February 04, 2005 -

Ottawa, Canada -- Music Director Pinchas Zukerman will present an all-British programme in which he conducts the National Arts Centre Orchestra’s first-ever performance of Elgar’s intriguing Enigma Variations on Wednesday, February 16 and Thursday, February 17 at 20:00 in the NAC’s Southam Hall. These Mark Motors Audi Signature Series concerts also include Vaughan Williams’ exquisite romance The Lark Ascending with Zukerman as violin soloist and NACO Principal Pops Conductor Jack Everly on the podium. Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings conducted by Zukerman and featuring tenor James Taylor and NAC Orchestra principal horn Lawrence Vine completes the line-up. The expanded orchestra for these concerts is made possible in part through the NAC Orchestra Association Kilpatrick Fund.

Jill LaForty, CBC Network Music Producer and regular on-air music presenter, will give free Pre-Concert Talks in English both evenings entitled “An English Enigma”.

In Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending the glorious sound of Pinchas Zukerman’s violin will become both the “silver chain of sound” of the lark as well as its flight at dawn in this exquisite romance inspired by a poem by George Meredith.  The music is one of the most eloquent and evocative depictions of the English pastoral landscape ever composed.

Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings is also inspired by poetry ranging in mood from dark to effervescent and exuberant. These words by Tennyson, Blake, Jonson, Keats and more will be sung by American tenor James Taylor. He has appeared on major concert stages of North and South America, Japan, Israel, and Europe, including the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Royal Albert Hall in London. He made his National Arts Centre debut in Haydn’s Creation in 2004. Principal horn of the NAC Orchestra since 2002, Lawrence Vine is a much sought-after chamber musician praised by the Globe and Mail for his “fine, burnished playing”. His festival credits include the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Banff Centre for the Arts, Cleveland's Kent/Blossom Music, and the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival.

Elgar’s Enigma Variations was so immediately popular from the moment of its premiere in 1899 that it launched Elgar into international renown and led to his knighthood just five years later. At the same time, the variations contain a mystery that has baffled musicologists for over a century: what is the theme, the “dark saying” that runs through the entire set of variations without ever being played? Elgar said late in life that it was “so well known that it was strange no one had discovered it,” yet he took the secret to his grave.  Though speculation has run to absurd proportions, all have failed to solve the mystery. The score is dedicated by Elgar to his “friends pictured within” – a series of men and women who influenced Elgar’s musical or social life in important ways. Their identities were also a secret initially, but Elgar later gave detailed clues.

Tickets for these Mark Motors Audi Signature Series concerts on February 16 and 17 are on sale now at $27.00, $46.00, $57.00 and $59.00, with box seats at $77.50 (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