The Saskatoon Symphony – Page 16 – Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra

Nordic Light Ēriks’ Story

Ēriks Story

My spiritual flight towards the far-northern latitudes grew out of an instinct for everything unpredictable and a sensation in my fingertips: it was in 2011 that I began to think of the Northern Lights. I was fascinated by their dimensions, the versatility of their colours and the forms and the mystical legends rooted in Northern folklore (including folksongs). I remember the night we met for the first time in the snow-clad meadow of Northern Norway – the aurora polaris flared up, and, no matter how hard they tried, my eyes could not grasp the splendour in its totality. Looking at the sky, I fell backwards into the snow and could not help making a snow angel. Then I whistled and hummed the Latvian folksong on the artic lights. The tears of Ešenvalds, an adult man, were full of a child’s joy and amazingly sincere. It was then – during the seemingly endless eight hours of night that this multimedia symphony was born.

I was looking for the most ancient evidence; I read almost 150 books at the libraries of Cambridge and Tromsø Universities – on the meeting of the solar wind and the outermost layer of the Earth’s atmosphere. I interviewed the leading Norwegian researchers of aurora polaris: Asgeir Brekke and Truls Lynne Hansen; in Greenland – the experienced Inuit actress Makka Kleist; in Alaska – the American composer John Luther Adams; in Tromsø – the expert in Scandinavian folklore Ola Graff.

Having found the legends, I decided to find the storytellers. Together with the experienced film-makers Renārs Vimba and Dainis Juraga, we went to explore the magnificence of Lapland, Norway, Iceland, Greenland and Alaska; back in Rīga we made records of the stories told by Latvians Estonian, Finns, Karelians, and Yakuts.

I spent four years with the Northern Lights: it might seem like an obsession, but it wasn’t. It was an amazing chance to discover and record the unique heritage of the Northern Lights, which one can only find in nations living next door to the aurora borealis for generations.

The symphony itself needs the aurora borealis! I am grateful to photographer Kjetil Skogli for his kind response – he introduced me to the mysteries of the aurora borealis and granted his videos to the symphony.

I thank all the supporters of the Northern Lights project: especially the Latvians in Canada, the USA, Australia and Great Britain who lent a helping hand in the very beginning. Thank you, Renārs and Dainis, for all our ideas, deeds and mischief! Thank you, Māris Ošlejs, for being so trusting!

Composer Ēriks Ešenvalds

Project Supporters.

We thank the people and organizations for supporting the NORDIC LIGHT project:

Gunta Reynolde, DAUGAVAS VANAGI AND VANADZES, the Latvian Relief Society of Canada, Toronto Branch
Secretariat of the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union
Latvian sorority Spīdola, Canada
Nordea Bank AB Latvia branch
Martha Lou Henley Charitable Foundation, Canada
United States Embassy in Latvia
Nordic-Baltic Mobility Program
Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia
Solvita Sējāne and Lilija Zobens, Musica Baltica
Māris Dižgalvis, SIA Inducont
airBaltic
Lilita Daenke, Adelaide Latvians’ mixed choir DZIESMU LAIVA, Australia
Ināra and Ziedonis Āboliņš, mixed choir Straumēni, UK
Dace Aperāne, Latvian Cultural Association TILTS, USA

Taketo and Vija Muratas, Canada
Graham and Anita Andersons, Australia
Līga and Edgars Ružas, Latvia
Anita and Ivars Gaides, Canada
Inese Auziņa-Smita, UK
Laura Alders, Canada
Gunta Plostniece, USA
Sarah Bijons, Canada
Anonymous

