Violinist Mary-Elizabeth Brown is the Concertmaster of Sinfonia Toronto. She is also currently Associate Concertmaster of Orchestra London Canada and the Britten-Pears orchestra in Aldeburgh, England.  She has played under distinguished conductors such as Kryszstof Penderecki, Lorin Maazel, Benjamin Zander, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Isaac Karabtchevsky and Placido Domingo.

Ms. Brown holds an Hons. B.Mus, cum laude, from the University of Toronto, and a M.Mus (Performance) from the Université de Montréal.  She has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants from the University of Toronto, the City of London, DePaul University, the Hazel Crydermann-Wees Foundation, the Université de Montréal, Fonds des Amis de l'Art and the American Suzuki Foundation. She has soloed in masterclasses with Regis Pasqier, Pierre Amoyal, Sylvia Rosenberg, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Pamela Frank, Pinchas Zukerman and the late Lorand Fenyves, among others. She has appeared with the London Youth Symphony, Orchestra London Canada and the Banff Festival Chamber Orchestra. 

As a chamber musician, she has been heard on CBC Radio and at major festivals across Canada including the Scotia Festival, Le Festival Internationale du Domaine Forget and the Banff Summer Arts Festival. She has worked with members of the St. Lawrence, Orford, Artur Leblanc and Brentano Quartets as well as the Gryphon Trio, William Aide and Laurence Lesser. 

 

 

PROGRAM NOTES

Suite by Leos Janacek (1854-1928)

Janáček's first instrumental works, the Suite from 1877 and the Idyla (Idyll) created the following year, were both composed for string orchestra. The Suite was premiered on December 2, 1877 in Brno, the centre of Moravia, with the composer at the podium directing the local Czech cultural society’s orchestra. Not unexpectedly, this unapologetically optimistic and youthful work shows Janáček's interest in the Czech national style founded by Bedřich Smetana, and furthered by Antonín Dvořák.

Janáček's debt to Dvořák in particular is especially clear in the striking three-chord opening of the Moderato, and the unbridled lyricism that follows. Harmonic chromaticism, as employed by the nineteenth century romantic composers Richard Wagner and Anton Bruckner, is used to good effect in the first of the two Adagios, for muted violins and violas alone. Where the third movement is a gem of almost classical simplicity, the fourth consists of two rhythmically charged passages, tonally centred on D, surrounding a poignant G-major Andante. A brief Adagio with a prominent role for the violoncellos and double basses then sets the stage for the concluding movement, marked Andante. Here Janáček again returns to a Dvořák-inspired design, punctuating the emotionally engaging melodic line with an impressive dotted-rhythm gesture.

Curiously, most of the original titles for the movements (Prelude, Allemande, Sarabande, Scherzo, Air and Finale) suggest the baroque dance suite as a model. Perhaps the relatively inexperienced composer simply chose a familiar form as the framework for this early work. The movements were subsequently renamed to their present tempo indications when Janáček prepared the work for publication.

Rondo for Violin and String Orchestra, D. 438 (1816) by Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)

The brief and unhappy life of Franz Schubert reads like an Edward Gorey book: ignored by the musical establishment, all but unpublished in his lifetime, Schubert lived in poverty and died of syphilis in relative obscurity at the age of 31. End of story? Not!

One of the incandescent geniuses of classical music, Schubert was an incredibly prolific composer, an unsurpassed melodist, and a man who would certainly have changed the course of Western music had he lived longer. In his brief life, he penned more than 1000 works, including over 600 songs. His song cycles “Die Schöne Mџllerin” and “Winterreise” are unparalled masterpieces of the genre. Schubert’s symphonies, chamber music, piano works, incidental and liturgical music are among the best loved and most performed in the classical repertoire.

“I write all day,” Schubert said to an inquiring visitor, “and when I have finished one piece I begin another.” His evenings were spent with a small circle of close friends at the local pub, or at informal recitals of his music, dubbed “Schubertiades”. The loss of potential masterpieces caused by his early death is expressed in the epitaph on his tombstone written by the poet Franz Grillparzer, “Here music has buried a treasure, but even fairer hopes.”

Composed in June 1816, Schubert’s Rondo for Violin and String Orchestra (D. 438) wasn’t published until 1897. It is in two parts: an lengthy Adagio spins an magical web of sound, over which our solo violinist dips and turns with cascading runs and enormous leaps. The following Rondo is light-hearted in nature, Mozartian in its simplicity. Based on a playful theme, the mood throughout is songful, light, and virtuosic in the extreme for our soloist.

Zigeunerweisen by Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908)

arranged for violin and string orchestra by Nurhan Arman

was born in the Basque region of Spain, and achieved international fame as “the ideal embodiment of the salon violin virtuoso.” Composers such as Bruch, Lalo, Dvorak, and Saint-Saëns dedicated masterpieces to him. He created works for himself to showcase his tremendous technique and his passionate style of playing. Zigeunerweisen (“Gypsy Airs”) is in his typical form—a slow, improvisatory first section followed by a fast concluding section. The piece displays many of the tricks of the salon violinist’s trade: melodies performed upon a single string, rapid flourishes embellishing a melody, passages played by sliding a single finger (glissando), plucking (pizzicato) with both the right and left hand, extremes of range, and others. These technical details arise naturally from the desire to excite the listener and to unleash the emotions of the performer. This is violin playing for the sheer joy of it.

