Program Notes

Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 by Ludwig van Beethoven  (1770-1827)

Chamber version by Vinzenz Lachner

Beethoven's pupil Carl Czerny wrote, “The style and character of this Concerto are much more grand and fervent than in the two former.”  No. 3 was Beethoven’s first piano concerto in a minor key. With less classical elegance and ornamentation, it moves towards the profound expressiveness in the great works of his creative maturity. Compared with his first and second concertos, the dynamic range of the third is more extreme, mood contrasts are more powerful, and the overall effect is more profound.

The first movement opens with a strong, solemn theme in the orchestra, passes through both minor and major harmonies and then introduces a second, more lyrical theme before falling back into minor. Through the rest of the movement the piano solo mediates to reconcile these contrasting themes and emotions.

The second movement is a contemplative largo, with the piano intimately absorbed into the overall ensemble, for extended periods playing the accompaniment to melodic lines carried by the orchestra instead of dominating the orchestra itself. This integration of solo and orchestral content was unusual at the time, a sacrifice of prominence for the sake of musical depth, another aspect of Beethoven’s evolving mastery.

The rondo finale is exuberant in spite of its minor key. Its occasional modulations into major always return to C minor, but the movement’s cheerful energy comes from gorgeous melody and the sense of return and reconciliation created by the dialogue of contrasting melodies and harmonies. The movement’s concluding drama and resolution satisfy like an opera’s happy ending.

The work also represents an important advance in technology. For most of the 18th century, the pianoforte’s range spanned only five octaves. Near the end of the century manufacturers were starting to extend the piano’s range with additional keys beyond five octaves. Beethoven was not in haste to write in these extra notes, as that would have limited his works’ appeal to musicians with older instruments. But in this concerto he took advantage of the new technology, writing for notes all the way up to high G. It is believed this is the first piano piece ever to call for high G, and Beethoven wrote it in early in the first movement, when the soloist announces the main theme in double octaves.

Beethoven played the premiere himself with most of the piano part not yet written out (a feat that unnerved the colleague who turned the few pages with notation for him, who said “I saw almost nothing but empty leaves; at the most, on one page or another a few Egyptian hieroglyphs, wholly unintelligible to me were scribbled down to serve as clues for him”).  By the time Beethoven got around to putting it on paper for his student Ferdinand Ries in 1804, he dared to push the range further, all the way up to the double high C above the fifth ledger line above the treble staff.  So as well as constituting a great work in its own right, the concerto also provides a valuable record of the evolution of the piano.

Waawaaskone-giizis (Flowering Moon) by Barbara Assiginaak (1966 -        )

World premiere

Barbara Assiginaak writes about Waawaaskone-giizis: The title of this piece indicates approximately the time of the month of May on the standard 12-month calendar. As Anishinaabe we follow the lunar cycles, of which there are 13 in one lunar year (13 moons). Waawaaskone-giizis will feature 13 vignettes, each depicting a different flower which emerges either in the woods, meadows, swamps, or near/on the waters during this time of year (the Flowering Moon) where Anishinaabeg live. It also highlights the diversity of flowers (and we have many more than 13) and the need to protect places where these flower-beings have lived for centuries upon centuries and who are an important part of the ecosystem and survival of Shkakmigkwe (Mother Earth). 

Barbara Assiginaak is Anishinaabe and active internationally, with works performed throughout Canada, the US, Mexico, Europe, the UK and Asia. Her music combines her heritage with classical training. After completing an ARCT in piano and a degree in composition at the University of Toronto, where she received the Glenn Gould Award in Composition, she obtained diplomas from the Centre Acanthes in France and the Musikhochschule in Munich.  She has written works for soloists, chamber ensemble, orchestra, film, theatre, dance and interdisciplinary performances, and often performs in her own works as a soloist on vocals, pipigwan, drums, and other Anishinaabe instruments.

A direct descendant of hereditary chiefs and the child and grandchild of residential school survivors, Assiginaak has woven these histories into many of her works. She has been active for many years in Truth and Reconciliation Commission activities. In 1999 she founded the organization ERGO to promote creation and presentation of diverse compositions, facilitating exchanges with composers from outside Canada, foregrounding women composers and musicians of diverse international backgrounds, including Indigenous women. She has also founded Women of the Four Directions to promote Indigenous women’s artistic and cultural activities.

Chamber Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 73 by Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)

Orchestra version by Nurhan Arman

Shostakovich’s interest in the string quartet came later in his musical development than for most composers, not until he was 31. This may be due to the fact that he did not consider quartets to be a smaller form; his quartets are actually symphonies composed for four instruments. They have been carried into string orchestra versions by many of the world’s prominent chamber orchestras. Their large-scale architecture is imbued with the same depth and breadth of emotion as his full-orchestra works, and he explores the extreme potential of string quartet texture. The instruments’ highest registers and special tonal effects are utilized, along with complex structural strategies such as thematic references between movements and intricate interplay between the instruments’ parts.

