czech radio under the high patronage of the EBU (European Union of Radio-Television), which earned her a tour of the Czech Republic; second prize at the Klein International String Competition (San Francisco), first prize at the National Music Festival (Canada), first prize and highest score in all categories at the Canadian Music Competition. Isabella studied with Bill van der Sloot in Calgary and Erika Raum at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory in Toronto, from which she graduated. In January 2024, Isabella was the “Grand Prize Winner” of the Robert W. and G. Ann Corcoran Concerto Competition at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. During this prestigious competition, she faced 42 very high-level candidates chosen from among the most brilliant young Canadian musicians, all instruments combined.

Named Revelation Classique Radio-Canada 2020-2021, Isabella is also the recipient of the prestigious Orford Musique 2021 prize and the Michael Measures prize from the Canada Council for the Arts 2020. In June 2019, she was awarded one of the Grand Prizes in the Canadian Music Competition International Stepping Stone. In 2017-2018, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra proclaimed her an “Emerging Artist”. She was a prize winner of the OSM Standard Life Competition in 2016.

Isabella d’Éloize Perron plays on a Guadagnini 1768 violin graciously lent by CANIMEX Inc.

GUEST CONDUCTOR

Simon Rivard is one of the most sought-after conductors on the Canadian music scene. He has conducted orchestras across North America and Europe, such as Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Orchestre Métropolitain, Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Toronto Summer Music Festival Orchestra, Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra (Switzerland), and the Göteborgs Symfoniker (Sweden). He has collaborated with artists such as Barbara Hannigan, Kerson Leong, Daniel Lozakovich, Matt Haimovitz, Charles Richard-Hamelin, and Julie Boulianne, among others.

Other recent highlights include a complete cycle of Beethoven’s symphonies with Orchestre de la francophonie and an homage to Maria Callas with Orchestre symphonique de Laval. In 2022, he was also a finalist of the Princess Astrid International Music Competition of the Trondheim Symfoniorkester (Norway).

Since 2023, he has been acting as Rafael Payare’s assistant at Orchestre symphonique de Montréal in various projects. From 2018 to 2022, he was the Resident Conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, where he was mentored by Gustavo Gimeno and Sir Andrew Davis. From 2018 through 2024, he was the Conductor of the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra. Between 2020 and 2022, he served as the Associate Conductor of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir.

Between 2019 and 2023, he has been an Equilibrium Young Artist, as part of Canadian soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan’s mentorship program for early-career professional musicians. In 2018, he was invited to participate in the first Conducting Mentorship Program at the Verbier Festival Academy (Switzerland). In addition to receiving a Special Prize, he was subsequently reinvited to coach the 2022 Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra.

Simon Rivard

MUSICIANS

VIOLIN 1

Heather Kao

Dominic Greene

Andy Kao

Whit Fitzgerald

Gabriel Brodeur

Natalie Finn

Claire Boudreau

VIOLIN 2

Nancy Case-Oates

Carole Bestvater

Elena Vigna

Ilyas Duissen

Jacquelyn Redmond

Zhongli Hu

Stewart Gillies

VIOLA

Kate Read

Ema Shiroma-Chao

Chantelle Jubenville

Rosaura Aguilar

Emily Pynn

Jonathan Stevenson

CELLO

Nathan Cook

Nulibeth Ortiz

Amy Collyer-Holmes

Laura Wakeman

Nancy Bannister

Katherine Shipley

Pierre Kusters

BASS

Frank Fusari

Denise Lear

Nick Howlett

Matthew Hardy

Mario Miranda

Jim Vivian

FLUTE

Michelle Cheramy

Sarah Comerford

Donna Spurvey

OBOE/ ENGLISH HORN

Annie Corrigan

Kathy Conway-Ward

CLARINET

Glenn Rice

Brenda Gatherall

Liza Konstantinova (bass clarinet)

BASSOON

Grant Etchegary

Nicole Hand

HORN

Emily Dunsmore

Doug Vaughan

Michelle Stevenson

David Natsheh

TRUMPET

Katie Sullivan

Jill Dawe

Christian Berglander

TROMBONE

Darren McDonald

Erin Sullivan

BASS TROMBONE

Andrew Cooper

TUBA

Catherine Tansley

PERCUSSION

Rob Power

Etienne Gendron

Jenna Grant

HARP

Sarah Veber

PROGRAM NOTES

Tonight’s program by guest conductor Simon Rivard is a study in contrast, shifting between depictions of vast Scandinavian landscapes and the glittering, virtuosic world of cosmopolitan Europe on the brink of war.

Oceans (2018) by Icelandic composer Maria Huld Markan Sigfúsdöttir evokes the vast waters that surround islands like Iceland and Newfoundland. While the long sustained phrases mirror the sea’s endless horizons, the sudden swells and shifts remind us of the changeable nature of water over days and seasons. Rather than replicating the actual sounds of nature, Sigfúsdöttir captures the feelings elicited by our encounters with the watery landscapes around us, from the thrill of waves crashing on the rocks to the peace of calm seas at the end of day.

1917 was a productive year for Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953). Not only did he compose the Violin Concerto No. 1, but also the Classical Symphony and the Third Piano Concerto. However, 1917 was also politically tumultuous. Tsar Alexander II of Russia abdicated following the October Revolution, and due to the ongoing turmoil, the premiere of the Violin Concerto was delayed until October 1923, after Prokofiev had settled in Paris. The reception of the concerto was not initially favourable—the Parisian audience was attuned to the avant garde and found the work too romantic in style for their taste. Violinist Joseph Szigeti, however, loved the piece. He immediately added it to his repertoire and began touring with it the following year, helping to ensure the work’s ultimate success.

The concerto follows an atypical slow-fast-slow pattern. The first movement opens with a slow, dreamlike melody first conceived of by Prokofiev in 1915 whilst in the midst of a love affair. Growing in intensity, the dream is eventually swept away by a bubbling, almost agitated theme, though it reasserts itself at the end of the movement. The scherzo is a virtuosic showpiece for the soloist, at times almost comedic in a parodic march, at others driven forward by the relentless rhythms in the orchestra. The final movement, opening with a bassoon solo, returns to a more romantic atmosphere, where the orchestra continuously pushes the violin to higher levels of intensity until it finally bursts into an effervescent, embellished return of the dreamlike theme that opened the concerto.

At the end of the nineteenth century, Russia sought to absorb the duchy of Finland—situated just 100 miles from the Imperial capital of St. Petersburg— into its empire. The Scandinavian country, however, had no intention of losing its independence or cultural identity. Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) is often credited with establishing a unique Finnish musical identity, one that helped the nation fend off any ‘Russification.’ Many of Sibelius’ pieces are rooted in the folklore and landscapes of Finland. Yet despite being a breakthrough in Finnish musical identity, Sibelius’ Symphony No. 1 (1899) is, in many ways, a culmination of the 19th-century European symphonic tradition. The first movement, opening with a plaintive clarinet solo over a foreboding timpani roll, eventually unfolds into a traditional sonata form (as seen in most symphonies since Haydn). The slow second movement, hinting at the influence of Richard Wagner, leads into the Scherzo and trio of the third, where one hears echoes of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’ ballets. Yet we still hear in the symphony Sibelius’ unique voice, such as in the fantasia-like 4th movement where the long, hymnlike melodies hearken to the vast open spaces and skies of the composer’s homeland. For Rivard, our guest conductor, Symphony No. 1 is an ideal vehicle for getting to know an orchestra, with its focus on pure musical expression allowing a personal connection with the players.

Something Wicked

Friday, October 25

7pm | Arts & Culture Centre

Performed

Program Notes provided by Dr. Annalise Smith Presented by

Marc David, conductor

Kristina Bernardo, soloist

Original script by Kyle McDavid

by youth actors from Best Kind Productions

Music from WICKED, HARRY POTTER & THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN, Verdi, Berlioz, Mussorgsky, and more!

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