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Noteworthy

From Page to Stage

Sounds of Spring: Exploring the Lunar New Year Repertoire

January 21, 2025

Year of the Snake: A Lunar New Year Celebration

Sat, Feb 8, 2025
View Event

This Lunar New Year, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra ushers in the season of renewal and celebration with a diverse program that blends Western classical tradition with the rich sounds of Chinese culture. From the energetic, hope-filled overture Welcoming Spring by Chan Ka Nin to the moving Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto, this concert showcases the beauty of both ancient Chinese music and contemporary orchestral works. Dive in and learn more about the exciting repertoire.

Welcoming Spring—Chan Ka Nin (b. 1949); composed 2022

Welcoming Spring is an orchestral overture to the arrival of spring, which is the most auspicious time of the year according to I Ching (Book of Changes), an ancient Chinese manual of divination. Terminology such as “Swallows Arrive”, “Thunder Starts Resounding”, and “Beginning of Lightning” are used to depict the vitality in the air. As snow starts to melt, flowers start to bloom, and birds are returning, these are the first signs of spring, it brings a sense of hope, rejuvenation, and fresh feelings. “The beautiful spring came, and when nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also.” —Harriet Ann Jacobs —Program note by the composer, courtesy of the Canadian Music Centre

The Butterfly Lovers Violin ConcertoHe Zhanhao (b. 1933) & Chen Gang (b. 1935); composed 1959

Written when both composers were students at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, this piece has become one of China’s most celebrated orchestral works. The seven sections of this one-movement concerto recount the tragic folk tale of the same title. Though composed in a Western style, the piece draws on the melodies and harmonies of traditional Chinese opera, particularly the five-note pentatonic scale, and it imitates the sounds of traditional Chinese musical instruments. Banned during the Cultural Revolution, the concerto made a quick comeback afterward and has been recorded multiple times since. —Program note by Kyle MacMillan

Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 21—Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847); composed 1826

Mendelssohn was arguably the most accomplished compositional prodigy in classical music history. Bursting with talent like his sister, Fanny, who died at the all-too-young age of 41, he wrote his String Octet in E-flat major when he was just 16 years old. This amazing masterpiece set the standard for all subsequent works in the form. Likewise, his Midsummer Night’s overture, composed in 1826 when the composer was just 17 years old, displays a still-startling maturity. The sometimes dreamy, sometimes spirited piece was written in an evocative, early Romantic style, complete with sound effects like the braying of Bottom, the weaver-turned-donkey. —Program note by Kyle MacMillan

“Seeker’s Scherzo” from Concerto for Orchestra—Zhou Tian (b. 1981); composed 2019

This season, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra has been spotlighting the concerto for orchestra, a form that highlights multiple sections of the orchestra instead of one or a small group of instruments. This three-minute movement by this Chinese-American composer is the seventh and last offering in this series. Commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Zhou’s concerto received a 2018 GRAMMY® Award nomination for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. This forceful, driving excerpt, which Zhou calls a “retro miniature,” features boisterous brass and kinetic xylophone runs. —Program note by Kyle MacMillan

“Flower Drum Song from Feng Yang” from Folk Songs for Orchestra—Huang Ruo (b. 1976); composed 2012  

I grew up in China and have always had a fond love for Chinese folk songs. China has more than fifty ethnic groups, each with its own culture, traditions, and folk songs. Folk Songs for Orchestra is an ongoing project, in which I plan over the years to compile and set folk tunes from various parts of China into Western orchestral form. The goal is not only to preserve and renew the original folk songs, but also to transform, elaborate, and develop them into new original pieces of art that also contain organic personal voice. 

The first one is the “Flower Drum Song from Feng Yeng” (凤阳花鼓). Almost one hundred different songs are performed in “Fengyang Flower Drum”, which boasts a long history. Known for its flower-drum performances, Fengyang is the birthplace of Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty. At performances that include singing and dancing in Fengyang County of Anhui Province, “Fengyang Flower Drum” has been passed down over the centuries. In terms of its forms, “Fengyang Flower Drum” can be divided into three parts, Flower Drum Lantern, Flower Drum Play, and Flower Drum Gong. Together, these are entitled “Fengyang Flower Drum” or “Three Flowers of Fengyang”. —Program note by the composer

Zheng Concerto—Tan Dun (b. 1957); composed 2007

Tan, who grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution and later immigrated to the US, is probably best known for his Academy Award–winning score for Ang Lee’s film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). He often incorporates a range of unconventional instruments in his works, including singing bowls, water basins, and pitched flower pots, but this work sticks to conventional Western strings plus the zheng, a Chinese plucked zither that is tuned to the pentatonic scale. The 2007 work is a transcription of Tan’s earlier Concerto for String Orchestra and Pipa, which was in turn derived from his Ghost Opera, a 1994 five-movement work for string quartet and pipa. —Program note by Kyle MacMillan

Ode to the Red CliffsShawn Moore (b. 1987); composed 2024

Ode to the Red Cliffs is a “Fu”, something between prose and poetry, written by Su Shi, a great scholar who had a very unstable career as a government official. This “Fu”, or Ode, depicts Su and his friends travelling on a small boat to visit the Red Cliffs just outside Huangzhou one autumn night in 1082. He recalls the Battle of Red Cliff (赤壁之戰) in 208 AD, a fierce battle between the allied forces of the Southern warlords Liu Bei (劉備) and Sun Quan (孫權) and the numerically superior forces of the Northern warlord Cao Cao (曹操). Liu Bei and Sun Quan defeated Cao Cao’s army to conquer the lands south of the Yangtze River. 

This event from 800 years before his age inspires Su to meditate on the rise and fall of great historical figures, the brevity of life and the hypocritical nature of people, and the certainty of change as the one constant of life. The words and the music in this work are a duet, bound in harmony to fully bring the listener into its meaning and feeling. The format is modern and the orchestration Western, but the deeper sense of the work knows the boundary of no place nor age. 

This work is dedicated to Dashan. Thank you. It would not have happened without your support. —Program note by the composer

Spring Festival OvertureLi Huanzhi (1919–2000); composed 1955–1956)

This well-known work in China is drawn from a large suite that depicts a new year’s celebration in the Shaanbei region, which boasts a distinctive form of folk singing. Like his teacher at the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts in Shenyang, Xian Xinghai, Li was interested in rendering Chinese folk idioms with Western instruments and forms. This fun, high-spirited work, which runs about five minutes, incorporates several appealing folk melodies, including an airy one in the softer “Moderato grazioso” middle section that is first played by the solo oboe and then passes to the cellos. —Program note by Kyle MacMillan

Celebrate the Lunar New Year with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Learn more about Year of the Snake: A Lunar New Year Celebration and get your tickets at TSO.CA/LunarNewYear.