Challenging concerto worth effort

Thu, 13 May 2004
by Gwenda Nemerofsky
Manitoba Chamber Orchestra
Yuri Hooker, cello
Westminster United Church, Tuesday, May 11
Attendance: 600

It was a dark and stormy night, but that didn't stop loyal concert-goers from attending the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra's final performance of the 2003-2004 season. Roy Goodman and the orchestra presented a varied program featuring principal cellist Yuri Hooker as soloist in Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-Flat Major, No. 107.

Written originally for legendary cellist Mtislav Rostropovich, this is a challenging work for both soloist and audience. You won't go away humming bits of this concerto. Nevertheless, if you stretch a little and listen with care, there is much to recommend it.

It starts right off with a feeling of urgency -- and the tension only continues to build. The distinctive four-note motif gives the allegretto movement the character of a humorous march. Hooker didn't hold back, attacking his instrument almost roughly to achieve the emotion needed. The moderato by contrast was slow, enabling Hooker to display the sweet tone for which the cello is so loved. He gave this a sensitive, thoughtful reading, accompanied by a nice viola line.

The cadenza movement (the last three movements are played without pause) was an ideal display of Hooker's talents. He literally seemed to feel his way through this movement and his involvement drew the audience right in with him.

The final allegro con moto contained a much-changed version of the Georgian folk melody Suliko, well-known to be Joseph Stalin's favourite folk tune. Quick and lively, Hooker attacked this in workmanlike fashion. His confident reading was rewarded with a well-deserved standing ovation. Hooker showed considerable capabilities as a soloist.

Also on the program was the inspiring Beethoven Symphony No. 2 in D Major Opus 36. There were a few problems in the first and second movements, primarily in the first violin section. In an attempt at subtlety, they erred on the side of sounding too cautious. This upset the balance with the rest of the orchestra and made for some rather weak entries.

There were also some rather noticeable intonation problems. When the music called for stronger, more confident playing, the firsts and seconds came through with the appropriate gusto, yet lacked clarity and precision, needing more enunciation of the notes. They sounded almost blurred. The woodwinds held their own beautifully throughout. The final two movements were clean and crisp; the orchestra most attentive to Goodman's lively direction. The allegro molto had great energy, controlled but still very exciting. Wonderful solo work from Vince Ellin on bassoon. The group saved its best playing for last.

The Haydn Overture to Windsor Castle that opened the concert was a very short but good choice as an introduction to the evening. The orchestra gave it only a perfunctory reading, however, despite Goodman's effusive direction.

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Chamber turns Britten into highlight of its season

Thu, 29 April 2004
by James Manishen
Manitoba Chamber Orchestra
Rosemarie van der Hooft/ Roy Goodman
Westminister Church, April 28
Attendance: 500

Roy Goodman and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra last night delivered Benjamin Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge with season highlight stamped all over it. The reason was simple enough.

Britten's invention is so staggering in its power and variety, that if you have the technique to encompass such a work, collective sympathy is inevitable. Playing it, as the MCO strings showed, involves surrendering yourself and letting the myriad of happenings find the best in you. Risk comes without fear. You're swept along in the current of creation and find yourself recreating as if life depended on it.

We knew the MCO has the horses for the Britten but still found the edge and cut of this performance quite special.

Goodman's introductory remarks described the varying moods and characters on display. But it was the energy in the way he described them that made anticipation run high. Composer Frank Bridge was Britten's teacher and today is immortalized as such, an unjustly singular recognition since Bridge's output is significant and individual. Goodman had a quartet of MCO principals play Bridge's original Idyll that Britten used, tellingly setting up what was to follow.

Details flowed from the orchestra: Bridge's gently rocking theme with gait etched for what lay ahead; the strings' sheen in the Romance, mandolin-like cellos and second violins in the Aria Italiana, Karl Stobbe's concertino in the Bourée Classique. Space permits no further, other than to say that all was totally memorable under Goodman's incisive command.

Ottawa-born James Rolfe's Four Songs on Poems by Walt Whitman were notable for their striking contrasts of character and harmonic language, such that each defined what became before and after.

The second song's spiritual, strongly rhythmic nature gave way to the gently triadic third, then leading to more astringent harmonies and pizzicati of Trickle Drops, accented churning strings in One hour to madness and joy and closing with the affecting Clear midnight and further comfort in the triad. Mezzo-soprano Rosemarie van der Hooft met every nuance head on, with beauty of tone one of many components to savor from this warmly communicative Winnipeg singer.

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Raum's impassioned violin a committed concert highlight

Thu, 25 March 2004
by James Manishen
Manitoba Chamber Orchestra
Erika Raum, Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Westminster Church, March 24
Attendance: 600

Except for soloist Erika Raum, there wasn't a violin on the platform at last night's Manitoba Chamber Orchestra concert.

