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He’s been astounding audiences since his 1995 win at the All Japan Blind Students Music Competition – at the age of seven. Nobuyuki Tsujii makes his Canadian debut with Rachmaninoff’s beloved Second Piano Concerto. Popular guest conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni leads the orchestra through Shostakovich’s triumphant Fifth Symphony, and a riveting new work by the young Canadian composer Nicolas Gilbert.
Stay after the concert for Afterthoughts, our popular and casual post-concert reception with conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni and composer Nicolas Gilbert, hosted by D.T. Baker.
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5
Gilbert: Tchal-Kouyrouk and the seventh side of the cube
Ticket Information
$71 Dress Circle (A)
$61 Terrace (B)
$52 Orchestra (C)
$38 Upper Circle (D)
$28 Gallery (E)
$20 Orchestra Front (F)
Tickets subject to applicable service charges.
This program will also be performed on Saturday, April 30, 2011.
The next Friday Masters performance is Ravel's Daphnis and Chloé on June 17, 2011.
Thank you to our series sponsor: 
Program Info
Program
Gilbert: Tchal-Kouyrouk and the seventh side of the cube (9')*
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Opus 18 (32')*
Nobuyuki Tsujii, piano
Intermission
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Opus 47 (46')*
*Indicates approximate performance duration
Program Notes
Tchal-Kouyrouk et la septième face du cube: musique sérielle naïve
Nicolas Gilbert (b. Montréal, 1979)
First performed: April 5, 2003 in Tallinn, Estonia
This is the ESO premiere of the piece
Of his work Tchal-Kouyrouk et la septième face du cube: musique sérielle naïve (“Tchal-Kouyrouk and the Seventh Side of the Cube: simple serial music”), Mr. Gilbert has written the following:
”Tchal-Kouyrouk, the trusty steed of Toshtuk, Giant of the Steppes, is going to recover his master's soul, which has been stolen, then bring Toshtuk back to his wife Kenjeke, who is pregnant with his child. In those far-off days when Toshtuk, Kenjeke and Tchal-Kouyrouk were living, the twelve-tone row was evidently already a historical necessity. The rules surrounding its worship were to be respected: never interrupt the twelve-tone row, never make irreverent remarks about it, never look at another system of pitch-organization, apply the model of the twelve-tone row to everything in the world to which it might be applicable.”
Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op.18
Sergei Rachmaninoff (b. Oneg, Novgorod, 1873 / d. Beverly Hills, 1943)
First performed: October 27, 1901 in Moscow
Last ESO performance: May 2008
Sergei Rachmaninoff could easily have made a fine living as a concert pianist. Considered one of the most virtuosic who ever lived, only a few hours of recordings showcasing his mastery were made. It was said that his hands could span an eleventh on the keyboard (an octave, plus three semi-tones more), while his fluid playing was the stuff of legend. Yet while his greatest source of fulfillment was as a composer, his delicate nature and early struggles made that career path a precarious one at the beginning.
Following the spectacular failures of both his First Piano Concerto (1892) and his First Symphony (1897), the already highly-sensitive Sergei Rachmaninoff was a wreck. He was devastated, and while he continued to perform, he did not even attempt to compose. Friends and family, equally at their wits’ end, took the drastic step, in 1900, of taking him to Dr. Nicolai Dahl, who specialized in motivation through a sort of hypnotic suggestion. Over and over, Dr. Dahl told Rachmaninoff, “You will begin to write your concerto,” “You will write with ease,” and “Your concerto will be a fine work.”
Bizarre though the treatment may seem to be, it worked. In Moscow on October 14, 1901, Rachmaninoff premiered his Second Piano Concerto and it became the most popular piano concerto of the 20th century, and its popularity has not diminished into this century either. It was dedicated, appropriately enough, to Dr. Dahl. Awash with strong melodies, several pop songs have been drawn from its rich soil.
Piano chords, from soft to loud, begin the work, ushering the first sweeping melody on the strings. The entire movement is Moderato, never rushed, its piano passages running a gamut from brilliant to introspective. The cadenza is not a typical soloist’s flourish that one might have expected from so sensational a pianist. While it is supremely difficult, it does not sound that way.
The beautiful second movement is a serene nocturne. The finale is one of the most recognizable in music. It consists of two dominant, contrasting themes. One is sweepingly romantic, while the other is a lively, thoroughly Russian Allegro, rhythmic and dashing.
Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op.47
Dmitri Shostakovich (b. St. Petersburg, 1906 / d. Moscow, 1975)
First performed: October 21, 1937 in Leningrad
Last ESO performance: December 2000
About a year and a half after the premiere of the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtensk District, an article appeared in Pravda – the official newspaper of the Soviet regime – accusing the composer of the opera, Dmitri Shostakovich, of losing himself in “musical chaos,” and indulging in petty bourgeois formalism. Such comments were not just artistic quibbles; in the Soviet Union of Josef Stalin, an artist so charged could face internment – or worse. “I was very scared,” Shostakovich wrote, “not only for my own life, but for my family as well.”
