John Burge: Works for String Orchestra Joanna G'froerer, Rachel Mercer, Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra & Kevin Mallon

• John Burge (b. 1961): Sinfonia antiqua:
• 1 Burge: Sinfonia antiqua: I. French Overture. Maestoso 05:57
• 2 Burge: Sinfonia antiqua: II. Minuet & Trio. Grazioso 06:33
• 3 Burge: Sinfonia antiqua: III. Aria. Largo 06:09
• 4 Burge: Sinfonia antiqua: IV. Gigue. Poco allegro 04:48
• Forgotten Dreams (Version for Flute & String Orchestra):
• 5 Burge: Forgotten Dreams (Version for Flute & String Orchestra) 08:39
• One Sail (Version for String Orchestra):
• 6 Burge: One Sail (Version for String Orchestra) 14:15
• Upper Canada Fiddle Suite:
• 7 Burge: Upper Canada Fiddle Suite: I. Reel. Moderately Fast 04:56
• 8 Burge: Upper Canada Fiddle Suite: II. Waltz. With Simplicity 06:06
• 9 Burge: Upper Canada Fiddle Suite: III. Jig. Vigorously 06:33
• Total Runtime 01:03:56

Info for John Burge: Works for String Orchestra

John Burge is a JUNO Award-winning composer and a passionate advocate for Canadian music who has a strong affinity with writing for string instruments. All of the works in this recording were commissioned and premiered by the Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra. Opening with the joyous and celebratory Sinfonia Antiqua, the mood shifts to an evocative and impressionistic atmosphere in Forgotten Dreams, while One Sail captures the compelling power of poetic imagery. The Upper Canada Fiddle Suite blends tradition and nostalgia with entirely original inventiveness, and concludes an album that perfectly represents Burge’s eloquent and deeply expressive compositional style.

John Burge is a professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and his outstanding work as a composer over the years was recognised in 2013 with a Queen’s University Award for Excellence in Research and Scholarship. He is renowned for his choral music and, while he is best known in Canada, his works have been performed throughout the US and Europe.

John Burge’s music deserves the widest possible appreciation and this release with the finest of soloists together with the excellent Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra provides an ideal point of entry for those discovering his work for the first time.

Principal flautist of the National Arts Centre Orchestra (NACO) of Canada since 1992, Joanna G’froerer enjoys an exciting career as an orchestral player, chamber musician, soloist and educator. For Naxos she has recorded Saint-Saëns’s Music for Wind Instruments (8570964), and is the flute soloist on Rodrigo’s Complete Orchestral Works, Vol.8, which features the Concierto pastoral (8557801).

Canadian cellist Rachel Mercer has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician across five continents. American Record Guide wrote she plays ‘with polish, sensitivity, verve, and beautiful tone’ for her recording Sounds of Our Time (970212) as part of the Mercer-Park Duo.

Julian Armour, cello
Rachel Mercer, cello
Manuela Milani, violin
Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra
Kevin Mallon, conductor

Joanna G’froerer
enjoys a career as an orchestral player, chamber musician, soloist and educator. She has been principal flautist of the National Arts Centre Orchestra (NACO) of Canada since 1992. She regularly performs as a soloist with the NACO, and has appeared with many of Canada’s other fine orchestras and ensembles. She has been featured in chamber music festivals across Canada and at Brazil’s Festival de Campos do Jordão.

Rachel Mercer
is principal cello of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa and artistic director of the 5 at the First Chamber Music Series in Hamilton. She plays with the Mercer-Park Duo, and was a member of JUNO-winning Ensemble Made In Canada (2008–20) and the Aviv Quartet (2002–10). An advocate for new Canadian music, Mercer has commissioned over 25 works for cello, including concertos, solo and chamber music.

Kevin Mallon
Irish/Canadian conductor Kevin Mallon studied composition with Peter Maxwell Davies and conducting with John Eliot Gardiner, alongside singing and Baroque violin. He was concertmaster with Le Concert Spirituel and Les Arts Florissants in Paris before moving to Canada to take up posts with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and the University of Toronto. In 1999 he founded the Aradia Ensemble, with whom he has made over 50 recordings for Naxos. Mallon is music director of the Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra and has recently been appointed artistic director of Symphony in the Barn in Ontario.

Thirteen Strings Chanber Orchestra
Founded in 1976, Thirteen Strings is one of Canada’s leading chamber orchestras, consisting of thirteen professional string players currently directed by award-winning conductor, Kevin Mallon. The orchestra’s repertoire is diverse, covering music from the Baroque era to the 21st century. It maintains a strong focus on celebrating and promoting Canadian talent, having commissioned more than a hundred new works from Canadian composers. The Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra made its debut on Naxos in 2015 with a recording of Franz Beck’s Symphonies, Op. 2.

Booklet for John Burge: Works for String Orchestra