Beethoven’s Scottish Songs are ingenious arrangements, strikingly beautiful, straddling a rustic tone and Classical aesthetic. In Thunder, Eötvös somehow manages to create soaring vocal lines using just a single timpani. Lera Auerbach’s Trio is skillfully crafted and powerfully affecting, evoking both Bach and Shostakovich with its colouristic effects. To bring the season to a festive close, Dvořák’s romantic Quintet radiates grace and warmth, dramatically alternating moods (a trait Dvořák absorbed from Czech folk music) before blossoming into a final burst of spontaneous celebration.

PROGRAM

Ludwig Van Beethoven: Scottish Songs

Fleur Barron, voice
Jacques Forestier, violin
Stéphane Tétreault, cello
Vadym Kholodenko, piano

Peter Eötvös: Thunder for Timpani

Alex Cohen, Timpani

Lera Auerbach: Trio No. 1

Diana Cohen violin
Oliver Herbert, cello
Jon Kimura Parker, pianos 

~ Intermission ~

Antonin Dvorak: Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major Op. 81, B. 155

Alena Baeva, violin 1
Noah Bendix-Bagley, violin 2
Dimitri Murrath, viola
Stéphane Tétreault, cello
Roman Rabinovich, piano