Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty

Tchaikovsky’s delight for his original ballet score for The Sleeping Beauty, and his desire to adapt it into an orchestral suite, languished due to the monumental task of editing down the volume of enchanting numbers. It was not published in suite form until after his death. Your Toronto Symphony Orchestra performs the beloved suite as compiled by guest conductor Maxim Emelyanchev, revered for its dramatic fantasy, colourful orchestration, and enduring charm. A second fantasy plays across the stage with the prelude to Humperdinck’s fairy-tale opera, Hansel and Gretel. The charming score, adapted from the Brothers Grimm story, is brought to life in the leitmotifs of the characters, from the lilting innocence of the children to the dissonant chords of the evil witch. Also on the program, Toronto Symphony Orchestra Principal Bassoon Michael Sweeney performs the hauntingly beautiful Bassoon Concerto by Italian-Canadian composer Marjan Mozetich. In 2003, Sweeney commissioned and premièred the intriguing soundscape, which merges new concepts with the familiar.