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Explore the Symphony

Canada's National Arts Centre

A classical music podcast

  • 51 minutes 11 seconds
    Carl Nielsen’s De fire Temperamenter

    Jean-Jacques Van Vlasselaer and Marjolaine Fournier study The Four Temperaments, the second symphony by Carl Nielsen. The hosts find this Danish composer a little enigmatic and difficult to reach. They explore the world around him at the time of this composition, and talk about his music in that context. Find out how he lived his life, allowed his wife to pursue a career, and gave orchestral musicians a little something to talk about.

    Music Excerpts:

    NIELSON Symphony No. 2 The Four Temperaments II. Allegro comodo e flammatico

    Danish National Radio Symphony

    Nielsen: Commotio, Op. 58, FS 155

    Organ Recital: John, Keith

    7 March 2020, 12:26 am
  • 57 minutes 15 seconds
    Mozart and Religion
    Marjolaine Fournier and Jean-Jacques van Vlasselaer discuss the role of religion in Mozart’s life and music. This in depth conversation focuses on Mozart’s Mass in C Minor and its beautiful celebration of universality that lead the way towards 18th-century romanticism.
    22 January 2020, 3:59 pm
  • 1 hour 1 minute
    Edvard Grieg
    Marjolaine Fournier and Jean-Jacques van Vlasselaer describe the music of Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt, his A minor Piano Concerto, and his C minor Symphony. His music, his melodies and his small works for piano are simply perfect. Can you believe that his symphony, composed in 1864 when Grieg was only 21, was played in 1981 for the first time? Listen to this podcast to learn more about why his Piano Concerto is his greatest work, and what influenced his composition style.
    6 November 2019, 9:45 pm
  • 55 minutes 33 seconds
    Béla Bartók and Witold Lutosławski
    Marjolaine Fournier and Jean-Jacques van Vlasselaer talk about two Concertos for orchestra: one by Béla Bartók and the other by Witold Lutosławski. They take a moment to explain the format of a concerto for orchestra (what do you mean, a concerto without a soloist?), and the dialog that develops within the orchestra performing it. Bartók and Lutosławski, who lived concurrently but in different contexts, composed two completely different and marvellous works.
    26 September 2019, 8:16 pm
  • 56 minutes 12 seconds
    Verdi’s Requiem
    Jean-Jacques van Vlasselaer and Marjolaine Fournier discuss Verdi’s Requiem, first performed in Milan in 1874. The text for this was written in about 1250, when a requiem was meant to be music to sustain the mass of the death. Our hosts uncover some history about the evolution of requiem works and their cultural significance, and shed light on Verdi’s atheist and anti-clerical views had a role in taking the requiem into the concert hall.
    3 September 2019, 7:02 pm
  • 48 minutes 14 seconds
    Claude Vivier
    Marjolaine Fournier and Jean-Jacques van Vlasselaer discuss the masterful Claude Vivier, composer from Québec. His music, which can be characterized as “beautiful, immense, tragic, inspiring,” is celebrated and heard regularly in France, Germany, Holland and Austria. Lonely Child will be featured during the NAC Orchestra’s tour in Europe in May 2019.
    2 April 2019, 2:28 pm
  • 38 minutes 34 seconds
    Brahms’ and Schumann’s first symphonies
    Marjolaine Fournier and Jean Jacques van Vlasselaer compare Brahms’ and Schumann’s first symphonies. They explore the relationships between the two composers and Clara Wieck. Schumann was alive in an extraordinary and explosive decade, Clara was nine years younger and a remarkable pianist, and Brahms, a generation apart, grew up in an entirely different environment. How was their first encounter? How do the two masterworks compare?

    The NAC Orchestra will perform Schumann’s first symphony on February 13 and 14, 2019, and Brahms’ first on May 1 and 2, 2019.

    Join them in this wild goose chase!

    30 January 2019, 7:33 pm
  • 49 minutes 33 seconds
    Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem
    Marjolaine Fournier and Jean-Jacques van Vlasselaer discuss Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem. How much do you know about Benjamin Britten? There is fury in this composition. Where does it come from?
    Pacifism started in the 20th century, and Britten is a member of this movement. War is morally unacceptable and unjustifiable for him. So what is this Requiem about? Find out in this newest instalment of the Explore the Symphony podcast.

    The NAC Orchestra will perform this work on Friday November 9, 2018, in a side-by-side concert with the Bundesjugendorchester (the German Youth Orchestra) and local choirs in Southam Hall.

    19 October 2018, 6:02 pm
  • 46 minutes 4 seconds
    Schubert's Ninth Symphony

    John Storgårds will conduct the NAC Orchestra on October 10 and 11, 2018, in their performance of Schubert’s ninth and final symphony.

    Marjolaine Fournier, NACO double bassist, and Jean-Jacques van Vlasselaer, musicologist, explore this work and uncover that Schubert never heard it performed in his lifetime. Schubert died in 1828 at the early age of 31. The changing politics and aesthetics of the day, his health, and the legacy of his predecessors, influenced the evolution of Schubert’s compositions. How does this unfinished Great symphony, born in 1825 and first performed in 1829, fit into the new Romantic era of music and in Schubert’s expansive catalog? Discover how we can relate to Schubert today and much more through the story-telling of these two learned scholars of music.

    27 September 2018, 8:49 pm
  • 42 minutes 36 seconds
    You don’t have to be a music-lover to love Beethoven

    Marjolaine Fournier and Jean-Jacques van Vlasselaer prepare us for the Festival Focus 2018 featuring all nine Beethoven symphonies. Did he really invent the boogie-woogie?
    Beethoven offered so much variety within his symphonies, and as a genius, is a guiding light. Concert halls continue to be filled for performances of Beethoven symphonies. Find out why.

    13 September 2018, 7:51 pm
  • 40 minutes 6 seconds
    Anton Bruckner’s eighth symphony with the TSO
    Bruckner scholars seem to focus on psychoanalysis rather than closing their eyes and listening to the music. To listen to Anton Bruckner’s eighth symphony is to listen to the summit of his music. The Toronto Symphony Orchestra performs this work with conductor Peter Oundjian on May 7, 2018. Listen to Jean-Jacques van Vlasselaer and Marjolaine Fournier talk about Bruckner’s eighth symphony.
    13 April 2018, 8:00 pm
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