Philharmonic orchestra teams up with Arden for festive cheer
Fans of locally based singer-songwriter can expect to hear many of the classics
When Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra’s Karl Hirzer chatted with Postmedia about two upcoming sold-out Christmas shows with Jann Arden earlier this week, he was not entirely sure what the set list would entail.
In fact, the 28-year-old resident conductor had yet to meet with Arden to discuss the two shows, to be held Dec. 13 and 14 at the Jack Singer Concert Hall.
At the time of the interview, the conducting scores had just arrived the previous night and he had not checked them out yet. So he could only speculate on what the set list would be with the Calgary-based singer- songwriter; how many Christmas songs, for instance, would be involved or how many of Arden’s hits would make the cut.
“I’ll have a meeting with her before the rehearsal,” says Hirzer. “We’ll sit and chat anywhere from half an hour to an hour and just go over any spots that might be tricky to navigate or might be counter-intuitive and make sure I have all the correct tempi so we’re not doing things too fast or too slow for what she is used to. It’s also just a good opportunity to hang out and talk to each other before we get down to business on stage.”
It may seem like there is a bit of spontaneity to the creative pairings between CPO and various guest soloists, which this year have included Corb Lund, Yo-Yo Ma and Arden. But an orchestra, just by its very size, is not exactly an organization prone to fits of improv.
So it’s a testament to the skills of its players and Hirzer, who also conducted the Lund show last month, that the orchestra can prepare a full evening of Christmas tunes and Arden favourites with very little preparation.
“The biggest challenge is that we only have one rehearsal on the day of the first performance,” says Hirzer. “So there’s an expectation that everyone shows up prepared and ready to go, especially me and the soloist, so we can just run through things and be at sort of an acceptable level and if we have to go back and tweak things here and there or practise a transition, there shouldn’t be anything that’s going to pose a problem. That’s the biggest challenge, is making sure you are really prepared for that one rehearsal.”
While the set list may not have been fully revealed at the time of this interview, it’s probably safe to assume they will not differ all that much from Arden’s past symphony Christmas concerts. An unofficial set list from her Massey Hall performance in Toronto Nov. 29 suggests the Calgary concerts will draw heavily from 2015’s Jann Arden Christmas album. It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, O Holy Night, The Christmas Song, Little Drummer Boy and John Lennon’s Happy Xmas (The War is Over) will likely be performed alongside Arden hits such as Insensitive and Unloved.
“It’s an artist that they already know and love, singing songs that have been done a hundred times in different ways,” says Hirzer.
“It will be cool because it will be a full orchestral accompaniment. Obviously, those albums exist and those recordings and interpretations exist of those traditional carols, but I think having a full orchestra accompany an iconic soloist from our own town is special and people will react to it.”
The biggest challenge is that we only have one rehearsal on the day of the first performance.