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 skills 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 unbelievable musicians of the HPO,” says James Sommerville in a press release. “An ideal live performance corridor, a supportive and engaged viewers and an excellent orchestra — it’s nice to be again!”
The Music
“This program has a little bit of the whole lot,” 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: an excellent, ever-shifting polychromatic fantasy of concord and melody. And Alice Ping Yee Ho’s The Phantom Fowl of Han is one other marvel, a quick tone poem that tells an epic mythological story in glowing and evocative sound.”
This system for the live performance is different, and contains:
- Pierre Mercure, Kaleidoscope
- Alice Ho, The Phantom Fowl 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 pupil on the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal on the time. He’d go on to graduate with honours, together with profitable first prize in Concord, Counterpoint, and second prize on the bassoon in 1949. He’s recognized for his ballet scores in addition to orchestral and chamber works, and movie scores. Pierre was a proponent of recent 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 Fowl of Han. “I hope this composition will spark the audiences’ creativeness of a lovely metamorphosis in an historical magical world, voyaging by 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 pal, hornist Joseph Ignaz Leutgeb, who he mentions within the authentic rating.
Horns on the time didn’t embrace valves like the trendy devices do as we speak, and the instrument’s vary was restricted in consequence. Leutgeb was a grasp at a method that had been lately launched, nonetheless, which gave him melodic flexibility. The approach concerned utilizing the appropriate hand within the horn’s bell so as to add notes to the horn’s pure harmonics.
Mozart different his standard 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 stated to be one in every of 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 concerning the Napoleonic wars that had been raging on the time would later turn into clear.
The symphony was praised by many, together with fellow composer Hector Berlioz. It’s usually lauded for its rhythmic depth, mixed with an easier melodic character than lots of his works.
Visitor Conductor & Soloist James Sommerville
James Sommerville occupies a singular area of interest within the classical music world as each a performing French horn participant and conductor.
The Toronto native started his music training on the piano at age seven, however was persuaded to change to French horn by his highschool music trainer. He’d go on to review 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 recognized internationally for his function as principal horn chair of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), a task 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 profitable disc Mozart Horn Concertos with the CBC Vancouver Orchestra beneath Mario Bernardi, which gained within the Classical Album Giant 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 task he held till 2012 concurrently along with his performing profession on the BSO.
Throughout his time with the HPO, he was recognized for various programming which noticed the orchestra performing conventional classics from the repertoire, together with new music, chamber works, and a pop music sequence.
James can be a devoted educator. An extended-time member of the New England Conservatory college, he has taught at The Longy Faculty, College of Toronto, Oberlin School, McGill College, the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec à Montréal, and Dalhousie College.
- Discover live performance particulars and tickets [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.
