This week the TSO musicians played two evening concerts and one relaxed morning performance in their downtown home, Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall followed by a matinee uptown in North York’s George Weston Recital Hall. The program—steeped in the crossover between classical music and film scoring—was perfectly curated to reach multi-generational audiences in multiple settings. Music Director Gustavo Gimeno’s commitment to making classical music accessible serves Toronto well.
Maria Dueñas with the TSO, 2023.
Photo: Allan Cabral/Courtesy of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra
The June 4 concert began with Bernard Hermann’s Psycho, a Narrative for String Orchestra in 5 movements. It was an ideal choice for an impactful opening. Spooky and yet tonal, truly a soundscape from start to finish. The sounds of a riveting psychological thriller provided a powerful and seamless introduction to the selections that followed.
The Violin concerto in D Major Op. 35 by Erich Wolfgang Korngold filled the rest of the first half of the program. This is an extraordinarily demanding work for violin. Soloist Maria Dueñas’ soulful, passionate performance was golden. The Spanish violinist previously played with the TSO and Gimeno in 2023, performing Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole. Then and now, the dynamics between soloist, conductor and orchestra reflected an easy interaction throughout the musical changes in tempo, texture and mood.
After the Korngold, Dueñas returned to the middle of the stage, following numerous ovations, to perform beside TSO harpist Heidi Elise Bearcroft in what is becoming her trademark encore: an enchanting arrangement Granada, Fantasía española by Mexican composer Agustín Lara. The encore was as extraordinary as the concerto, showcasing Duenas’ extraordinary talent as an arranger as well as a performer.
Following the intermission, the second half of the performance opened with the world premiere of Canadian composer Bekah Simms’ Nostalgie. The composer writes: “Nostalgie uses the Golden Era of Hollywood movie music as a lens to channel this unusual form of nostalgia à la Hermann via Korngold….” Simms attended the Thursday evening performance, and received well deserved applause.
Violinist Maria Dueñas & harpist Heidi Elise Bearcroft at a TSO event on June 1, 2026.
Photo: Allan Cabral/Courtesy of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 in A Major, Op. 90, the “Italian” followed, providing a symmetric close to the evening. (Korngold was influenced by Mendelssohn and his adaptation of Mendelssohn’s music for Warner Bros. 1935 film version of A Midsummer’s Night Dream is historic). The performance was regal, marked by the stately cello/bass sections supporting the upper strings. The gravitas and full sound of the lower strings defined the stateliness and stamped the performance with a unique flair. The tempo was energetic and the mood joyous, bringing the concert to a satisfying close.
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