April 22, 2004 -

Ottawa, Canada -- Pinchas Zukerman will give the Canadian premiere of the Violin Concerto written for him by British composer Oliver Knussen, one of the leading figures in today’s music world. These Bostonian Bravo concerts take place on Thursday, May 6 and Friday, May 7 at 20:00 in the NAC’s Southam Hall. Knussen conducts the concerts which also include Ravel’s charming Mother Goose Suite, and Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Violins in A minor performed by Zukerman and NAC Orchestra violinist Jessica Linnebach, a graduate of the NAC Young Artists Programme. The programme concludes with Stravinsky’s Scènes de ballet. Yamaha Canada Music Ltd. is the sponsor of the May 6 concert.

There will be free Pre-Concert Talks and a Q&A; session given in English both nights at 19:00 in the Fountain Room by Pinchas Zukerman to talk about the origins and performance of the Knussen Violin Concerto. The first of these talks will be recorded and archived for the NAC website at www.nac-cna.ca. Questions for the Maestro may be sent to the NAC website in advance through Talk Back.

The May 7 concert will be broadcast live-to-air on CBC Radio Two on In Performance heard nationally at 20:00. Host Eric Friesen will be in Ottawa to host the broadcast.

Oliver Knussen’s compositions are performed regularly by major orchestras and musicians, and as a guest conductor he travels the world regularly championing new music.  His opera Where the Wild Things Are had its North American premiere in the late 1980s conducted by Pinchas Zukerman. He made his NAC Orchestra debut in 2001 Conducting his own Symphony No. 2.

Pinchas Zukerman gave the world premiere of Knussen’s Violin Concerto with the Pittsburgh Symphony on April 5, 2002.  It was co-commissioned with the Philadelphia Orchestra with whom Zukerman performed it a year later in Philadelphia and at Carnegie Hall. Zukerman performed the Concerto again to acclaim last summer in London with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Proms.

“Pinchas Zukerman has long been a champion of Oliver Knussen, both as conductor and as violinist. The concerto was written for him, and he dispatched it with intelligence and authority. In the midst of the score’s hurly-burly, Mr. Zukerman and his violin were restrained and refined. Indeed, Mr. Zukerman is something of an aristocrat of the violin. He has a way of paring music down to its essence, with nothing frilly or wasted.” – New York Sun

“Mr. Knussen knows how to make a musical line sing, and he found a way to let this concerto play to Mr. Zukerman’s strengths without forsaking his own. The opening violin passage, for example, takes the soloist quickly around the fingerboard, but it also evokes the spirit of the Bartók Second Concerto. The slow movement is unabashedly lyrical, but beneath its soft surface the solo line has interesting spikes and angles. And there is a vibrant interplay between the soloist and the ensemble in the brisk closing Gigue. Mr. Zukerman was an eloquent advocate for the concerto.” – New York Times

“The work is a luminous show of highly skilled orchestration. It gives the violin a real concerto part, and, best of all, it is luscious and substantive music… And the violin part is expressive and sinewy – just the kind of writing to let Zukerman’s deep sound bloom.” – Philadelphia Inquirer

“With Knussen on the podium, the work announced itself as a formidable addition to the genre. As Zukerman clearly realized in his vibrant reading, its solo part is just the sort of music a violinist would want to play.” – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Knussen’s subtle scoring was tailor-made for Zukerman’s subdued and sensitive playing; the intense, economic nature of the orchestral writing complemented the violinist’s extremely taut, razor-edged sharpness of tone, which indeed resembled ‘a tightrope walker progressing along a (decidedly unstable) high wire.’” – The Guardian

Tickets for these Bostonian Bravo Series concerts on May 6 and 7 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. Groups of 20 and more save up to 20% on NAC Music, Theatre and Dance performances.  To book call 947-7000 ext. 384 or email grp@nac-cna.ca

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