Orchestra Toronto Presents
Turn of the Century:
Elgar, Beach & Sibelius
Date
Venue
On the Program
Featured Artist
Sunday, November 1, 2026 at 3:00PM
Pre-Concert Chat at 2:15PM
The George Weston Recital Hall
Meridian Arts Centre, 5040 Yonge St.
Michael Newnham, Conductor
Elgar: Enigma Variations
Beach: Piano Concerto
Sibelius: Finlandia
Anya Alexeyev, Piano
About this performance
Turn of the Century: Elgar, Beach & Sibelius
Orchestra Toronto presents an afternoon centered on three remarkable works composed in 1899, a pivotal year at the threshold of a new century. The program opens with Elgar’s Enigma Variations, a series of fourteen character sketches, each revealing a friend or colleague, tied together by a still-unsolved “hidden theme.” Anya Alexeyev then brings to life Amy Beach’s Piano Concerto, a work of lyricism and virtuosity that showcases the bold voice of one of America’s first internationally recognized female composers. The concert concludes with Sibelius’s Finlandia, a stirring tone poem whose melodies and dramatic climaxes evoke both the Finnish landscape and the fervor of a people yearning for freedom.