Performer: Alexander Shelley

Alexander Shelley tackles Schumann’s sprawling Das Paradies und die Peri with conviction, shaping real momentum and drama, even if balance issues and Thomas Moore’s cloying libretto sometimes distract.

Shelley led an unusual mix of English music by Walton, Coleridge-Taylor and Delius, with a poignant addition of two small works by the young Lili Boulanger.

The National Arts Centre Orchestra and Joshua Hopkins bring Jake Heggie and Margaret Atwood’s Songs for Murdered Sisters to Roy Thomson Hall, intriguingly partnered with two works from the high Romantic.

We speak to Alexander Shelley about his upcoming European tour as Music Director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra.