ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
Angela Yixuan Miao, Pianist - 13-years old pianist Angela Yixuan Miao is an exceptional talent. She is already the winner at many national and international piano competitions. Born in China in 2013, Miao is a prodigious talent who began performing with orchestras as early as age six. She is a student of Montreal pianist Professor Grigori Chaverdian and has won the Grand Prize "Yannick Nézet-Séguin" at the 2023 OMNI competition. Angela has also won prizes in five international competitions between 2020 and 2021, including the Steinway Piano Competition.
Sinfonia Toronto now in its 28th 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, Orchestra Sinfonico di Roma, St. Petersburg State Hermitage Orchestra, Orchestre Regional d’Ile de France, Hungarian Symphony, Arpeggione Kammerorchester, Milano Classica and Belgrade Philharmonic.
ABOUT THE MUSIC
Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21 by Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)
String orchestra version by Nurhan Arman
Chopin wrote most of his second piano concerto before the one we now know as his first. He completed both in 1830; they were numbered in the order of their first public performances. Having recently finished his formal studies in Warsaw, he premiered this concerto at a private concert with a string quartet on March 17, shortly before leaving for Vienna and then Paris.
The F minor concerto was influenced by the works of Spohr and Hummel, both prominent composers in the early 19th Century. Its dramatic first theme is contrasted with a second, gentler subject, before the entry of the soloist with the piano’s statement of the first theme. The orchestra’s brief, romantic passage opening the second movement introduces a nostalgic melody in the solo piano part, similar to Chopin’s nocturnes for piano alone. The last movement is a reimagined Mazurka that incorporates striking orchestral effects such as the violin’s use of the wood of their bows and some sudden horn-call motifs.
My School Has a Graveyard by Brent Straughan (1946 - )
Ontario Premiere
Brent Straughan began piano studies at five, in Jasper, “and soon realized that he did not have to simply play the little black notes on the page, he could determine their fates himself!” Adding violin at ten, he studied composition with Ken Benshoof in Seattle and received a SOCAN Young Composer’s Award after finishing his MA at Simon Fraser University. He has pursued a multi-faceted career including work in film and television production and editing while continuing to compose throughout.
Straughan’s music is often inspired by his concern for historical and contemporary injustices and undeserved loss. His works have captured the tragedy of deaths in war-torn Sarajevo in 1992, the unjust 1869 hanging of two Hesquiaht men on Vancouver Island, and contrasted lovely Japanese gardens with their caretakers’ journey to WWII internment camps. ‘My School Has a Graveyard’ of course refers to recent discoveries at many of Canada’s former residential schools. “Music, in its own way,” Brent says, “can right wrongs. It can be a great force of reconciliation.”
Visions Fugitives Op. 22 by Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Orchestral version by Nurhan Arman
The Visions Fugitives date from the years 1915 to 1917. The miniatures average a minute in length and are reminiscent of Beethoven’s Bagatelles and Chopin’s Preludes. They were inspired by the Russian Symbolist poet Konstantin Balmont’s lines, “In every fugitive vision I see worlds, / Full of the changing play of rainbow hues.”
In spite of each section’s extremely brief span, the Visions Fugitives survey a wide horizon of emotions and musical approaches. Prokofiev’s biographer Israel Nestyev described them as “something like entries in a diary” and as “experiments from a laboratory, a storehouse of materials to be used in the future large works of a composer always eager to increase the scope of his art.” They range from lyrical to witty, serene to agitated, from stern to seductive, creating a remarkable adventure in listening through small bites, perhaps very well suited to 21st-century listeners’ sensibility formed by online posts and videos.
Music from Swan Lake: Swan Theme; Dance of the Little Swans by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Adapted for string orchestra by Nurhan Arman
Tchaikovsky wrote the ballet music for Swan Lake in 1875-1876. The ballet premiered in 1877 at the Bolshoi Theatre. Before Swan Lake, ballet music was usually considered light entertainment. Composers typically wrote simple scores meant mainly to accompany choreography. Tchaikovsky changed that tradition by writing a score that was symphonic in scale, emotionally expressive and dramatically integrated with the story. Swan Lake helped transform ballet music into a serious orchestral art form.
The ballet tells the tragic love story of Prince Siegfried, Odette (a princess turned into a swan by a sorcerer), Von Rothbart (an evil magician), and Odile (Odette’s deceptive double). Prince Siegfried meets Odette at a magical lake where she is trapped under a spell. He swears eternal love to break the curse. At a royal ball, the sorcerer presents Odile disguised as Odette and Siegfried mistakenly declares love for Odile. When the lovers confront the curse at the lake, the ending may be tragic or redemptive, depending on each production.
Although the ballet contains dozens of dances, several are especially well-known favourites. The Swan Theme is one of the most familiar melodies in classical music. With a melancholy melody and gentle string accompaniment, it expresses Odette’s sorrow and beauty. The Dance of the Little Swans, one of the ballet’s most famous dances, features a quick tempo and playful staccato rhythm.
Though it the ballet widely famous today, the 1877 premiere was not successful. Problems included weak choreography, poor staging and uneven performances. The ballet only became famous after a 1895 revival choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, the version that established the choreography still used today. Swan Lake became one of the most famous ballets in history; it has influenced countless ballet productions, films, cartoons, figure skating routines and other aspects of popular culture.
Algerian Dance by Amine Soufari (1987 - )
Canadian premiere
Amine Soufari was born in Laghouat, on the edge of the Algerian Desert. Now a pianist, guitarist, accordionist and percussionist, he first studied in Algiers, where he also developed a passion for composing and conducting. After arriving in France in 2014, he completed a degree in musicology and in 2015 a masters in music research and creation, both at the University of Aix-Marseille. He also continued studies in choral conducting at the Conservatoire de Marseille where he was awarded the 2020 conducting prize. In 2022 he received the composition prize from the Conservatoire de Marseille. He has also been awarded the Diamond Prize for Original Composition at the Debussy International Music Competition.
Mr. Soufari explores varied musical horizons: traditional music from all shores around the Mediterranean, jazz, and contemporary classical. He has been commissioned by the City of Aix-en-Provence, and regularly takes part in the Festival d'Art lyrique d'Aix en Provence.