Ola Graff and Marit Anne Hauan, Tromsø University Museum, Norway
Asgeir Brekke, Department of Physics and Technology, University of Tromsø, Norway
Turls Lynne Hansen, Tromsø Geophysical Observatory, University of Tromsø, Norway
Robin Tyson, Edition Peters Artist Management, UK
Ginta Tropa, Cultural Advicer, Office of Nordic Council of Ministers in Latvia
Dace Bluķe, Latvian Composer’s Union
Julia Pars, Culture Centre KATUAQ, Nuuk, Greenland
Þórður Tómasson, Skógar Museum, Iceland
Makka Kleist, actress, Greenland
Sigurður Ægisson, etnologist, Iceland
Paul Krejci and Maya Salganek, University of Alaska Musem of the North
Patuk Glenn and Sarah A.Skin, Iñupiat Heritage Center, Barrow, Alaska
Mariah Johnson and Scott Allen, Qutekcak Native Tribe, Seward, Alaska
Māris Ošlejs, State Choir LATVIJA
Uldis Lipskis, Liepāja Symphony Orchestra

Nicolas Ellis, conductor

Nicolas Ellis is the Artistic Director, Conductor and Founder of the Orchestre de l’Agora and currently serves as Artistic Partner to the Orchestre Métropolitain and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He was recently named Principal Guest Conductor for Les Violons du Roy, starting in the 2023-2024 season.

Mr. Ellis appeared as guest conductor with numerous Canadian orchestras including Les Violons du Roy, the Vancouver Symphony, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Orchestre de chambre I Musici de Montréal, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, the Orchestre Métropolitain, Symphony Nova Scotia, the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. He also regularly collaborates with the Opéra de Montréal’s Atelier lyrique.

During the 2022-2023 season, he is invited to conduct performances of Britten’s War Requiem at the Oper Graz in Austria and returns as a guest conductor to the Orchestre National de Bretagne. He has also collaborated as Assistant conductor to conductor Raphaël Pichon and his Ensemble Pygmalion on productions of Fidelio (Opéra comique de Paris) and Idomeneo (Festival d’Aix-en-Provence).

Mr. Ellis founded the Orchestre de l’Agora in 2013. The orchestra uses music as a tool for sustainable social change and has established itself on the Montreal scene for its creative programming and bold projects. Its repertoire ranges from Bach’s 6 Brandenburg concertos, to Britten’s Turn of the Screw, to new works by Canadian composers, and more recently the ensemble presented Mahler’s 3rd symphony for its Gala de la Terre, a fundraising concert for environmental organizations. The orchestra has developed projects involving youth with mental health challenges, educational music workshops for children and a monthly concert series at the Prison de Bordeaux in Montreal.

Nicolas Ellis is the recipient of the 2017 Bourse de carrière Fernand-Lindsay and was named Revelation of the Year 2018-2019 by Radio-Canada. More recently, he won the Prix Goyer Mécénat Musica 2021.

www.nicoellis.com

Music Talk at McNally – Idea of North

SSO CEO Mark Turner and conductor Rune Bergmann chat all about Idea of North from the travel section of McNally Robinson Booksellers in Saskatoon on February 7th, 2023.

Rune Bergmann, conductor

Norwegian conductor Rune Bergmann is currently Music Director of Canada’s Calgary Philharmonic, Artistic Director & Chief Conductor of Poland’s Szczecin Philharmonic, and Chief Conductor of Switzerland’s Argovia Philharmonic, positions he has held since the 2017/18, 2016/17, and 2020/21 seasons, respectively.

Guest engagements in the 2022/23 season bring Bergmann once again to the podiums of the Baltimore, North Carolina and Malaga Symphony Orchestras. He will also make his debut with the recently formed ADDA Simfonica in Spain.

