“The Manitoba Chamber Orchestra (MCO) is a chamber orchestra based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Founded in 1972 by Ruben Gurevich, the ensemble’s first music director, the MCO presents nine concerts annually at Westminster United Church and tours in rural Manitoba, Canada and elsewhere.

The MCO premieres numerous new compositions each season. At the biennial meeting of the Association of Canadian Orchestras in 1990 the MCO was presented with a SOCAN Award of Merit for ‘the imaginative programming of contemporary Canadian music.’

Past music directors have also included Simon Streatfeild (1984–1991) and Roy Goodman (1999–2005). In April 2007, Anu Tali was named music director of the orchestra, effective as of September 2007, but that November, the orchestra announced that it and Tali were unable to agree on contract terms, so that Tali never served in the post. In November 2008, Anne Manson was named the music director and principal conductor of the orchestra, effective immediately with the 2008-2009 season.”

 http://www.themco.ca

 

 http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/sites/westminsterunited.shtml

“Westminster United Church (745 Westminster Avenue, Winnipeg)

During the early 20th century, Manitoba’s economy boomed and its population grew dramatically. With sharp increases in memberships, many churches found it necessary to replace their buildings. In 1909, the members of Westminster Presbyterian (now United) Church concluded that their 1893-94 building was inadequate for a congregation of almost 1,000. This site, closer to the homes of the parishioners, was selected and the church was built between 1910 and 1912.

For its grandest buildings—Westminster, Augustine (1903-04) and Knox (1914-18)—the Presbyterian Church in Winnipeg called upon renowned architect J. H. G. Russell. For each church, Russell relied on a different interpretation of the Gothic Revival, a popular architectural style that drew its inspiration from medieval churches. Russell’s design was based upon the English expression of Gothic and emphasized pinnacle towers, slender vertical supports and large openings, in this case featuring a beautiful rose window.

In 1992, the Manitoba Heritage Council unveiled a commemorative plaque to recognize this fine stone church, a provincially– and municipally-designated historic site.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“MCO Music Dir­ector and Con­ductor Anne Man­son will jux­ta­pose two sym­phon­ies on this pro­gram, and will pre­face each with its story.

One of Joseph Haydn’s last sym­phon­ies, the 103rd was first per­formed in 1795. It is nick­named ‘The Drum­roll’ after the long roll on the tim­pani with which it begins. A review of the premiere in the Morn­ing Chron­icle repor­ted “con­tinual strokes of genius, both in air and harmony.”

Sketches of Beethoven’s first sym­phony have been found from that very year. In the work of the young com­poser can be heard the influ­ence of his teacher — Joseph Haydn — and other pre­de­cessors, includ­ing Moz­art. It’s def­in­itely Beeth­oven, how­ever, and with it, the young mas­ter burst onto the scene in 1800 Vienna.

The first and (almost) last sym­phon­ies of two mas­ters in one sit­ting! We’ll leave it to Anne
to break it down.

When com­posers clash

“… the issue sur­faced most not­ably upon the pub­lic­a­tion of Beethoven’s first com­pos­i­tions, the Op. 1 piano trios. Wish­ing to assist the young com­poser, Haydn sug­ges­ted that Beeth­oven include the phrase ‘pupil of Haydn’ under­neath his name in order to garner advant­age from Haydn’s con­sid­er­able fame. Beeth­oven bristled.”

Accord­ing to the account left by Beethoven’s pupil Ferdin­and Ries, “Beeth­oven was unwill­ing to because, as he said, although he had some instruc­tion from Haydn he had never learned any­thing from him. How­ever, at the old composer’s 76th, he knelt down before Haydn and fer­vently kissed the hands and fore­head of his old teacher.””