Great Composers Festival presents "Tribute to Schubert", featuring Symphony No. 8 and No. 9 conducted by Pinchas Zukerman on July 17
July 10, 2003 -
Ottawa, Canada -- National Arts Centre Orchestra Music Director Pinchas Zukerman leads an all-Schubert concert as the Great Composers Festival continues on Thursday, July 17 at 19:30 in NAC's Southam Hall. The programme consists of Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony No. 8 in B minor, as well as the "Great" Symphony No. 9 in C major, two glorious masterpieces from the latter part of this composer's short life.
The concert ticket includes a pre-concert chamber music recital beginning at 18:15 in Southam Hall featuring another Schubert masterwork: the "Trout" String Quintet in A major performed by Pinchas Zukerman on violin, soon-to-be associate NACO principal viola Jethro Marks, principal cello Amanda Forsyth, principal double bass Joel Quarrington, and American pianist Jonathan Biss. NAC Executive Chef Kurt Waldele will have a light supper available in the Foyer so concertgoers can dine before or between the two parts of the programme.
The Great Composers Festival is presented by the Casino du Lac-Leamy in association with the Ottawa Citizen.
Music historians don't know why Schubert never finished his Symphony No. 8, which he started six years before his death. Perhaps he abandoned the project when he realized that he could not write a third and fourth movement on the same exalted level as the first two. Fortunately for concertgoers, the two movements he wrote are complete in themselves. To quote Klaus George Roy, composer and program annotator: "What is certain is that we no more wish today for the other two movements than we demand that a classic torso be supplied with new hands and feet. What Schubert left us is an entity so great, so perfect, that one almost wishes the title ‘Unfinished' could at last be discarded."
When it comes to the "Great" Symphony No. 9, one can turn to the opinion of composer Robert Schumann who discovered the virtually unperformed symphony through Schubert's brother Ferdinand several years after Schubert's death. "The riches that lay piled up there made me tremble with pleasure. Where to begin, where to stop?"
An evening of these two magnificent symphonies plus the "Trout" quintet is a rich feast for Schubert fans, and not to be missed.
Tickets for this Great Composers Festival concert on Thursday, July 17 at 19:30, with pre-concert chamber music at 18:15, are on sale now at $13.00, 22.00 and 30.00 (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.