Two Sketches on French Canadian Airs by Sir Ernest Macmillan (1893-1973)  

Sir Ernest MacMillan has served as conductor of the Toronto Symphony and Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, dean of the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto, principal of the Toronto Conservatory of Music, president of Jeunesses musicales of Canada, president of the Canadian Music Council, and for 22 years president of the music licensing agency CAPAC. He was also a charter member of the Canada Council for the Arts and served two terms on its board. The Canadian Music Centre became an important focus for MacMillan in his later years, and he was its co-founder and first president.

Born August 18, 1893 in Mimico, Ontario, Ernest Campbell MacMillan grew up in a musical family. The young Ernest soon displayed astonishing virtuosity as an organist, achieving the post of organist and choirmaster at Knox Church, Toronto, at age 14. He went on to further musical instruction in Edinburgh and Paris, and was forced to remain in Europe throughout the duration of the First World War. On his return to Canada, he resumed his performing activities, and in the 1920s embarked on a new career direction as a senior music education administrator.

In 1931 he succeeded Luigi von Kunits as conductor of the Toronto Symphony, a position he was to keep for twenty-five years. Sir Ernest’s fame as a conductor grew and he was invited to guest conduct such orchestras as Philadelphia, NBC, Chicago and Washington, as well as leading orchestras in Canada, Australia, England and Brazil. In 1942 he assumed the directorship of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. During the 1950s and ‘60s, MacMillan remained active on behalf of music in Canada as a principal spokesman for the establishment of important cultural organizations and agencies. He died in 1973.

MacMillan’s multi-faceted career and astounding catalogue of activities in the areas of performing, conducting, ethnomusicology, writing, teaching, advocacy and music administration have meant that his more modest achievements as a composer have been largely neglected.

The late Godfrey Ridout, one of MacMillan’s many successful composition students, once mentioned his teacher’s contribution in this area: “The first major impact that Sir Ernest made on Canada was as a composer. This side of his activities had been almost crowded out by the others. It seems now that, regardless of his skill and talent for composition, he apparently lacked the real drive and urge to continue in this direction.”

Serenade in E Major op. 22 by Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)

Antonín Dvorák was born into poverty in rural Bohemia, but was fortunate enough to be able to study in Prague. He developed into a good violist and played in the National Theatre orchestra under Bedrich Smetana, who exerted a strong influence on him. By 1873, Dvorák was making his living primarily as a teacher and composer. Grants from the Austrian government allowed him to concentrate more on composition, and he attracted the attention of Johannes Brahms, who arranged for the publication of his works by Simrock, one of the major European publishers. His reputation grew throughout Europe, especially in England. In 1891 he was appointed to the Prague conservatory.

In 1892, Dvorák traveled to New York to serve as director of the newly formed National Conservatory in New York. He held this position for three years; during this time he spent his summers in a Czech community in Spillville, Iowa. While in America, he composed some of his best-known works, including two quartets, a cello concerto and his Symphony No.9 "From the New World".

Dvorák's musical style is generally classical in its approach, owing much to Johannes Brahms, whom he admired greatly. At the same time, he used native Czech elements extensively. His interest in nationalist ideals carried over into his work in the United States. In America he discovered the music of Native Americans and African-Americans and declared that in them American composers could find "all that is needed for a great and noble school of music," and the music that he composed in this country shows some of that influence.

Dvorák wrote his Serenade in E Major Op.22 for string orchestra during a two-week period in May 1875. The serenade was at one time traditionally identified with the mating habits of homo sapiens. Originally it was a song to be sung by a suitor under the window of the lady of his choice. If perchance the young man's assets did not include an acceptable singing voice, he might substitute an instrumental performance. Toward the end of the 18th century, the serenade lost its purely romantic associations and became a term applied to a group of shorter pieces, sometimes called a divertimento or cassation. This was a form somewhere between the suite and the symphony, frequently of a light and romantic nature.

The genial tone of Dvorak’s Serenade for String Orchestra might easily be attributed to the composer's happy circumstances at this time - to his young marriage, the birth of his first son and the growing recognition of his talent - though it should be remembered that the casual demeanor and avoidance of overly dramatic gestures that mark this work have always been a requirement of serenade music. Such qualities in no way indicate an inferior level of inspiration or compositional skill, of course, On the contrary, this serenade, like those of Mozart, is very much the work of a conscientious artist. Its expressive harmonies, unpretentious counterpoint, skilled use of the string choir (Dvorák's experience as an orchestral viola player undoubtedly served him well in this) and formal coherence all attesting to a high order of musical craftsmanship.

The Serenade is in five movements. Apart from the finale, which follows a modified sonata form, each unfolds along broad, A-B-A lines. And yet, the music often proves more intricate than this simple format might suggest. After the opening movement, Dvorák does not rarely juxtapose contrasting melodic ideas but develops these in imaginative ways. Imitative counterpoint plays a prominent role in both the presentation and extension of the work's themes. Indeed, the Serenade opens with a flowing melody punctuated by echoes of its initial phrases in the cellos and basses, and more elaborate canonic writing is heard in each of the succeeding movements.

The warmly expressive first movement gives way to a waltz colored with wistful minor-key harmonies. We then hear a Scherzo with both a well-developed Trio section and a coda combining material from the Scherzo and Trio. After a tender slow movement, the finale conveys the spirit of a Bohemian village dance. Here Dvorák recalls the melody of the preceding Larghetto and, later, the opening theme of the first movement, thus bringing the work full circle, as it were, to its point of origin.

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