Bergmann’s recent guest engagements include concert weeks with the Baltimore, Colorado Detroit, Edmonton, Houston, New Jersey and Pacific Symphony Orchestras in North America, and the Bergen Philharmonic, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Orquesta Sinfonica Portuguesa, Norwegian National Opera Orchestra, Orquesta de Valencia, Staatskapelle Halle, Wrocław Philharmonic, and the Risør Festival in Europe, to name a few. Bergmann has also led performances of Il barbiere di Siviglia and La traviata at the Norwegian National Opera, and he made his US operatic debut in Yale Opera’s production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as staged by Claudia Solti, while previous guest engagements have led him to such auspices as the Oslo Philharmonic, New Mexico Philharmonic, Münchner Symphoniker, Mainfranken Theater Würzburg, Philharmonie Südwestfalen, as well as the symphony orchestras of Malmö, Helsingborg, Kristiansand, Stavanger, Trondheim, Karlskrona, and Odense.

2018 saw the release of Bergmann’s first recording with the Szczecin Philharmonic, which featured the „Resurrection“ Symphony in E-minor by Mieczyław Karłowicz, a piece which has since become a major focus of Bergmann’s repertoire. He has also released recordings with the Argovia Philharmonic, including Ravel’s G-Major Piano Concerto and Mozart’s Bb-Major Bassoon concerto.

Earlier in his career, Rune Bergmann served as First Kapellmeister and deputy-Music Director of the Theater Augsburg, where he led performances of numerous operas, including such titles as La Traviata, Der fliegende Holländer, and Die Fledermaus. He has also served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Kaunas City Symphony, and has been Artistic Director of Norway’s innovative Fjord Cadenza Festival since its inception in 2010.

Jan Lisiecki, piano

Jan Lisiecki’s interpretations and technique speak to a maturity beyond his age. At 27, the Canadian performs over a hundred yearly concerts worldwide, and has worked closely with conductors such as Antonio Pappano, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Daniel Harding, Manfred Honeck, and Claudio Abbado (†).

In 2021/2022, Lisiecki presents a new recital programme featuring Chopins Nocturnes and Études in more than 30 cities all around the globe. Recent return invitations include Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for performances at Carnegie Hall and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. Lisiecki recently performed a Beethoven Lieder cycle with baritone Matthias Goerne, among others at the Salzburg Festival, and has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchestre de Paris, Bavarian Radio Symphony and London Symphony Orchestra.

At the age of fifteen, Lisiecki signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. The label launched its celebrations of the Beethoven Year 2020 with the release of a live recording of all five Beethoven concertos from Konzerthaus Berlin, with Lisiecki leading the Academy of St Martin in the Fields from the piano. His Beethoven Lieder cycle with Matthias Goerne, released shortly after, was awarded the Diapason d’Or. Lisiecki’s eighth recording for the prestigious label, a double album of Frédéric Chopin’s Complete Nocturnes which he also showcases in his current recital programme, appeared in August 2021 and in February 2022 on vinyl, immediately topping the classical charts in North America and Europe. Most recently, his previous solo programme Night Music, featuring works by Mozart, Ravel, Schumann and Paderewski, was released as a digital album. His recordings have been awarded with the JUNO and ECHO Klassik. At eighteen, Lisiecki became both the youngest ever recipient of Gramophone’s Young Artist Award and received the Leonard Bernstein Award. He was named UNICEF Ambassador to Canada in 2012.

Find out where Jan is performing next by visiting his website.

Charles Jennens, librettist

Charles Jennens was an English landowner and arts supporter. A friend of George Frideric Handel’s, he helped author the libretti of several Handel oratorios, including the much-loved Messiah.

A libretto (Italian for “booklet”) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term libretto is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as the Mass, requiem and sacred cantata, or the story line of a ballet.

Born in 1700, Jennens was brought up in Leicestershire at Gospall Hall. He was a devout Christian, and supported the legitimacy of the Stuart line. He was considered melancholic and extravagant, and his neighbours called him Suleyman the Magnificent.

Due to his support of the Stuarts he was unable to hold any public appointments, so Jennens turned his attention to the arts instead. He was a collector of art with one of the finest collections in England (at the time), and a devoted patron of music.

Through his love of Handel’s compositions, Jennens and Handel became friends. Jennens even commissioned Tomas Hudson to paint a portrait of Handel.

