SSO Goes
Around the World

Get your tickets for a musical world tour! We are delighted to feature SSO percussionist, Ian Gibson in the mesmerizing Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra by Bill Cahn. The Moldau, Smetana’s musical homage to his Czech homeland is next. This tour includes a stop in Hungary where we will hear Brahms’ delightful Hungarian Dances. As an explosive finale to our journey and our 35th season, we visit Russia and take in Tchaikovsky’s spectacular 1812 Overture.

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Featuring:

Ian Gibson, Marimba

PROGRAMME:

Harry Somers Picasso Suite, 3 movements

Bedrich Smetana The Moldau

William L. Cahn Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra

—Intermission —

Edvard Grieg Peer Gynt: Suite no. 1

I. Morning

II. Ase’s Death

III. Anitra’s Dance

IV. In the Hall of the Mountain King

Erik Satie/Debussy Trois Gymnopedies

Johannes Brahms Hungarian Dances, no 5 & 6

Peter Tchaikovsky Overture 1812, op. 49

PROGRAM NOTES:

Three movements from Picasso Suite by Harry Somers (1925-1999) This Suite was originally written for a 1964 CBC television documentary on the artist Pablo Picasso. The music evokes Picasso’s life and times, and takes a sense of delight in his multi-faceted art.

The Moldau by BedRich Smetana (1824-1884)

Composed in 1874, this piece joyfully depicts the River Moldau (Vltava) from its wellspring in the Bohemian woods to its majestic conclusion as it flows past Prague. Along the way, there are sounds of the hunter’s horn, a lively dance at a country wedding, a dance of nymphs on sparkling moonlit waters, and the swirling rapids of St. John.

Concerto for Marimba,
“Rosewood Dreaming, ”by William l. Cahn (1946- )

Cahn, who is a founding member of the Nexus percussion quintet, wrote this Concerto in 1997. Originally a single-movement work for marimba and percussion ensemble, the piece was recast into three movements for solo marimba with orchestra or band accompaniment. The title, Rosewood Dreaming, refers to the wood from which the marimba bars are made, while depicting musically the condition of dreaming in which thoughts and images pass freely through the mind.

Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, op. 46,
by Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)

1. Morning

2. Åse’s Death

3. Anitra’s Dance

4. In the Hall of the Mountain King

In 1875, the dramatist Henrik Ibsen approached Grieg to write music for his new play, Peer Gynt. The composer subsequently arranged a number of the pieces he wrote for the play into two orchestral suites.

1812, Festival Overture,
by Peter Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

God and country intertwine in this patriotic celebration. Tchaikovsky wrote the Overture in 1880 for the consecration of the Temple of Christ in Moscow. But his choice of “1812,” the year when the Temple was built, was also the year of Napoleon’s defeat in Russia. Following the introduction, in which the Russian hymn, “God Preserve Thy People,” is intoned, the Overture reenacts the Battle of Borodino. Both the Russian national anthem and the Marseillaise are heard amidst the conflict, with the Russian anthem triumphing at the end.

ABOUT THE GUEST ARTIST:

Ian Gibson is currently head of Percussion Studies at both Cambrian College and Laurentian University. Ian graduated from the University of Toronto with both a Master and Undergraduate degree in Percussion Performance where he studied with members of the percussion ensemble Nexus. During his studies Ian became the first Canadian Percussionist to win both the Canadian Percussive Art Society (Sabian) and Avedis Zildjian Percussion Scholarships. Ian has performed throughout North America and Europe and has had the privilege of performing at venues such as Roy Thompson Hall, Carnegie Hall, and on stage with Sir Paul McCartney in Toronto.

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