The Greatest Show by Stravinsky, Bartók, Bruckner, De (2023/2023), Director musical Kristian Alexander, Flato Markham Theatre, Markham, Canada

Stravinsky’s Circus polka, subtitled “For a Young Elephant”, was composed as a short ballet production for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey’s “Greatest Show on Earth;” the ballet was originally performed by several young elephants in pink tutus! Concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra Jonathan Crow takes the spotlight to perform Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2, whose second movement—a theme and variations—is an early example of a theme employing all twelve tones of the chromatic scale. For the grand finale, Bruckner’s Symphony No. 3 showcases a masterwork of virtuosic orchestral sound in a work that the young composer found inspiration and encouragement from Richard Wagner—although the Wagnerian allusions were revised out of later versions