March 26, 2004 -

Ottawa, Canada -- Richard Strauss’s magnificent tone poem Don Quixote will be given its first-ever performance by an expanded National Arts Centre Orchestra in Audi Signature concerts on Wednesday, April 7 and Thursday, April 8 at 20:00 in the NAC’s Southam Hall performed by NAC Orchestra principal cellist Amanda Forsyth and Music Director Pinchas Zukerman on viola. The concerts mark the couple’s first performances together since their marriage in early March. Conducted by Lawrence Foster, the concerts also feature Zukerman on violin in Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor. The programme opens with Weber’s Oberon Overture.

The April 7 concert is sponsored by Enbridge Gas Distribution. The expanded NAC Orchestra is made possible in part by the NAC Orchestra Association Kilpatrick Fund.

Richard Strauss's Don Quixote is based on the well-known picaresque novel of the same name by Cervantes that has inspired numerous tributes in music, dance and theatre. The score is described by the composer as “fantastic variations on a theme of knightly character” consisting of an introduction, ten variations and an epilogue. Our hero Don Quixote, imagining himself the very personification of chivalry and knight-errantry, heads out into the world to perform noble deeds.  The solo cello, which represents the Don throughout the score and whose role is equivalent to that of a concerto soloist, presents the “knightly” theme in all its glory. The knight’s faithful squire Sancho Panza tags along in a rollicking theme on the viola.

Another highlight of this special concert will be the performance by Pinchas Zukerman, one of the world’s foremost violinists, of the Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1, a major work of the violin repertoire which Zukerman is performing for the first time with the NAC Orchestra. Nineteenth century violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim ranked it among the four greatest of that century noting that the Bruch concerto was “the richest, the most seductive.”

The programme opens with a work rarely performed by the NAC Orchestra, the Overture to Weber’s opera Oberon. The overture, like the opera, evokes pageantry, exotic locations, the supernatural, and maidens in distress rescued by knights in shining armor – the perfect intro to this exceptional concert which concludes with Don Quixote.

Amanda Forsyth has just returned from performing Herbert's Cello Concerto No. 2 with the New West Symphony led by Boris Brott in California. The former Juno-winner is also a featured presenter at the 2004 Juno Awards in her hometown of Edmonton on April 3-4 where the NAC’s Mozart-Zukerman CD is nominated for a Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year: Solo or Chamber Ensemble.

Pinchas Zukerman returns to the National Arts Centre Orchestra for these concerts after a tour with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom he is also performing the Bruch Concerto, and concerts conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony.

Conductor Lawrence Foster, is one of the most successful American conductors to win the acclaim of European audiences and critics. He began his new role as Music Director of the Gulbenkian Orchestra, Lisbon at the start of the 2002-03 season. Formerly Music Director of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and National Orchestra of Catalunya, he is currently serving as Music Adviser to the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.

Tickets for these Audi Signature Series concerts on April 7 and 8 are on sale now at $27.00, $45.00, $56.00 and $58.00, with box seats at $73.00 (GST and Facility Fee included) at the NAC Box Office (Monday to Saturday from 10:00 to 21:00), and through Ticketmaster (with surcharges) at 613-755-1111.  Ticketmaster may also be accessed through the NAC’s web-site at www.nac-cna.ca. Half-price tickets for students in all sections of the hall are on sale in person at the NAC Box Office upon presentation of a valid student ID card.

For more information please contact:
Jane Morris, Communications Officer,
National Arts Centre Orchestra
(613) 947-7000, ext. 335
jmorris@nac-cna.ca