Jennens used his knowledge of the Bible, and other literary interests to prepare or contribute to libretti for Handel. This work was done for free, and it was always published anonymously. He annotated his copies of Handel’s operas, adding corrections, bass figures, rejected pieces, and dates. It is also clear that on occasions Handel was prepared to accept Jennens’ suggestions and improvements to his compositions.

Some attribute Messiah’s emphasis on the Old Testament – and choice of the Old Testament title “Messiah” – to Jennens’ theological beliefs. Jennens was less than wholly approving of the musical setting, writing to Edward Holdsworth:

“I shall show you a collection I gave Handel, called Messiah, which I value highly. He has made a fine entertainment of it, though not near so good as he might and ought to have done. I have with great difficulty made him correct some of the grossest faults in the composition; but he retained his overture obstinately, in which there are some passages far unworthy of Handel, but much more unworthy of the Messiah.”

In the early 1770s Jennens commenced the preparation of scrupulous critical editions of Shakespeare plays, and the first time that these had been published individually and with editorial footnotes. He completed King Lear, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and Julius Caesar before his death.

He died on 20 November 1773. His memorial lies in Nether Whitacre Parish Church and was sculpted by Richard Hayward who also provided sculptures both in his London home at Great Ormond Street and at his country seat of Gopsall Park.

After his death, Jennens’ second cousin Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Aylesford, inherited his music library. Much of it is now preserved in the Henry Watson Music Library at Manchester Central Library. It contains a large collection of manuscripts and published music by Handel and other contemporary composers, both English and Italian; there are 368 volumes of Handel manuscripts, and others include the autograph of Antonio Vivaldi’s “Manchester” violin sonatas and an early manuscript of The Four Seasons. Jennens’ extensive collection of books by William Shakespeare, on literature, philology and theology was largely dispersed in a sale in 1918.

George Frideric Handel, composer

George Frideric Handel, baptised Georg Friedrich Händel; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759, was not just a one-hit-wonder. While this German-British Baroque composer is most well known for the Hallelujah chorus from his Messiah he also composed operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos.

Handel’s Zadok the Priest, one of his four coronation anthems, has been performed at every British coronation since 1727. His orchestral works Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks are also incredibly popular and are often performed at the BBC Proms.

Handel’s parents had split views on music. His father banned all musical instruments from the house and decided his son would study law. His mother on the other hand snuck a small harpsichord into their attic and did what she could to foster her son’s talent. Handel’s father had to give in and allow some music studies to continue after the Duke of Saxe-Weisenfels heard a young Handel playing the organ and declared that it would be a shame to stifle what was a God-given gift.

Handel’s father still wanted him to become a lawyer so at age 17 George Frideric Handel enrolled a the University in Halle to study law. When his father died a year later Handel dropped out and moved to Hamburg to play harpsichord in the opera house. This was a successful move as he presented his first two operas in his early 20s and then moved to Italy to continue his career.

In 1710, Handel garnered the attention of another George – the elector of Hanover. Handel was hired as the Kappellmeister (choir master) but quickly found a loophole in his contract that allowed him to move to London, England. Though this thoroughly annoyed his employer, it eventually worked out in his favour as George the elector later became King George I of England. The new king commissioned Handel to create several works including the much-loved Water Music.

Handel started three commercial opera companies to supply the English nobility with Italian opera. The lavish productions included live birds, fireworks, and incredibly complex parts that led to some off-stage drama with his leading ladies. One soprano apparently refused to sing a difficult piece and argued with Handel until he lifted her in the air and threatened to throw her out the window. In another argument with artists, again sopranos, Handel ended up writing each singer an aria of equal length down to the number of notes to try to appease their jealousy and ease tensions. The public took sides, and at one famed performance in 1927 the evening ended with the two singers in a hair-pulling brawl on stage.

