Previewed by Daina Janitis
This is one of many 2025-26 season first concerts- opportunities I hope to tell you more about soon – but this one is special. “Classical” music is my passion to hear live and to write about. Not because I’m a musician or an instructor, but because I’m committed more than ever to the shared experience of being at a concert played or sung by London’s formidable talent pool. The energy and emotion felt by the players are felt by everyone in the audience – it’s a shared experience that increases the pride and identity of our city.
Opening Night, London Symphonia
October 4, 2025, at 7:30, Metropolitan United Church
(But as Londoners, let’s call it “The Met” – The Met halfway between Toronto and Detroit)
(Pictured: Opening Night Guest Artist, Canadian pianist, David Jalbert.)
And on the program …
Augusta Holmès, La Nuit et l’Amour
Rodrigo Prats, Canta el Carretero Cuando Dan Las Seis
Ravel, Piano Concerto in G Major
Mozart, Symphony No. 39
First, David Jalbert- the guest artist. The Canadian is ranked “among the best 15 pianists of all time” by the CBC. Critics have strived to explain what makes him unique: “In an age of knuckle-busting keyboard technicians fixated on a single era, composer or concerto, it is a great pleasure to encounter an artist of Jalbert’s stature for whom the piano is simply a transcendent means of human expression” (WholeNote)” His recordings are already legendary- Prokofiev, Faure, the Goldberg Variations, and on Saturday night, he’s performing Ravel.
In an interview with Andrew Chung, Jalbert admits that he’s like an actor, changing characters with every composer that he plays. Ravel, to him, is an “old friend” who “never ceases to amaze”. The concerto he’ll perform with London Symphonia is only twenty-two minutes long- but it’s “an astonishing piece” with French themes, touches of flamenco, and hints of American jazz.
And I can’t omit this detail about Jalbert. In the “dark times”, when Orchestra London musicians were regrouping through “We Play On” into the stunning ensemble we know today, Jalbert offered to perform with them – refusing to take a fee!
You can watch Andrew’s interview in its entirety here https://youtu.be/4BlZrRFSPAc?si=sz0R3wCFSwmfylD4
You know by now that London Symphonia has no permanent conductor. An exciting new conductor is invited for every program- and this opening night has an upcoming young Cuban-born maestra on the podium.
(Pictured: Opening Night Guest Conductor, Cosette Justo Valdés.)
Cosette Justo Valdés has conducted in a mind-boggling number of cities around the world. She is Honorary Director still of the symphony of Santiago, Cuba where she spent nine years, but her contributions to Canadian culture through music are particularly interesting: “Through her daring, innovative programming with the Vancouver Island Symphony Ms. Valdés has quickly ignited new passion in her audiences, inspiring them to engage personally not only with living, contemporary music but also with rarely heard historical works. As an ongoing part of her artistic agenda in Vancouver Island, Ms. Valdés proudly continues to give a powerful voice to the works of women composers and composers from Native Canadian and American heritage.”
I promised myself I would not drag current politics into notices about London’s rich classical music scene – but with every new announcement and curtailing of DEI, cutting of support for the arts and education, and ridicule of “wokeness’ – I’m breaking that promise. As Thom Hartmann reminds his fellow Americans, “[The old Democrats] knew that politics is not just about what laws are passed but about what stories a nation tells itself about who it is. They knew that culture is not an afterthought; it is the riverbed through which politics flows.”
London Symphonia is one of London’s most valuable forgers of our Canadian culture. This opening night concert will add to our cultural fabric – and level up your internal immunity to the noise pollution of social media and politics.
What: London Symphonia Opening Night
When: October 4th, 2025
Where: Metropolitan Church, 468 Wellington St, London, ON
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit https://www.londonsymphonia.ca/
Previewed by Daina Janitis
The Beat Magazine 2025 