Perhaps it was just as well, since Raum's terrific go of the Violin Concerto by Kurt Weill left the impression, last night at least, that hers was the violin to have if you can only have one.

Certainly you need that in an obviously thorny piece as this, written well before Weill's theatre successes with their acid-toned lyricism and trenchant style. Here was Weill's first 'classical' piece, born from studies with Ferruccio Busoni and supplied with that enigmatic master's influences, apparent in the way you can pick out Italianite fragments plus bits of Busoni's Turandot inside Weill's similarly urgent, challenging discourse.

But Weill is his own man and you can feel his later work in gestation here, as the dotted xylophone tune in the second movement hints, among much else. You don't get it all on first listening. But it invites return to do so, and you want to, with Raum at your side.

With Montreal guest conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium, Raum dedicated the performance to her teacher and mentor, Toronto violinist Lorand Fenyves, who died suddenly yesterday morning. An impassioned, committed account she supplied, with pinpoint accompaniment from an MCO of winds, brass and percussion, the only strings underneath in this work being double bass.

Odd orchestration was a concept for this concert, which included Brahms' Serenade No. 2, sans violins, and the early Serenade in E flat for 13 winds by Richard Strauss. "Our principal viola becomes concertmaster'' Nézet-Séguin quipped introducing the Brahms, which featured six violas at the conductor's left. Both pieces received similar readings that were finely executed by the players yet shy in overall force of personality. Both performances were brightly lit, careful and correct, more admirable than involving. One craved a bit of risk in the Strauss, whose song-drenched character invited more than neatness and precision, with hues of deeper contrasts and phrases directed more to long range climactic points than sentence periods.

The Brahms pressed ahead brightly and forwardly, rarely drawing you inside what is a notably deeper emotional involvement than the implications of its title. Where was the 'heart' in the second theme of the Scherzo? Intended perhaps but unfelt, among more than a few opportunities left unexplored in this performance.

Raum and Weill had it to themselves here.

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Musicians pay tribute to great composers

Thu, 26 February 2004
by James Manishen
Manitoba Chamber Orchestra
Heather Schmidt / Roy Goodman
Westminster Church
Attendance: 400 (Feb. 25)

Antonin Dvorak is the kind of composer whose music you'd want to bottle up and always have around for bluer moments. A reality in iPod-friendly times, and Dvorak's Serenade for Strings makes a fine choice for track No. 1.

Roy Goodman led the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra strings last night in a tribute to the composer, who died 100 years ago this year, closing the evening with that work. But there were other landmarks on display in this program.

This year also marks the 150th anniversary of American composer George Whitefield Chadwick's birth, for which the MCO opened with his equally named serenade. Calgary-born composer/pianist Heather Schmidt offered the world premiere of her Piano Concerto No. 3. And last night's Ash Wednesday occasion marked 40 years to the day that the then 13-year-old Roy Goodman last sang Gregorio Allegri's Miserere, notable for Goodman's legendary Decca recording, which is arguably still the most famous boy-treble recording ever made.

The Dvorak was appealingly done, fresh and flowing with all the fabulous tunes nicely spot-lit and reminding how he would welcome his son-in-law, composer Josef Suk, to raid Dvorak's drawer of tunes should Suk's muse be at bay.
Chadwick was one of those pre-Charles Ives 'Boston Classicists,' as they were called.

Thoroughly steeped in the romantic lineage, Chadwick's serenade is almost never played. It certainly deserves a place, since it shares many of Dvorak's attributes of melody and construction. It's rare to hear composers perform their own music, especially when so strong a player is Heather Schmidt. Her concerto was more notable for crafty workings-out rather than really distinguished material to do it with. No new ground broken either in content or form.

The opening movement's fantasy worked best, reminding of Ernest Bloch in its free rhapsodic flow. The second, entitled Shimmering, developed well from the gauzy cadenza that opened through a journey to the full strings, but the motives sounded over-insistent, reworking when you wanted new inspiration. The finale's uneventful ideas sounded mixed-in rather than organically grown.

Moments, then, but not quite a hit overall.

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Gifted soprano remarkable on an extra special evening

Wed, 7 January 2004
by James Manishen
Measha Brueggergosman
Manitoba Chamber Orchestra
Westminster Church
Attendance: 900 (sold out, Jan 6)

Every seat was taken last night, as the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and gifted Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosman supplied a special concert at Westminster Church that was not part of the MCO's regular season.

The masses were there to hear Brueggergosman, most certainly. And they came away having been genuinely in the presence of a true presence, a magnificent artist whose communicative power drove the evening and whose musical sensibility appeared even further elevated from the last time we heard her with the MCO.

But this concert really was Brueggergosman-plus, with the MCO augmented to 37 players from its usual 22 and a program so demanding, the organization would be out of business if the musicians had to be paid by the note.

Music director Roy Goodman conducted and one was in awe of putting such a program together on the reality of a handful of rehearsals. Not everything was 'grooved' as it were, but the impact of each work registered strongly and one sympathized just as much with the sterling corporate attitude of the players as with their obvious skills.