Composed during the Second World War just after a Soviet military victory, this quartet does not exult; it expresses Shostakovich’s anguish over the conflict. The basic motif of the sonata-form first movement’s cheerful opening - two sixteenth notes leading to an eighth note - returns in later movements, a reminder of the happiness of a world without war. Shostakovich originally gave each movement a title, but later removed them; this one’s was “Calm unawareness of future cataclysm."

The second movement rondo is based on three themes, two vigorous and acerbic, with a persistent ostinato accompaniment, and a third which is shimmering and spectral. The suppressed title of the movement was “Rumblings of unrest and anticipation.” The third movement scherzo’s three ominous themes and its irregular alternation between duple and triple metre capture the unpredictability and brutality of military engagements and occupation.

The following Adagio swings between powerful collective outbursts of grief and softer, more private mourning expressed in lighter textures and higher registers. The substation lamentation dies away in the lower register, as the violas sigh above a dying heartbeat in the cellos.

The final Moderato begins without a break, springing directly from the violas’ last note in the Adagio, responding to their grief with a cello theme of consolation which is later reaffirmed by the first violins. The more innocent past is recalled with motifs from the first movement, but this is only reminiscence. Bu the end of this movement Shostakovich’s message is clear: we an not recover lost days of peace.

BIOGRAPHIES

Pianist Sunny Ritter began her professional training with Aya Kaukal and was accepted to the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien (MDW) at seven years old. She continued her studies with Dr. Michael and Coral Berkovsky on full scholarship at the Royal Conservatory of Music and with Pietro De Maria at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg. Alongside her much-loved teachers, legendary pianists such as Alfred Brendel have given roots and wings to her music through their unforgettable masterclasses. 

Since her first gold medal at six years old, Sunny has triumphed at prestigious international piano competitions in Canada, Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Romania, Poland, and Spain. She swept up First Prize and all special prizes at the Steinway International Piano Competition in Hamburg and received the 5,000 Euro Grand Prize at the Mihaela Ursuleasa International Piano Competition in Bucharest. At ten years old, she began competing above her own age level and garnered accolades in the senior categories of international competitions like the Concorso Colafemmina in Italy and music festivals like the North York, the OMFA, and Kiwanis Toronto, where she broke the record set by Glenn Gould as the youngest top prizewinner. Recent distinctions include First Prize at the Paris International Music Competition and the "Goldene Note" for Austria’s top young piano-virtuoso, which led to her starring in an episode of the ORF prime-time TV show "Stars und Talente."

Whether in the Wiener Musikverein or in the Hamburger Laieszhalle, Sunny is at home on the world’s most celebrated concert stages. At eight years old, she made her orchestral début and gave her first full-length solo recital, earning recognition as “a phenomenal child prodigy.” Highlights of her last season include performances with Sinfonia Toronto at the George Weston Recital Hall, her début in the Grand Hall of the Wiener Konzerthaus as the winner of the Classicalia Global Televised Music Competition (Junior Division), and four concerts with the Wiener Mozart Orchester in the Golden Hall of the Wiener Musikverein. 

Sunny regularly presents solo recitals for humanitarian organizations and was recently dubbed “Viennese Citizen of the Week” and featured on Radio Klassik Wien for her charity initiative, “The Bear Essentials”. The aim of this benefit-concert series is to welcome every refugee child to Vienna with the gift of a teddy-bear.

For Sunny, music is a force for peace and every concert empowers us to mend and transcend our differences. She loves the piano because it’s a kind of magic: These keys unlock hearts. 

Sinfonia Toronto now in its 26th season, has toured twice in Europe, in the US, South America and China, receiving glowing reviews. It has released six CD’s, including a JUNO Award winner, and performs in many Ontario cities. Its extensive repertoire includes all the major string orchestra works of the 18th through 21st centuries, and it has premiered many new works. Under the baton of Nurhan Arman the orchestra’s performances present outstanding international guest artists and prominent Canadian musicians.

Maestro Nurhan Arman has conducted throughout Europe, Asia, South America, Canada and the US, returning regularly to many orchestras in Europe. Among the orchestras Maestro Arman has conducted are the Moscow Philharmonic, Deutsches Kammerorchester Frankfurt, Filarmonica Italiana, St. Petersburg State Hermitage Orchestra, Orchestre Regional d’Ile de France, Hungarian Symphony, Arpeggione Kammerorchester, Milano Classica and Belgrade Philharmonic.

Sinfonia Toronto respectfully acknowledges that we work in the Treaty Lands and Territory 

of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation 

and the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat and Haudenosaunee peoples