Ron Royer met this concert’s soloist, Máté Szücs, in Toronto while the Berlin Philharmonic was on tour here. Some chamber music sessions followed, and they struck up a friendship. Máté expressed interest in having Ron write a concerto for him. Ron envisaged a work that would be lyrical and rhapsodic; Máté wanted a challenge. Both got their wish. In the words of the composer: “The Rhapsody Concerto has a combination of elements from the rhapsody and the concerto. Emotionally, the elements of the rhapsody play an important role… [The opening movement] represents a sunset moving into the night. The opening is calm, but then the music becomes more energetic, representing an evening on the town. The calm opening music returns, suggesting the time to return home. For the second movement, Early-Morning Scherzo, and the finale, Mid-Afternoon Rondo, [ I ] didn’t have a specific story in mind but did have a more generalized concept of a day of energetic activities along with a few periods of rest and reflection. The audience is invited to imagine stories inspired by the music… [The concerto] ends with upbeat and virtuosic music for the soloist.”
The work was commissioned by the Canadian Sinfonietta, in collaboration with the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra and the PSO and was supported by a SOCAN Foundation grant.
There is no recording to share for this work as it has never been performed before - but you can check out this fascinating interview between Conductor Michael Newnham and composer Ron Royer talking about how this fun and lively piece was created.

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) started to sketch Le tombeau de Couperin in 1914, just before the outbreak of World War I. He conceived it as an homage to a great French composer of the Baroque period, François Couperin, and indirectly to other French composers of that era. Despite its name, the work is not at all funereal. ‘Tombeau’ can mean either a tomb or a memorial; Ravel had the latter meaning in mind. The work was to feature stylish, elegant and witty dance music of Couperin’s era. The war upended Ravel’s life altogether. By the end of the war, he was convalescing in Normandy, following dysentery and a deep depression. He resumed work on Tombeau during this period. He kept the underlying idea, but now dedicated each movement to a different friend who had died in combat.
He wrote the work initially for solo piano. Tonight, we hear a later version he produced for orchestra. Ravel is famous for his gorgeous orchestrations, and this piece is no exception. The music is (per Michael Newnham) ‘instantly recognizable, fun to play and fun to listen to.’
Hear it performed here by the the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra:

Alberta native Christine Donkin, who now lives in Ottawa, completed ‘Four Poems’ in 2016 under a commission from Symphony New Brunswick. The work was inspired by the poetry of New Brunswick native Charles G. D. Roberts. “These are beautiful, short pieces that have to do with the passing of the seasons. They’re a little wistful at times, but also playful and fun,” says Music Director Michael Newnham. The text of each of the four poems is below along with a link to a recording of their performance by Symphony New Brunswick.

Monition

A faint wind, blowing from World's End,
Made strange the city street.
A strange sound mingled in the fall
Of the familiar feet.
Something unseen whirled with the leaves
To tap on door and sill.
Something unknown went whispering by
Even when the wind was still.
And men looked up with startled eyes
And hurried on their way,
As if they had been called, and told
How brief their day.

Listen here

The Autumn Thistles

The morning sky is white with mist, the earth
White with the inspiration of the dew.
The harvest light is on the hills anew,
And cheer in the grave acres' fruitful girth.
Only in this high pasture is there dearth,
Where the grey thistles crowd in ranks austere,
As if the sod, close-cropt for many a year,
Brought only bane and bitterness to birth.

But in the crisp air's amethystine wave
How the harsh stalks are washed with radiance now,
How gleams the harsh turf where the crickets lie
Dew-freshened in their burnished armour brave!
Since earth could not endure nor heaven allow
Aught of unlovely in the morn's clear eye.
Listen here

The Frosted Pane

One night came Winter noiselessly and leaned
Against my window-pane.
In the deep stillness of his heart convened
The ghosts of all his slain.

Leaves, and ephemera, and stars of earth,
And fugitives of grass,
White spirits loosed from bonds of mortal birth,
He drew them on the glass.
Listen here

When the Cloud Comes Down the Mountain

When the cloud comes down the mountain,
And the rain is loud on the leaves,
And the slim flies gather for shelter,
Under my cabin eaves, --
Then my heart goes out to earth,
With the swollen brook runs free,
Drinks life with the drenched brown roots,
And climbs with the sap in the tree.”
Listen here

A central theme of Russian cultural history is the unending ambiguity of Russia’s identity. Is Russia fundamentally a European country, or is it something else? From where should Russia seek artistic inspiration? Sergei Prokofiev’s life (1891-1953) was a fascinating one in this context. He was born in a small village in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, an area currently being fought over by Ukraine and Russia. He received his musical training in Moscow. He graduated just as the 1917 Revolution was taking place. Believing that Russa ‘had no use for music at the moment’, he left for the United States, Germany and France. In 1936 he returned permanently to Moscow, where he is buried. He wrote his masterful ‘Classical Symphony” in 1917, just before he left Russia. He was 26 at the time. In it, he sought to marry 20th century harmonies and idioms with the structure of Classical – era symphony by the likes of Haydn or Mozart. He envisaged writing music of a kind that Haydn might have written had Haydn been alive in the 20th century. Prokofiev also sought to distance himself from heavy-handed late Romantic music by writing something short, playful and witty. The Classical Symphony was a triumph at its first performance, and it has remained an audience favourite ever since.
Here it is performed by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony: