Sinfonia Toronto returns to the stage after the vacation break with visitor musicians Maciej Frackiewicz (of their Canadian debut) on the accordion, and violinist David Baik. The Piazzola & Palej live performance takes place January 24.
Subtitled “Tears and Tango”, and live performance juxtaposing the fiery Nuevo Tango of Piazzolla and the premiere of Toronto composer Norbert Palej’s Tears of Issues.
The Music
The complete program contains:
- Mozart: Divertimento Ok. 138
- Wieniawski: Fantasia on Themes from Gounod’s Faust, op. 20
- Palej: Lacrymae Rerum — tears of issues (world premiere)
- Piazzolla: 5 Tango Sensations
Mozart was solely 16 years outdated when he wrote the Divertimento in 1772. It together with Ok. 136 and Ok. 137, have been collectively referred to as the Salzburg Symphonies. His prodigious skills have been already in full bloom; referred to as a virtuoso, and changing into famend as a composer. The title of Divertimento implies it was written as gentle leisure for socializing at courtroom, presumably, on this case, on the Archbishop of Salzburg’s courtroom, the place Mozart was heading together with his father on the time.
Sinfonia Toronto Creative Director Nurhan Arman created the string orchestra association of Fantaisie brilliante for Violin on Gounod’s Faust by Henryk Wieniawski (1835-1880). Wieniawski was a violin virtuoso whose performing skills overshadowed his compositions. He invented what is called the Russian bow grip, which lets violinists play many difficult items extra simply, and it turns into vital within the extraordinarily difficult Fantaisie.
Toronto’s Norbert Palej was impressed by the verses of the Roman poet Virgil within the Aeneid in writing his piece, particularly:
Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangent. (There are tears of issues and mortal ideas contact the thoughts.)
Maestro Arman met Polish accordionist Maciej Frackiewicz in November 2022 throughout a visitor conducting engagement. Impressed together with his artistry, he put him in contact with Norbert Palej, who had lately contacted Sinfonia Toronto about writing a brand new piece for them. This piece and efficiency are the consequence.
A local of Cracow, Palej has premiered his compositions at Carnegie Corridor, together with live performance halls and venues throughout North America, Thailand, China, in Europe and South America. Alongside a performing profession, he’s Affiliate Professor of Composition and the creative director of the annual New Music Pageant on the College of Toronto.
Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla’s 5 Tango Sensations, a collection of 5 works for bandoneon and string quartet, was composed in 1989. It typifies his mature type, mixing jazz and classical music with tango rhythms in what has develop into traditional nuevo tango, the type he invented.
Musicians
Accordionist Maciej Frąckiewicz studied his instrument extensively on the Frederic Chopin College of Music (UMFC) in Warsaw (Poland), HfM in Detmold (Germany), ESMUC in Barcelonai, and FUdK in Essen, together with many grasp courses globally. He went on to win many main competitions for the accordion, together with the twentieth ‘Arrasate Hiria’ Worldwide Accordion Competitors in Spain, Deutscher Musikwettbewerb in Bonn (2018), Folkwang Preis in Essen (2017), and GWK Competitors in Münster (2015), amongst others.
He has carried out with orchestras and in festivals throughout Poland and elsewhere in Europe, in Russia, South Korea, and the US. Maciej is a champion of latest music, and has premiered over 100 new items for accordion, most of them have been devoted to him.
Violinist David Baik is a rising star within the Canadian classical music scene. Featured on the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s “30 Sizzling Canadian Classical Musicians Below 30” record, the South Korean-born violinist has received a number of awards, together with the the 2023 Peter-Mendell Award from the Jeunesses Musicales Canada Basis, Grand Prize on the 2021 NAC Bursary Competitors, amongst others. He was named a winner of the 2023 Canada Council Musical Instrument Financial institution competitors, and performs on the 1871 J.B. Vuillaume violin, on mortgage from the CCA.
David has studied with famous musicians internationally, together with James Ehnes, and Martin Beaver, after incomes his Bachelor’s diploma from the College of Toronto. He adopted up with research on the Schulich College of Music beneath a fellowship. David Baik is a resident of the Rebanks Household Fellowship and Worldwide Residency Program on the Royal Conservatory of Music for the 2024/25 season.
Baik is a devoted chamber musician in addition to a soloist, and has collaborated with artists resembling Charles Richard Hamelin, Jennifer Koh, Andrew Wan, Jonathan Crow, and Philip Chiu, amongst others. His string quartet, the Stelios Quartet, has received a number of awards, together with the 2024 Schiermonnikoog Pageant Viewers Award and the Grand Prize on the 2023 McGill Chamber Music Competitors.
- Discover extra details about the January 24 live performance [HERE].
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Anya Wassenberg is a Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. She is an skilled freelance author, blogger and writing teacher.
