Wednesday, February 19, 2025
HomeClassical MusicTHE SCOOP| Former Music Director James Sommerville Returns To Visitor Conduct The...

THE SCOOP| Former Music Director James Sommerville Returns To Visitor Conduct The Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra


L: Musician and conductor James Sommerville (Picture courtesy of the artist); R: The Hamilton Philharmonic (Picture courtesy of the HPO)

The Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra (HPO) will return to the stage in 2025 with a mix of beloved works, new music, and the return of former Music Director James Sommerville as visitor conductor.

The January 18 live performance will showcase Sommerville’s distinctive abilities with a program that sees him each conducting and performing as a soloist.

“I’m brimming with pleasure on the likelihood to collaborate once more with the unimaginable musicians of the HPO,” says James Sommerville in a press release. “An important live performance corridor, a supportive and engaged viewers and a superb orchestra — it’s nice to be again!”

The Music

“This program has a little bit of all the things,” Sommerville continues, “however the music that I’m most enthusiastic about comes from our personal nation. The title of Pierre Mercure’s 1948 traditional, Kaleidoscope tells you what’s in retailer: a superb, ever-shifting polychromatic fantasy of concord and melody. And Alice Ping Yee Ho’s The Phantom Chicken of Han is one other marvel, a short tone poem that tells an epic mythological story in glowing and evocative sound.”

This system for the live performance is various, and contains:

  • Pierre Mercure, Kaleidoscope
  • Alice Ho, The Phantom Chicken of Han
  • Mozart, Horn Concerto No. 3
  • Beethoven, Symphony No. 7

Pierre Mercure (1927 – 1976) composed Kaleidoscope in 1948. The native of Montréal was nonetheless a scholar on the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal on the time. He’d go on to graduate with honours, together with successful first prize in Concord, Counterpoint, and second prize on the bassoon in 1949. He’s identified for his ballet scores in addition to orchestral and chamber works, and movie scores. Pierre was a proponent of latest and digital music, and sadly his profession ended with a deadly automobile accident in France on the age of 38.

Composer Alice Ho talks about her tone poem The Phantom Chicken of Han. “I hope this composition will spark the audiences’ creativeness of a fantastic metamorphosis in an historic magical world, voyaging by way of time, adventuring peace and chaos, disappointment and triumphs.”

Sommerville will carry out as each conductor and soloist in Mozart’s Third Horn Concerto. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 3 in E-flat main, Ok. 447, was accomplished a while between 1784 and 1787 throughout the composer’s time in Vienna. He wrote it for a long-time household good friend, hornist  Joseph Ignaz Leutgeb, who he mentions within the unique rating.

Horns on the time didn’t embody valves like the fashionable devices do right this moment, and the instrument’s vary was restricted because of this. Leutgeb was a grasp at a method that had been not too long ago launched, nonetheless, which gave him melodic flexibility. The approach concerned utilizing the correct hand within the horn’s bell so as to add notes to the horn’s pure harmonics.

Mozart various his ordinary orchestration of oboes and horns to substitute clarinets and bassoons, making a complementary soundscape for the horn soloist.

Additionally on this system is Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. Beethoven’s seventh Symphony was mentioned to be one among his private favourites, and it was an viewers hit on its premiere in Vienna in December 1813 with the composer himself conducting. He described it to his viewers as merely a patriotic work, though his emotions in regards to the Napoleonic wars that had been raging on the time would later develop into clear.

The symphony was praised by many, together with fellow composer Hector Berlioz. It’s typically lauded for its rhythmic depth, mixed with a less complicated melodic character than lots of his works.

Visitor Conductor & Soloist James Sommerville

James Sommerville occupies a novel area of interest within the classical music world as each a performing French horn participant and conductor.

The Toronto native started his music schooling on the piano at age seven, however was persuaded to modify to French horn by his highschool music trainer. He’d go on to check on the College of Toronto, and on the College of Western Ontario.

In 1985, he gained the CBC Radio Competitors for Younger Performers, and adopted up in 1991 with the Sir Ernest MacMillan Memorial Basis Award. His performing profession has included positions with Symphony Nova Scotia, and the Canadian Opera Firm Orchestra. He served as affiliate principal horn participant with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra from 1986 until 1991, and as third horn with the Toronto Symphony in 1997. From 1996 to 1998, he was appearing principal horn within the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

He’s maybe greatest identified internationally for his function as principal horn chair of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), a job he gained after a gruelling audition in 1998, and held till he retired in December 2022.

As a recording artist, his work seems on many award-winning CBC recordings, together with the JUNO successful disc Mozart Horn Concertos with the CBC Vancouver Orchestra underneath Mario Bernardi, which gained within the Classical Album Massive Ensemble class in 1998. He added a second JUNO nomination for Classical Album Vocal/Choral Efficiency in 1999 for his work on A Britten Serenade with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra.

Conductor

Alongside his performing profession, Sommerville studied conducting with Finnish maestro Jorma Panula, who has additionally mentored the likes of Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Klaus Mäkelä and Tarmo Peltokoski, amongst others.

In 2008, he was named music director of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, a job he held till 2012 concurrently along with his performing profession on the BSO.

Throughout his time with the HPO, he was identified for diverse programming which noticed the orchestra performing conventional classics from the repertoire, together with new music, chamber works, and a pop music sequence.

James can also be a devoted educator. An extended-time member of the New England Conservatory school, he has taught at The Longy College, College of Toronto, Oberlin Faculty, McGill College, the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec à Montréal, and Dalhousie College.

  • Discover live performance particulars and tickets [HERE].

Are you seeking to promote an occasion? Have a information tip? Must know the most effective occasions occurring this weekend? Ship us a observe.

#LUDWIGVAN

Get the every day arts information straight to your inbox.

Join the Ludwig Van Toronto e-Blast! — native classical music and opera information straight to your inbox HERE.

Newest posts by Anya Wassenberg (see all)

RELATED ARTICLES

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Most Popular

Recent Comments