Mozart 40 & Schubert 5

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Koerner Hall

September 26, 2025 8:00 pm
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September 27, 2025 8:00 pm
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September 28, 2025 3:00 pm
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“Podger and Tafelmusik breathed and spoke through the score and gave themselves, and us, the space to be human … This is the biggest gift of life: total engagement.”
— Ludwig van Toronto

Critics were quick to notice the “special chemistry” (Barcza Blog) between Tafelmusik and Principal Guest Director Rachel Podger, who returns for the opening concerts of our 2025/26 Season. Directing from the violin with energy that is so “strong and confident as to be paradigm shifting” (Barcza Blog), Podger jump-starts two mainstays of the classical symphonic repertoire.

Written three years before his death in 1791, Mozart’s Symphony no. 40 opens with an intense sense of urgency. The work influenced future generations of composers, including Schubert, who felt “gently haunted by the magic notes of Mozart’s music” while writing his Symphony no. 5.  Sparkling with crispness and clarity, Schubert’s symphony reveals his gift for graceful melody while surprising us with moments of youthful boldness. 

Listen as Podger and Tafelmusik ignite their unique alchemy, transforming these well-known works into an exhilarating concert experience.

Credits & Program
Box Office
Royal Conservatory of Music
(416) 408-0208 | Email
Running Time
120 minutes
Style of Music
Classical orchestral

Guest artists

A headshot of Rachel Podger

Rachel Podger

Principal guest director & violin soloist

Rachel Podger, “the unsurpassed British glory of the baroque violin” (The Times), has established herself as a leading interpreter of baroque and classical music. She was the first woman to be awarded the prestigious Royal Academy of Music/Kohn Foundation Bach Prize in October 2015, Gramophone Artist of the Year 2018, and the Ambassador for REMA’s Early Music Day 2020. A creative programmer, she is the founder and Artistic Director of Brecon Baroque Festival and her ensemble Brecon Baroque, is Patron of The Continuo Foundation, and an Ambassador for the Learned Society of Wales. 

Rachel was awarded BBC Music Magazine Recording of the Year and Instrumental Award for her solo albumTutta sola. Recent releases include The Muses Restor’d with Brecon Baroque, The Best of Biber 1681 Sonatas, and Haydn Symphonies 43 & 49 with Tafelmusik, described as “sensational” (Early Music America). A dedicated educator, she holds the Micaela Comberti Chair for Baroque Violin at the Royal Academy of Music, and the Jane Hodge Foundation International Chair in Baroque Violin at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Rachel also has a regular relationship with The Juilliard School in New York.

Rachel Podger took up the position of Principal Guest Director of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra in September 2024.

Performers

Tafelmusik Orchestra, on period instruments
Directed by Rachel Podger

Program

Mozart Symphony No. 40 in G minor
Mozart Rondo for violin & orchestra in B-flat Major (Rachel Podger, violin soloist)
Schubert Symphony no. 5 in B-flat Major 

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