Volume 20 Issue 1 - September 2014

Glionna MansellPresents14A Music Series unlike any otherApril 2014 through to November 2014Don’t Miss TheseFall Concerts!in the continuingOrganix 14 concert seriesElisabeth UllmannOct. 19, 4:00 pmOur Lady of Sorrows3055 Bloor St. WestRhonda Sider EdgingtonSept. 19, 7:30 pmHoly Trinity Anglican10 Trinity SquareNosetti Memorial ConcertNov 12, 7:30 pmMaxine Thevenot, Eugenio Fagiani and Omar CaputiSt. Paul’s Anglican Church, 227 Bloor St. Eastoriginal?’ He laughedDaniel Hopeand said nothing’swrong with theoriginal, it’s perfect,it’s a fantastic piecebut I feel that in asense I’ve fallen out oflove with it. I’ve beenbombarded with it.Every time I go intoan elevator or a shoppingcentre I hear TheFour Seasons piped atme. [Max] wanted torediscover it and byrecomposing it he wasrediscovering it. Heasked me if I wouldlike to take a look atit and I thought that[it] was a really interesting way of revisiting a masterpiece ... As soonas I saw the early sketches for his piece I was absolutely knockedout. I thought this was something really amazing and I wanted to bepart of it.”Hope details his contribution to the process: “I made a number ofsuggestions. [Richter was very open to suggestions] with regards to thetempos and some of the passagework. It was so well written it didn’tneed many changes but it did need to be adapted here and there tomake it more violinistic. In the recording session we created it in themoment so a lot happened with sound effects and various colours.”Asked if he has a “favourite” movement in the piece he hedges: “Myfavourite season is ‘Summer.’ The Recomposed is a different piece. Ithas all of the great themes of Vivaldi. It has the inspiration of Vivaldibut it also has its own music. The last movement of Max Richter’s‘Summer’ is absolutely amazing. But also the last movement of‘Winter’ is mindblowing.”When asked if it’s difficult not to get mixed up with the originalwhen playing the recomposed version, Hope – who has alreadydivulged that he’s been playing the original since he was a boy (“It’sstill so modern after 350 years”) – talks about the very subtle changesin the passagework, eight notes to seven, for example. He adds thatevery time they play Recomposed it changes and evolves.Elsewhere in that 2013 YouTube chat, Hope reveals that when hewas four he announced to his parents that he wanted to be a violinist.That got me curious about his musical education. I found a partialanswer in a different (ClassicFM) YouTube video where he talkedabout his crucial relationship with Yehudi Menuhin, whom he knewfrom an early age: “Menuhin was very, very outward-looking. He’ssomebody I think about almost every day – a huge inspiration to meand to many musicians and somebody who really believed in openingyour ears to any kind of music. You know his legendary collaborationswith Ravi Shankar or Stephane Grappelli are things that I witnessed asa small boy (Hope was born in 1973). I was lucky enough to grow upin that environment. It taught me from an early age that you can findconnections in different musical worlds if you take it seriously andTickets and passesavailable onlinewww.organixconcerts.ca416-769-389322 | September 1, 2014 – October 7, 2014 thewholenote.com