Shostakovich was, by this time, an established and important musical figure in Russian life, so he was able to salvage his career, firstly by writing and publishing an article called “A Soviet Artist’s Response to Just Criticism,” and then by introducing his Fifth Symphony in 1937. It did exactly what he hoped it would do: it put him back in both the political and commercial good books. People were said to have wept at the work’s premiere.
In standard four-movement form, the symphony opens with a dotted-rhythm lilt, and a sense of sharply contrasted moods that carries through the whole work. The bleak main theme arises from the opening, and variations of this theme will also be heard in the symphony’s remaining movements. Violas introduce a secondary theme, and contrast is presented in the form of an unexpectedly extroverted march.
The second movement is the work’s Scherzo, and opens with cellos and basses introducing a rhythmic, rough-hewn and insistent Allegretto. In a triumph of subtlety, Shostakovich imbues the long, slow third movement – the spiritual core of the work – with perceptible, though concealed, emotion, bordering on anguish.
The final movement is the most bizarre. While audience and Party members alike praised the celebratory and triumphant atmosphere as a tribute to Soviet optimism, Shostakovich himself said later, “The ending is forced, created under a threat. It’s as if someone were beating you up with a stick and saying, ‘Your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing.’ What kind of apotheosis is that?” And indeed, beginning with an almost absured aggressiveness, with brass and drums at full throttle, the finale pounds through a myriad of rhythmic changes, creating a brutishly dramatic climax which rings with the false sincerity with which Shostakovich must have intended.
Program Notes © 2010 by D.T. Baker, except as noted
Artist Bios
Jean-Marie Zeitouni, conductor
Jean-Marie Zeitouni, recently named music director of the Columbus Symphony, has emerged as one of Canada’s brightest young conductors whose eloquent yet fiery style in repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary music results in regular re-engagements across North America. His association with Les Violons du Roy goes back 10 years, first as conductor-in-residence, then as associate conductor, and since 2008 as principal guest conductor. In 2006, his first CD with Les Violons du Roy entitled "Piazzolla" received a JUNO Award. They also recorded two subsequent CDs: Bartók in 2008 and Britten in 2010. 2010/11 brings a slew of return engagements in North America. Highlights in Canada include a Werther production with the Montreal Opera, and engagements with the Calgary Philharmonic, Québec Symphony, Symphony Nova Scotia and I Musici de Montréal.Last season was a landmark year for the conductor with a long list of subscription debuts and return engagements. He appeared at the Lanaudière Festival and for the first time with the Toronto Symphony In the US, he debuted in a subscription series with the Omaha Symphony, and returned to the San Antonio Symphony and Columbus Symphony. In 2008/09, he made his subscription debut the Houston Symphony, Vancouver Symphony and the symphonies of San Antonio, Oregon, and Omaha. During the 2007/08 season, Zeitouni debuted with Edmonton Opera in a production of Carmen. He made his debut with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and made his European debut conducting the Philharmonique de Marseille. As part of his 2006/07 season, he conducted the highly anticipated world premiere of John Estacio and John Murrell’s Frobisher at Calgary Opera in a co-production with The Banff Centre. Jean-Marie Zeitouni graduated from the Montreal Conservatory in conducting, percussion and theory. He studied with Maestro Raffi Armenian.
Mr. Zeitouni last appeared with the ESO in January 2010.
Nobuyuki Tsujii, piano
Nobuyuki Tsujii’s Gold Medal performance at the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition drew audience members to their feet, while jurors were moved to tears by his passionate interpretation. Mr Tsujii is in high demand by presenters and orchestras worldwide and has catapulted to rock star status in his native Japan. The 2009/10 season saw over 50 engagements throughout Asia, and recitals across the United States and Europe. This past summer, he made an acclaimed debut at the Ravinia Festival. The current season sees him in solo recitals all over the U.S., a tour of Japan with the BBC Philharmonic, and a performance with the Takács Quartet at UCLA.Aside from his Gold Medal at the Van Cliburn Competition, Nobuyuki Tsujii won the Beverley Taylor Smith Award for Best Performance of a New Work. A documentary on his Van Cliburn Competition experience was broadcast on NHK Television throughout Japan. He has recorded two CDs thus far, and an all-Chopin release is scheduled. His complete competition performances are available at Cliburn.tv. Blind since birth, Mr. Tsujii was only seven when he was named first prize winner at the All Japan Blind Students Music Competition. At 12, he made debuts at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. He has appeared with most of Japan’s leading orchestras, as well as Orchestre des concerts Lamoureux, the Slovak Philharmonic, Mississippi Symphony, and Santa Fe Symphony. He is currently a participant in the performer’s program at Ueno Gakuen University, and enjoys swimming, hiking, and communing with nature. To a group of piano students in the Dallas-Fort Worth area following the Van Cliburn Competition, Mr. Tsujii advised, “Practice your best, but also please remember that you have to take the time to experience life to give your music meaning.”
Multimedia
Nobuyuki Tsujii performs Chopin's 12 Etudes Op. 10 at the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition:Add comment
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For the encore he played his own composition, called "A Morning in Cortona". You can watch a video of this piece on YouTube:
www.youtube.com/.../
Cheers,
-Phil Reply | Reply with quote | Quote
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