Kelly-Marie Murphy with Gustavo Gimeno and the TSO in Vienna.Allan Cabral/Supplied
The showpiece of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s just completed eight-city tour of Europe was Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. It is a charming four-movement work that ends with a soprano solo.
At Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw‚ the traditional moment of silence that follows the piece lasted longer than usual. The quiet, according to oboist Sarah Jeffrey, felt meaningful.
“It occurred to me afterward that the audience wanted a shared space with a trusted collaborator, and perhaps that was what the silence represented.”
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Jeffrey has previously toured with the TSO through Europe, in 2014 and 2017, but she noticed the response this time was different. She thinks Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, in which he outlined Canada’s “principled and pragmatic” role in a new world order, has drawn attention to the country.
“It felt like our audiences were coming to see if we were representing the message Carney was putting out there in the world,” she said. “I think we played with an honesty they were looking for.”
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra has just completed an eight-city tour of Europe.Allan Cabral/Supplied
It’s a coincidence that Canada’s largest symphonic orchestra was in Europe while the world descended on Milan for the Winter Olympics. But make no mistake: The TSO was not just flying its own flag, but the Canadian one too, same as the country’s athletes.
Touring an orchestra is as important a part of cultural diplomacy and brand building as participating in an international sporting event. One woman’s bassoonist is another man’s bobsledder, and performing concerts in the cradle of classical music is akin to a wrestler from Moose Jaw grappling in Greece.
The TSO is Canada’s largest symphonic orchestra.Allan Cabral/Supplied
Montreal-raised wunderkind Bruce Liu was the soloist for Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. The orchestra also presented a pair of homegrown compositions while in Europe: Kelly-Marie Murphy’s Curiosity, Genius, and the Search for Petula Clark (a TSO commission inspired by Glenn Gould) and Rufus Wainwright’s A Woman’s Face (Sonnet 20).
“This is a Canadian orchestra representing that not only do we understand your European art form and that we’re interested in connecting in it and interpreting it, but we’re also going to share something of ourselves,” said Mark Williams, the orchestra’s chief executive officer.
“Here’s music that was written on our soil. Here’s an artist like Bruce Liu that comes from our country and our background, and this is an opportunity to share and engage with that.”
The tour began in Spain (Madrid, Zaragoza and Barcelona) and continued to Luxembourg, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp and Vienna. Williams singled out the performance of Mahler’s No. 4 at the Concertgebouw, where the Austro-Bohemian composer conducted a double performance of the work in 1904, as a particularly poignant moment.
“To play that piece there and get an audience that gave us a standing ovation in a sold-out house was deeply, deeply meaningful,” Williams said. “Most of us were in tears.”
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An international orchestral tour requires an Olympian effort in performance and logistical expertise. Planning began in 2021 to route 204 people, including orchestra, administrators, donors and tour personnel. A total of 1,681 hotel room nights were booked.
But, as the Yiddish proverb goes, people plan, God laughs. The TSO was set to fly its people and cargo out on Jan. 25 − the day a colossal snow dump was predicted for Toronto. They scrambled to leave a day early and, somehow, pulled it off.
“Absolutely one of the craziest things we’ve ever done,” TSO vice-president and general manager Dawn Cattapan said on the orchestra’s Instagram tour blog. While Toronto was digging out, the TSO was digging into cocido madrileno in Madrid.
In the end, the TSO group travelled approximately 17,000 kilometres.
In Antwerp, Ottawa-based composer Murphy received a bit of star treatment when a Belgian girl who studied the violin approached her backstage for a picture and an autograph. It was the first time the child had ever heard music by a living composer.
The TSO group travelled approximately 17,000 kilometres on their tour.Allan Cabral/Supplied
“It’s hard to predict the impact,” Murphy said of including Canadian content in the program. “But there could have been a conductor in one of those audiences who said, ‘You know what, I do care what’s happening in Canada.’”
Not all international tours by orchestras involve the same level of cultural exporting. Before becoming the TSO’s CEO in 2022, Williams was chief artistic and operations officer at the Cleveland Orchestra.
“With a Cleveland Orchestra tour abroad, it never felt we were representing the United States,” the Ohio native said. “We were representing the Cleveland Orchestra. It never felt like a reflection of our culture.”
While in Europe, she was asked often about Carney’s speech.
“That people in the world are connected to Canada making more of an effort to become a global leader made our tour special. Unless your head is in the sand, you see Canada not just as a place, but as an idea. And that thinking is gaining some traction.”