Toronto Symphony Orchestra with guest conductor Yannick Nézét-Séguin and cellist Shauna Rolston

…Toronto cellist Shauna Rolston is the amazing guest soloist for the Tchaikovsky piece (Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 1876 Variations on a Rococo Theme), taking centre stage with her gleaming grey carbon-fibre cello.
Last night, she made full use of this rich-sounding instrument, masterfully shaping phrases and shifting moods from frothy to fearsome. She showed off her blazing technique during the many virtuosic solo passages .
Rolston's fabulous performance was perfectly matched by the orchestra. It sounded as if they had been playing this piece together for years.
Nézét-Séguin kept the sound light, but every musical nuance was accounted for.
Then came the second half, where the 31-year-old conductor was allowed to plunge his musical paintbrush into the full spectrum of orchestral colour and dynamics in Alexander Scriabin's 1904 Symphony No. 3 " The Divine Poem " ….