Schumann, Goldscheider, Mercer: & Bancroft Returns

From tranquil visions of the Rhein River to dramatic shipwrecks along Canada’s Atlantic Coast, nature takes centre stage in all its beauty and power. Canadian maritime history comes alive in Kati Agócs’s Elysium, which incorporates field recordings of Newfoundland fishing villages of the 1970s and ‘80s.

After moving to Düsseldorf with his family in 1850, Robert Schumann’s long walks along the Rhein River provided a flood of inspiration for his Third Symphony, known as the “Rhenish.” A picture-perfect musical postcard of the German river, Schumann’s symphony conjures the water’s rippling currents, a breathtaking sunrise, and a solemn ceremony at Cologne Cathedral, located just steps away from the river’s banks.

Conductor Ryan Bancroft and horn soloist Ben Goldscheider reunite for a work they’ve performed to great acclaim throughout Europe: Huw Watkins’s concerto for solo horn and orchestra. Moving between moments of brassy athleticism and tranquil reflections that test the boundaries of the horn’s golden voice, Watkins’s concerto proves the perfect vehicle for Goldscheider, who “darts between moods with perfect, unflappable virtuosity” (Telegraph).

And opening the program is Kati Agócs’s Elysium, a haunting portrait of the dangers of life at sea in the brutal North Atlantic. In this rhapsodic orchestral poem with a feature for solo cello, Agócs depicts a sailor lost during a shipwreck, who clings to a rock for survival before being rescued as dawn rises.