Brott’s 31st festival comes to the BPAC
Classical Music
To look into the seeds of time and say which grain will grow and which will not, ay, there’s the rub.
Take it from The Bard, it ain’t easy to predict how someone or something will turn out. Conductor Boris Brott found that out years ago.
Brott recalls that back in the 1970s when he was principal conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, he was approached by a respected British organist and composer shopping around some orchestral scores written by one of his sons.
“I thought, well it’s interesting, but it didn’t appear to me at that time to have the potential to be as successful as he (the son) turned out to be,” recalled Brott from his Hamilton home. “And I must say I misjudged it. There’s no question about that.”
In case you haven’t guessed, the father was William Lloyd Webber, and the scores were composed by his son, Andrew. Yup, the same Andrew Lloyd Webber who’d make a fortune with his mega-musicals.
Hardcore longhairs may turn up their noses at the younger Lloyd Webber’s output, but not Brott. At least, not any more.
“He has a tremendous melodic talent. There’s no question of that,” said Brott of Lloyd Webber. “I think Mozart would have been very happy to have been making the money he is. And I think no doubt if Mozart were alive today, he would be.”
Next week, on Thursday, June 21 at 7:30 p.m. in the Burlington Performing Arts Centre, 440 Locust St., Brott and the 50 apprentices in his National Academy Orchestra plus his 60-voice Brott Festival Chorus, prepared by Stéphane Potvin, open the 31st edition of the Brott Music Festival with a night of music by Lloyd Webber entitled — yup, you guessed it — “Music of the Night.” Sure, you’ll get all the hits from “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Evita,” “Cats,” and “Phantom of the Opera.” But in the first half, you’ll hear the serious side of Lloyd Webber, his 1985 “Requiem,” written in honour of his father.
“It’s a romantic piece,” said Brott of Lloyd Webber’s “Requiem.” “There’s some derivative elements both from the theatre and other requiems. I think it has a character all its own. It’s quite atmospheric. It’s very well written.”
Soloists are tenor David Curry, soprano Eva Tavares, and local treble Antonio Krasnick. Tickets are $35, senior $30, Brott35 $25, and student $15.
The festival continues on Sunday, June 24 at 2 p.m. in Michelangelo Banquet Centre, 1555 Upper Ottawa St., as Ancaster pianist Valerie Tryon makes the first of her three appearances, a High Tea solo recital with music celebrating the four seasons. Tickets: $50, senior $46, student $35. You can hear Tryon again on Sunday,
July 15 at 7 p.m. in Ancaster’s Fieldcote Memorial Park in Addinsell’s “Warsaw Concerto” with guest conductor Martin MacDonald leading the NAO. That bill also includes other sentimental favs such as “White Cliffs of Dover,” “I’ll be Seeing You,” and more. Tryon will be the soloist in Grieg’s evergreen “Piano Concerto” on Thursday, July 26 at 7:30 p.m. in McMaster’s L.R. Wilson Hall.
So what if Pluto isn’t in the fully-fledged planet club. That won’t stop Brott and the NAO from performing Holst’s 1917 “The Planets” with Colin Matthews’s 2000 addition, “Pluto, the Renewer” at the BPAC on Thursday, June 28 at 7:30 p.m. Rounding out the program are Alexina Louie’s “Infinite Sky with Birds” and Peter Maxwell Davies’s “An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise,” the latter with bagpipe solo.
Polish up your Beatle boots for “Fab 4 Forever” on June 29 at 7:30 p.m. in the Hamilton Convention Centre with Peter Brennan’s 10-piece Jeans ’n Classics band plus the NAO performing all the cuts from the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Abbey Road” albums.
Waltz up a storm on Thursday, July 5 at 7:30 p.m. as LIUNA Station turns into a Viennese ballroom courtesy of the NAO playing music by Strauss, Lehar, and others.
The Brott Music Festival has always been a peripatetic affair with concerts held all over the place. However, this year Brott is putting down roots in a prime place.
“We will become festival-inresidence at FirstOntario Concert Hall (formerly Hamilton Place),” said Brott. “Most of our rehearsals are taking place in The Studio. Our seminars will be taking place in the meeting rooms.”
So, on Thursday, July 12 at 7:30 p.m. in FirstOntario Concert Hall, Brott, the NAO and a 13member cast roll out PopOpera, a greatest hits of opera gala. On Thursday, July 19 at 7:30 p.m., fully staged opera returns to FirstOntario Concert Hall with Brott and the NAO in the pit for Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” directed by Patrick Hansen.
Star Wars fans power up your lightsabres and don your costumes as Brott and crew present “Star Wars — The Force Awakens” in the Hamilton Convention Centre August 2, at 7:30 p.m.
On August 11, Brott and the NAO head north for a night at James Campbell’s Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound.
The festival closes on Thursday, August 16 at 7:30 p.m. in FirstOntario Concert Hall with a salute to the centenary of Leonard Bernstein, the Canadian première of the concert version of his complete full orchestral score to “West Side Story.”
For more info on the festival, log onto brottmusic.com or call 905-525-7664.
Leonard Turnevicius writes about classical music for The Hamilton Spectator. leonardturnevicius@gmail.com Special to The Hamilton Spectator