In the Thursday (1/28) Globe and Mail (Canada), Robert Everett-Green writes, “A winter tour of Florida, new pieces by John Adams and R. Murray Schafer and a ‘grand-scaled’ new arrangement of Handel’s Messiah are on the agenda for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra next season, along with mini-festivals of music by Chopin, Liszt and Rachmaninoff…. New pieces include Adams’s City Noir, a TSO co-commission premiered last fall by the Los Angeles Philharmonic; a large-scale commissioned piece by Schafer; two works by the eminent Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, including music for voice featuring star soprano Karita Mattila; a percussion concerto by Canadian Vincent Ho (featuring Evelyn Glennie); and new works by Jennifer Higdon and TSO composer adviser Gary Kulesha. Most of these pieces figure in the orchestra’s annual New Creations festival, which will overlap with Canadian Opera Company performances of Adams’s Nixon in China in February 2011.” The season also will include a Slavic Celebration in November and three “explanatory programs” featuring hour-long discussions of a single piece of music, followed by a performance. In January the orchestra will perform six concerts in five Florida cities with Canadian violinist James Ehnes, who has a home in Sarasota.
Posted January 28, 2010
