Local visionaries lead vivid music roster
Iby Alexander Varty
’m writing this with chain saws ripping into 100-year-old cedars in the lot next door, just a stone’s throw away from the heronry, and some Cheeto-faced, ferret-wearing shitgibbon is about to give a press conference containing the 8,000th lie of his presidential tenure, but in the world of art… In the world of art, all is pretty good. The capsule report? Well, our city’s major cultural institution, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, celebrated its centenary by handing the reins to music director Otto Tausk (see story above), who’s a very different conductor than his predecessor Bramwell Tovey, but equally skilled. And Vancouver keeps turning out visionary musicians and composers, many of whom are represented in the concerts listed below. It’s a good time to be alive… until a tree falls on your nest. WORDS & MUSIC (At the Orpheum Annex on March 9 and 10) The birds and the bees, the fish and the frogs. Although human expression is the focus of this Turning Point Ensemble production, which features the premiere of the Ernest Hemingway–inspired The Old Man and the Sea, by composer Rita Ueda and librettist Rod Robertson, the natural world gets a look in too. The Draw: The rarely heard but highly touted music of Mexican modernist Silvestre Revueltas, in the form of his Duet for Duck and Canary and Frogs. Target Audience: Species-inclusive listeners. JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET (At the Vancouver Playhouse on March 19) Now boasting a powerful new first violinist, Areta Zhulla, the Juilliard String Quartet has been a marvel of consistent excellence since 1946. The Draw: For some of us the chief joy of this Friends of Chamber Music event will be the fabulously astringent tones of Béla Bartók’s String Quartet No. 3; others will find joy in the mellifluous works of Ludwig van Beethoven and Joseph Haydn. Target Audience: Those of us who can appreciate a smartly executed succession plan.
SONIC BOOM (At Pyatt Hall and the Orpheum Annex from March 21 to 24) Vancouver Pro Musica’s annual festival allows inquisitive listeners to discover the rising stars of the local composition scene, which has never been healthier, alongside new pieces from established artists. The Draw: This year’s Sonic Boom house band is the allstar Turning Point Ensemble, ensuring that both emerging composers and veterans will be handled with elegant assurance. Target Audience: Anyone who can tell a treble clef from an ampersand.
TAUSK CONDUCTS MOZART
(At the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on March 22 and 23) I am not a devotee of the Salzburg wunderkind, and I’m not alone; Glenn Gould once famously described Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s piano concertos as having all the charm of “inter-office memos”. But I’m willing to be convinced otherwise. The Draw: New Vancouver Symphony Orchestra music director Otto Tausk is a fan, and applies his interpretive genius to Mozart’s last three symphonic offerings. Target Audience: Me, I guess—and everyone who disagrees with me.