Handel saw himself first and foremost as a composer of operas and only turned to Oratorio once Italian operas went out of style in the late 1730s. In 1737, after a disastrous opera season, Handel became so ill his friends worried he would never recover. Thankfully he did, but he realized it was time to switch gears and leave his Italian operas behind.

Handel returned to fame when he focused his attention on oratorios. In 1941 he wrote his most famous oratorio, really his most famous work, when the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland requested an oratorio be performed in Dublin as a benefit concert for various charities. It’s said that the demand for tickets for the first performance of Handel’s Messiah was so great they asked female concertgoers to forego their hoops in an effort to fit more people into the concert hall. (Much like how we ask people to hang their coats at Knox!)

Handel’s health declined and he lost his sight by 1752 despite many treatment attempts. He passed away in 1759 and is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Handel’s Messiah has been a hit ever since its first performance and we are delighted to continue that tradition each December (minus the 3-year Covid-19 hiatus).

Want to see a piece of Messiah history? The British Library has a digital scan of an original handwritten Messiah score.

Cosette Justo Valdés, conductor

With her gorgeous, passionate style and firecracking energy, Cuban-born and raised conductor Cosette Justo Valdés has garnered acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic and is a rising star on the world’s concert stage. She is presently Resident Conductor of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (Canada) where she won the hearts of musicians and audience alike with her “unique style, full of flaming energy and human warmth.” Recent highlights include a “mindblowing” (Ottawa Citizen) collaboration with Esperanza Spalding and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, and a praised Così fan tutte with the Edmonton Opera, conducted from the harpsichord.

Cosette maintains strong ties to her native Cuba, where she is celebrated as Honorary Director of the prestigious Orquesta Sinfónica de Oriente in Santiago, Cuba’s musical heartland, which she led for 9 years. During that time, she single-handedly (with a team formed by an administrator and a librarian) managed and directed the 80-musician ensemble, developing an extensive repertoire of classical and contemporary music, jazz and pop, while championing Cuban music both new and traditional. A frequent guest conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba in La Habana, she premiered works by Cuba’s musical luminaries including Leo Brouwer, Alfredo Diez Nieto, Roberto Valera, and many more.

With the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Cosette is equally at ease leading programs from the Masters, Pops, or Kids series, garnering praise from critics, audience, and musicians alike for her “incisive presence,” “vivacity,” and “inspiring, precise, fiery” conducting. Her position with the orchestra since 2019 includes the role of Community Ambassador, through which she has developed an exceptionally warm and rewarding relationship with orchestra patrons as well as the city’s arts community. Cosette is also the Artistic Director of the Youth Orchestra of Northern Alberta, the ESO’s Sistema-based program that provides free music education to some 200 children from Edmonton’s priority neighborhoods and surrounding First Nations.

Cosette holds her bachelor degree in conducting with Prof. Jorge López Marín at the Instituto Superior de Arte (La Habana, Cuba) and her master degree with Prof. Klaus Arp at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst (Mannheim, Germany). As part of her training, she has assisted many conductors in Europe and the Americas, including Klaus Arp (Germany), Francesco Belli (Italy), Alexander Prior (UK), Alexander Shelley (UK) and Mario Venzago (Switzerland).

She has guest-conducted with dozens of orchestras in Germany and Eastern Europe, such as the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, Theater und Orchester Heidelberg, and Nationaltheater Mannheim. In addition to her duties with the Edmonton Symphony, Cosette has upcoming engagements from coast to coast in Canada, as well as across the Americas. Some highlights include two concerts with Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, 5 concerts with Thunder Bay, a collaboration with the Against the Grain Experimental Opera in Toronto and a repeat invitation with NACO in Canada, Orquesta Sinfónica de la Universidad de Guanajato (Mexico).

