Year: 2022
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PROGRAM NOTES: DANIEL HSU
Robert Schumann Kinderszenen Op. 15 The character piece, a short work expressing a single mood or illustrating an idea suggested by its titling, was a typical product of the Romantic era, and Robert Schumann was a major contributor to the genre. In 1838 he composed 30 such works, publishing 13 of them in a collection…
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PROGRAM NOTES: JERUSALEM QUARTET AND HILA BAGGIO
Yiddish – A new viewpoint When we were approached by harmonia mundi to think of a concept for a ‘different’ album, an album that would challenge our standard repertoire, we took great care to find a subject that we had a natural connection with, but that would be interesting for the general public. Naturally we…
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PROGRAM NOTES: NICOLAS ALTSTAEDT
Henri Dutilleux Trois strophes sur le nom de Sacher Swiss conductor Paul Sacher (1906-1999), founder of the Basel Chamber Orchestra, was an immensely important figure in 20th-century music. With a family fortune based on a controlling share of the Hoffman-LaRoche pharmaceutical empire, he commissioned works from some of the century’s greatest composers. These commissioned works…
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PROGRAM NOTES: EVGENY KISSIN
Johann Sebastian Bach Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 (arr. Tausig) While keyboard transcription and political debate might at first blush seem to be radically different fields of endeavour, one justly famous incident on American television stands emblematic of the risks run, in both disciplines, for those who would engage in rhetorical posturing.…
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PROGRAM NOTES: DANISH STRING QUARTET II
Franz Schubert String Quartet No. 14 in D minor D. 810 (Death and the Maiden) Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” string quartet is a sombre work, with all four of its movements set in a minor key. It takes its name from the composer’s lied Der Tod und das Mädchen (1817) that provides the theme for…
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COVID-19 SAFETY PROTOCOLS AT VRS CONCERTS
As of April 8, 2022 many of B.C.’s safety restrictions have been eased. Learn more by visiting BC’s Restart plan. The measures below will remain in place until further notice. A BC Vaccine card is no longer required to enter the venues at which we present. If you are feeling unwell, we respectfully ask that you…
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PROGRAM NOTES: STEPHEN WAARTS
Claude Debussy Sonata for Violin and Piano in G minor L. 140 The sound of Debussy’s music confounded many of his contemporaries. From a tonal point of view, it floated in stasis in a world of pastel sounds that arrived at their destination more by whim than by design. How, they asked, could what he…
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PROGRAM NOTES: JAKUB JÓZEF ORLIŃSKI
J.J. Fux Non t’amo per il ciel from Il fonte della salute, aperto dalla grazia nel Calvario Johann Joseph Fux was an early-18th-century Austrian court composer of the first rank, best known by musicians today for his widely studied treatise on Renaissance counterpoint entitled Gradus ad Parnassum (1725). The Hapsburg court in Vienna was the…
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THE CANCELLATION OF ALEXANDER MALOFEEV’S CONCERT
It has been a few days since we announced that we will not be presenting pianist Alexander Malofeev at this time. As Leila previously mentioned, this was a very, very difficult decision. We saw the following statement made by Alexander on Facebook: “The truth is that every Russian will feel guilty for decades because of…