New maestro, new sound

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This article was published 22/02/2018 (2246 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra will give its new maestro, Daniel Raiskin, a grand debut on Sept. 17 when the orchestra teams up with renowned pianist Emanuel Ax to open the 2018-19 season at the Centennial Concert Hall.

It will be the third consecutive September that the WSO will start its season with the added flourish of an international star. Violinist Joshua Bell launched the 2016-17 season with Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and last September, another famous violinist, Itzhak Perlman, performed Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. Both performed to packed houses, and the WSO hopes Ax and Raiskin to do the same, when they perform Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto.

“One of the interesting things will be for people to observe this new music director working with our orchestra,” says WSO executive director Trudy Schroeder. “It’s a year where there’s this big transition. All of us will be very interested in observing how the orchestra adapts and changes and evolves and sounds with this new leadership.”

The WSO named Raiskin as the successor to Alexander Mickelthwate Feb. 14, and the Russian-born conductor suggested some of his favourites to the new season schedule, Schroeder says. The backbone of the new season, however, was put together by a committee that includes WSO board members, staff members and players from the orchestra.

Ax is also known for his collaborations with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the late violinist Isaac Stern as well as his solo career. The 68-year-old Polish-American pianist, who is the child of concentration camp survivors, moved to Winnipeg from Poland when he was nine years old and studied piano under noted Winnipeg piano teacher Jean Broadfoot until his family moved to New York City in 1961. A spell at Juilliard School helped launch his concert career, and it’s also where he teaches today.

Ax has won seven Grammy Awards during his career — including two solo performances of Haydn that earned awards in 1995 and 2004.

“I think it’s pretty exciting. He’s definitely one of the upper-echelon soloists in the world of classical music,” says Patricia Evans, the principal horn player for the WSO. “It’s really interesting that he has a Winnipeg connection. I’m sure there are people in the community who remember him from that time.”

While classical music fans will be pumped to hear Ax at the piano, Raiskin’s debut as the music director of the WSO should also be a big draw. It certainly will be an exciting evening for the orchestra, says Evans.

“We really appreciated what he brought to the podium from the first time he came and conducted us,” Evans says, remembering Raiskin’s WSO guest-conducting debut three years ago. “I think everybody is really looking forward to work more in depth with him, definitely.”

The WSO has another Winnipeg connection in its 2018-19 classical schedule. Soprano Tracy Dahl, who has performed in operatic venues all over the world and was recently named to the Order of Canada, takes part in An Evening of Mozart Nov. 2 and 3.

“She’s one of our own, really one of our own.” Evans says. “She’s just had a tremendous career, and she’s just such a special person. On top of that, she’s a world famous singer, she’s sung in opera houses all over the world. It’s kind of nice we get to claim her as our own.”

The WSO is also stretching out its long farewell to Mickelthwate. In his final summer as the orchestra’s music director, the German-born maestro will take part in a new Symphony in the City festival, June 16-27, that will include pop-up concerts and a collaboration with Winnipeg rockers Bros. Landreth. And on Feb. 8-9, 2019, the newly minted music director of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic returns as a guest conductor, leading the WSO and Canadian cellist Cameron Crozman in works by Dvorák and Rachmaninoff.

In July, in addition to its regular performance at The Forks on Canada Day, the orchestra will perform at the Planetarium in honour of its 50th anniversary (July 3) and the next day will board the refurbished Nonsuch for a concert at the Manitoba Museum.

“It’s a partnership with another one of our great community institutions and a way to highlight what they’re doing,” Schroeder says. “It’s one of those Winnipeg experiences that’s not to be missed.”

Other guests artists booked for Masterworks concerts include Canadian pianist Charles-Richard Hamelin, who performs Mahler’s Titan (Sept. 28-29); British violinist Tasmin Little (Nov. 9-10); Bulgarian violinist Bella Hristova (Jan. 11-12, 2019); Canadian pianist Janina Fialkowska (March 1-2, 2019) and Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero (April 26-27, 2019).

Mozart also plays a role in the WSO’s pop schedule in 2018-19. Among four films the WSO will accompany next season is the Oscar-winning biopic Amadeus, which stars Tom Hulce as the legendary composer and F. Murray Abraham as his bitter rival, Antonio Salieri. Screenings are scheduled for April 13 and 14, 2019.

“For many people of my generation it was an introduction to the world of classical music and the world of the composers like Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven,” says WSO resident conductor Julian Pellicano, who leads the orchestra during its pops and movies endeavours. “I kind of remember that movie fondly as a musician as well. I think it instilled in me early on that these composers were people… they’re not just mythological figures.”

The WSO will also perform along with screenings of Casablanca (Oct. 26-28) and continue its performances of the Harry Potter series — Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Dec. 1-2) and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (March 8-9, 2019).

“Our orchestra, they’ve become quite expert, not only at playing every different styles — Amadeus and Casablanca are two different things — but also developing the technique to line up the music and the film and also create a sense of drama with the music as it relates to the screen,” Pellicano says.

Included on the pops program are concerts devoted to two of the most orchestral rock acts. Pellicano leads the WSO into a deep dive into the Beatles’ works in A Classical Mystery Tour (Sept. 21-23) and A Symphonic Tribute to Prince, featuring bassist Andrew Gouché and vocalist Mackenzie Green (Jan. 18-20, 2019).

“I think that the Beatles are one of the most symphonic bands in pop music in the sense that they were so important in bringing in the instruments of the orchestra onto their records,” Pellicano says, pointing out the piccolo trumpet in the 1967 hit Penny Lane. “I think Prince worked in the same way in the sense that he was a rock musician but he was really a genius, a prodigy. His sense of timing and the structure of his music is so incredibly complex but at the same time feels so natural.”

Subscriptions and renewals are available at wso.ca and individual tickets to the opening-night gala with Emanuel Ax go on sale to the public on May 1.

alan.small@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter:@AlanDSmall