Distinctiveness

Swiss composer Frank Martin has never had a fair shake, recognition-wise, perhaps for surface impressions of assimilating elements of Stravinsky, Debussy and others into a scrupulous Gallic style over something truly innovative in sound and manner. It's one of the major injustices in music, since Martin is a marvelous composer whose distinctiveness hits when you just give it a good concentrated listen. Indeed, Martin's Concerto for Seven Winds, Timpani, Percussion and Strings is full of superb moments. An opening movement of robust neoclassical spark, a slow movement akin to Haydn's 'Clock' Symphony but tinged with dusky blues, and a finale that energetically caps all off. A riveting 15 minutes it is, and the soloists did it proud with good support from all.

Then came Brueggergosman, fronting the MCO in Aaron Copland's Eight Songs of Emily Dickinson and another big chunk of orchestral challenges in the complex, wholly original writing, again well dispatched by Goodman and team.
Copland's familiar widely spaced voicing was there, with that distinctively American terrain-in-music so ingrained in his sound. Here, though, more acidic, terse and personal, resourcefully aligned to the Dickinson texts and full of detail to savor.

Brueggergosman had the measure of everything, with a remarkable way of drawing you into the story elements of the texts on equal footing with their musical substrates. Especially in Dear March, come in! and Going to Heaven!
Things took a few moments to ramp up in a setting of three Gershwin songs arranged for voice and orchestra by Adrian Williams.

The simplicity and directness of Embraceable You were lost in the overwrought arrangement. Likewise in some bizarrely added harmonies and hyperactive activity for I've Got a Crush on You. But By Strauss was a bulls-eye, the clever lyrics full of zing and the orchestral parts suitably ripe. The Gershwins wrote that song, by the way, on the request of director Vincente Minnelli, father of Liza.
Brueggergosman encored with the spiritual Were You There, sung alone and memorably. You could see the soul forming on the walls of the room as the phrases soared.

At deadline was Stravinsky's Danses Concertantes, a brutally difficult neoclassical concert ballet. No doubt the players will sleep today away.

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Chamber orchestra brought the music from films alive

Thu, 9 October 2003
by James Manishen
Manitoba Chamber Orchestra
Westminster Church
Attendence: 700 (Oct 8)

Film music is a double-edge sword. On one hand, you have the usual army of musicians at the composer's disposal. On the other, you rarely hear this vastly under-used body of material live in concert settings. Roy Goodman and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra were out to address that at their season opener last night.

Film music for chamber orchestra you ask? A tall order it was to find some examples. But the MCO did in music by Toru Takemitsu, Adrian Williams and John Corigliano. You could forgive the emphasis on a pretty somber collection of moods last night, though one wondered if film scores of Nino Rota and Shostakovich might have been combed through for some levity. MCO concertmaster Karl Stobbe gave a beautiful, impassioned account of Corigliano's over-long Suite from François Girard's film The Red Violin, extracting every drop of angst from the story of the century-crossing travails of a violin. Stobbe is a remarkable artist and connected to his audience with laser-like focus.

Goodman mentioned that he hadn't seen the three films connected with the chosen Takemitsu selections, which was unfortunate since we needed a few visual hooks to elevate the bluesy Music of Training and Rest (José Torres), the darkly elegaic Death and Resurrection (Black Rain) and the sweeping Waltz (The Face of Another). This waltz in fact sounded like a close knock-off to Khachaturian's famous one from Masquerade Suite.

Two arrangements by Adrian Williams were commissioned by the MCO especially for this concert: one effectively using John Williams's familiar Schindler's List theme, plus one from a film based on the early composer Marin Marais. Stobbe took the solo spot in the former, cellist Paul Marleyn in the latter.
Opening the evening was the world premiere of Winnipeg composer Jim Hiscott's Cello Concerto with Marleyn as soloist.

One was a bit concerned in the early going that Hiscott's normally sharp personality was less in view than normal. But as the work unfolded one appreciated the rhapsodic and very well set out solo, with its echoes of Benjamin Britten-like declamation and telling dialog with the multi modal strings. Marleyn was excellent and ideally partnered by Goodman and team.

Closing the concert was the Love Song from Titanic, with Marleyn and Stobbe in a final farewell.

 

Anne Manson / Music Director and Conductor

MCO's 2010/11 season is sponsored by The Great-West Life Assurance Company.
Support has been received from Media sponsors The Winnipeg Free Press, CBC Radio One 990,
CBC Radio 2 98.3, Espace musique 89,9 and Golden West Radio. Heartstrings gala sponsor:
Mann Financial Assurance Limited. Sponsor of open dress rehearsals: Canadian Bridge Federation.
Arts Accessibility Program: Sun Life Financial.

© 2010 Manitoba Chamber Orchestra