Bourgie Hall presents

Schubert and the Beauty of Twilight with Nicolas Ellis and Kerson Leong

Last season, a wonderful connection between Les Violons du Roy, Nicolas Ellis and Kerson Leong was born. This year, they reconnect in a program on the theme of death: a version for string orchestra of Schubert’s famous “Death and the Maiden” Quartet will be heard alongside Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s Concerto funèbre and the deeply moving A letter From the After life by Dinuk Wijeratne.

Artists
Les Violons du Roy

Les Violons du Roy takes its name from the celebrated court orchestra of the French kings. It was founded in 1984 by Bernard Labadie, now styled founding conductor, and continues under music director Jonathan Cohen to explore the nearly boundless repertoire of music for chamber orchestra in performances matched as closely as possible to the period of each work’s composition. Its minimum fifteen-member complement plays modern instruments, albeit with period bows for Baroque and Classical music, and its interpretations are deeply informed by the latest research on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century performance practice. The repertoire of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries receives similar attention and figures regularly on the orchestra’s programs.

Nicolas Ellis, conductor

Nicolas Ellis is the Artistic Director, Conductor and Founder of the Orchestre de l’Agora and currently serves as Artistic Partner to the Orchestre Métropolitain and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He was recently named Principal Guest Conductor for Les Violons du Roy, starting in the 2023-2024 season.

Kerson Leong, violin

Kerson Leong has been described as “not just one of Canada’s greatest violinists but one of the greatest violinists, period” (Toronto Star). Forging a unique path since his First Prize win at the International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition in 2010, he continues to win over colleagues and audiences alike with “a mixture of spontaneity and mastery, elegance, fantasy, intensity that makes his sound recognizable from the first notes” (Le Monde).

Program
Dinuk WIJERATNE A Letter from the Afterlife, from Two Pop Songs on Antique Poems
Anton WEBERN Langsamer Satz (version for string orchestra)
Karl Amadeus HARTMANN Concerto funèbre for Violin and String Orchestra
SCHUBERT String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D. 810, “Death and the Maiden” (version for string orchestra)

Friday, January 20, 2023 at 7:30pm

To purchase your tickets visit: www.mbam.qc.ca/en/bourgie-hall/

This concert is available as part of a subscription, which allows you to save up to 30% on all concerts in the Les Violons du Roy series.