Casey Peden, soprano

Casey Peden holds a Master of Music in Vocal Performance and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Alberta. Her professional development continued through Tafelmusik’s Baroque Summer Institute, the Early Music Vancouver Vocal Summer School and private lessons. Ms. Pedens’ teachers include Linda Perillo, Harold Wiens, Ellen Hargis, and Lisa Hornung.

Ms. Peden has been heard as a soloist with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Pro Coro Canada, Madrigal Singers, Alberta College Womens Choir, Da Camera Singers, Schola Cantorum, the Dutch Renaissance Ensemble Verboden Frucht and recently with the Saskatoon Symphony Chamber Orchestra. She has been the soprano soloist in Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart’s Coronation Mass, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Bach’s Magnificat, Christmas Oratorio, and Coffee Cantata, Vaughn William’s Serenade to Music, Rutter’s Requiem, Allegri’s Miserere, and Haydn’s Missa Sancti Nicolai. Most recently she was the soprano soloist in Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle with the Laurentian University Choir, under the direction of Robert Hall, and last year’s Candlelight Christmas with the Saskatoon Symphony.

Casey’s newest recital adventure has her partnered with harpist Keri-Lynn Zwicker as they explore Classical, Celtic, and Cowboy repertoire. In addition to her recital singing, Casey has been giving duet recitals with contralto Lisa Hornung, staying active with her studio, adjudicating, and volunteering with the Community Youth Choir in North Battleford. She is also part of the teaching team for the Summer School for the Solo Voice, a week-long summer intensive vocal camp for singers and choristers of all levels.

Casey lives with her husband and two sons on the family ranch near Glaslyn, Saskatchewan.

Boléro

From the snare drum’s opening notes, even before the infamous melody begins, we instantly recognize Boléro. This oddly compelling music has entered popular culture through various media: the 1979 film 10, numerous television commercials, and the gold medal-winning performance by ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean at the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics.

Maurice Ravel would not have been surprised by Boléro’s enduring popularity; while he worked on it, the composer commented, “The piece I am working on will be so popular, even fruit peddlers will whistle it in the street.” Originally a ballet commission from Ida Rubenstein, formerly of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, Boléro was choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska, sister of Vaslav Nijinsky, and featured a Gypsy woman dancing on a table in a Spanish tavern, who whips her audience into uncontrolled sexual frenzy.

Rubenstein’s ballet was successful, but Boléro’s lasting fame came in the concert hall, most notably from a controversial performance conducted by Arturo Toscanini in 1930. Not all listeners were seduced, however. One critic described Boléro as “… the most insolent monstrosity ever perpetrated in the history of music … it is simply the incredible repetition of a single rhythm … and above it is the blatant recurrence of an overwhelmingly vulgar cabaret tune.”

In response, Ravel wrote a letter in 1931 to the London Daily Telegraph: “It [Boléro] is an experiment in a very special and limited direction, and it should not be suspected of aiming at achieving anything different from, or anything more than, it actually does achieve. Before the first performance, I issued a warning to the effect that what I had written was a piece … consisting wholly of orchestral texture without music – of one long, very gradual crescendo … I have done exactly what I have set out to do, and it is for listeners to take it or leave it.”

In 2012, the award-winning science podcast Radiolab presented an episode titled “Unraveling Bolero,” which suggested that Ravel might have been experiencing early symptoms of frontotemporal dementia (a degenerative brain disease involving the frontal lobe of the brain), as he wrote Boléro. One aspect of this disease manifests as an obsessive need for repetition, which is reflected in Boléro’s complete lack of thematic or rhythmic musical development. Six years after finishing Boléro, Ravel began to forget words and lose short-term memory. By 1935, two years before his death, he could no longer write or speak.

Nordic Light Ēriks’ Story

Nicolas Ellis, conductor

Music Talk at McNally – Idea of North

Rune Bergmann, conductor

Jan Lisiecki, piano

Charles Jennens, librettist

George Frideric Handel, composer

Cosette Justo Valdés, conductor

Casey Peden, soprano

Boléro

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