BAROQUE AND BEYOND Holiday Treats

Thursday, December 11, 2025, 7:30 pm, Trinity-St. Paul's Centre, 427 Bloor Street West

BAROQUE AND BEYOND Holiday Treats

Mendelssohn's charming double concerto with the superb Ezra Duo, an expressive Canadian tribute to Caribbean history and a bouquet of Christmas favourites

SINFONIA TORONTO / NURHAN ARMAN Conductor

THE EZRA DUO Jacob Clewell, Violin and Sasha Bult-Ito, Piano

Program

MENDELSSOHN Double Concerto for Violin and Piano in D Minor

CORELLI Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 8 (Christmas Concerto)

VIVALDI Sinfonia L'incoronazione di Dario

LARRY STRACHAN Lament for Souls of Sauteurs Ontario premiere

HANDEL Messiah - Overture and Pifa

JENKINS Palladio

PERFORMER BIOGRAPHIES

The Ezra Duo - Recognized as “an iconic team” (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner), The Ezra Duo (Jacob Clewell, viola/violin and Sasha Bult-Ito, piano) blends their charismatic stage presence with inventive and accessible programming. Formed in 2016 while students at The Glenn Gould School, Ezra has gone on to become one of North America’s most exciting string/piano duos.

​The duo has garnered an impressive list of accomplishments, including recital tours in the US and Canada, an appearance in Carnegie Hall, and a performance as guests at a G7 Summit event held at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Jacob and Sasha are top prize winners of numerous international competitions both individually and together. Their first album, Mystic Journey, was released in August 2024 and is distributed digitally by Universal Music Group world-wide.

Sinfonia Toronto now in its 27th season, has toured twice in Europe, in the US, South America and China, receiving glowing reviews. It has released six CD’s, including a JUNO Award winner, and performs in many Ontario cities. Its extensive repertoire includes all the major string orchestra works of the 18th through 21st centuries, and it has premiered many new works. Under the baton of Nurhan Arman the orchestra’s performances present outstanding international guest artists and prominent Canadian musicians.

Maestro Nurhan Arman has conducted throughout Europe, Asia, South America, Canada and the US, returning regularly to many orchestras in Europe. Among the orchestras Maestro Arman has conducted are the Moscow Philharmonic, Deutsches Kammerorchester Frankfurt, Filarmonica Italiana, St. Petersburg State Hermitage Orchestra, Orchestre Regional d’Ile de France, Hungarian Symphony, Arpeggione Kammerorchester, Milano Classica and Belgrade Philharmonic.

PROGRAM NOTES

Concerto for Violin and Piano in D Minor by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy began piano lessons with his mother, but when he showed precocious talent his parents hired Berlin’s leading teachers to guide him. He made his piano debut at nine and was composing near-professional pieces by 11. He made spectacular progress during the next several years and created a true catalogue of works by his thirteenth birthday, including six symphonies for strings and his Piano Sonata in G minor. His output in his teens included the Concerto for Piano and Strings, two concertos for two pianos, three piano quartets and the first of his extensive series of Songs without Words.

Acclaimed as the greatest prodigy since Mozart, by the age of 20 he was established as a major composer. Just a year later he was offered the position of Chair of Music at the University of Berlin. He was in demand as a virtuoso pianist and conductor as well, travelling to England and Italy. At 26 he was named conductor of the famous Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and became the leading musician of the city, promoting many others’ works as well as his own. When his beloved sister Fanny died it was a severe shock for Felix, helping to cause his own death a few months later at only 38. He left an oeuvre of 121 published works and more than 130 unpublished works.

The Concerto for Piano and Violin was written when Mendelssohn was 14, but like so many other of his works, it displays maturity and subtlety far beyond his years. The very different sonorities and technical characters of the violin and piano are balanced with great mastery, as is the soloists’ relationship with the orchestra. The orchestra is featured for its own sake in passages of brilliant beauty; though not consigned to a role of passive accompaniment, the orchestra never overshadows the solo instruments’ prominence.

Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 8, “Christmas Concerto” by Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)

The set of 12 concertos in Corelli’s Opus 6 are the height of the Italian concerto grosso style that features a solo group rather than one solo part. Handel modeled his own famous set on Corelli’s Opus 6.

L’incoronazione di Dario, RV 719 by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

Vivaldi’s opera L’incoronazione di Dario, “The Coronation of Darius,” premiered at the Teatro Sant’Angelo in Venice in January 1717 during the earliest part of Vivaldi’s operatic career, which lasted from 1713 to 1739. In this and other pieces of the period, Vivaldi skillfully balanced vocal and instrumental elements, creating rich and expressive music. The opera is set in the 5th century BC at the Persian court, dramatizing the struggle for the throne after the death of King Cyrus. Three men compete for power: Darius, who eventually prevails, is backed by governors and officials; Oronte, a rival, is supported by the common people; and Arpago, another rival and military captain, has the army’s support.

Lament for Souls of Sauteurs by Larry Strachan (1970) Ontario premiere

In 1651 after a series of violent confrontations with French forces the Kalinago people who had been living on Grenada for centuries were cornered and facing inevitable defeat. With the French colonizers closing in and the threat of enslavement or forced assimilation, the Kalinago made the heart-wrenching decision to jump off a cliff. This powerful act of resistance highlighted their determination to preserve their freedom and dignity.

Leapers' Hill, the site of their heroic act, symbolizes resistance to colonialism. Today the site is a significant landmark in Grenada and a reminder of Indigenous courage and loss. The work we hear tonight memorializes the tragic event. Its composer Larry Strachan is a versatile musician from Winnipeg with Grenadian heritage. A pianist, teacher, adjudicator, lecturer, composer and conductor, Strachan founded and directs the Chamber Orchestra Without Borders.

Lament for the Souls of Sauteurs is one of Strachan’s most powerful compositions. It was premiered on April 26, 2008, at the Shaw Performing Arts Centre in Winnipeg by the Winnipeg Chamber Orchestra and conducted by the composer. It is a lyrical, neo-romantic work, perhaps somewhat reminiscent of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Reflective and sombre, the work carries the emotional weight of the 1651 tragedy. Through mournful melodies, rich harmonies and dramatic contrasts it conveys a deep sense of sorrow and remembrance.

Messiah: Overture and Pifa by Georg Frederic Handel (1685-1759)

Handel was the most cosmopolitan composer of the Baroque period. He grew up in Germany, mastered musical forms in Italy, and then settled in England for almost 50 years. He drew on the best features of all three nations’ styles in his operas and oratorios. Most of his oratorios are based on Biblical or religious stories, like the most famous of all, Messiah, but some such as Semele and Hercules are secular, and all share musical characteristics with his operas. The two orchestra-only movements from the Messiah are considered some of Handel’s finest instrumental compositions.

Palladio by Karl Jenkins (1944)

Welsh multi-instrumentalist and composer Sir Karl William Pamp Jenkins has been shown in surveys to be one of the most-performed living composers in the world. He is recorded output has resulted in seventeen gold and platinum awards. Born in Wales, he studied at Cardiff University and the university of London, and transitioned back to classical composition after highly successful careers in jazz, rock and winning nine Clio Awards for ad scores.

Jenkins writes, “Palladio was inspired by the 16th-century Italian architect Andrea Palladio, whose work embodies the Renaissance celebration of harmony and order. Two of Palladio’s hallmarks are mathematical harmony and architectural elements borrowed from classical antiquity, a philosophy which I feel reflects my own approach to composition. The first movement I adapted and used for the A Diamond is Forever television commercial for a worldwide campaign.”

To download the program booklet for this concert click here or scan the QR code.