A NIGHT AT THE OPERA at Meridian Arts Centre – George Weston Recital Hall

Bizet’s second Carmen Suite includes several well-known tunes from the eponymous opera, including the Habanera, with its characteristic snaking chromatic lines representing Carmen’s seductive wiles, and the rousing Toreador song. Heng-Han Hou then performs Bartók’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1. This work, relatively early in Bartok’s career, is more traditional than his later works, employing a two-movement rhapsodic form of a slow section followed by a fast one—similar to the Cabaletta form used in classical opera. Of Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony, Robert Simpson remarks that “its themes are exceptionally beautiful…its instrumentation is the most imaginative [Bruckner] had yet achieved, and it possesses a mastery of classical form that might even have impressed Brahms.” Typically Brucknerian, the symphony features a driving “Bruckner Rhythm” consisting of two quarter notes followed by a triplet, and an extensive use of harmonic ambiguity to quickly slide between different key areas.

Kristian Alexander | conductor
Heng-Han Hou | violinist
Daniel Vnukowski | host

7:10 p.m. Prélude: pre-concert recital.
7:20 p.m. Pre-concert talk.
Intermission discussion and Q&A with Heng-Han Hou and Daniel Vnukowski.