PGSO welcomes Stobbe brothers home
The Prince George Symphony Orchesta has always been home to the Stobbe brothers.
Karl is now the associate concertmaster of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. His orchestra has won the Juno Award, he has been nominated as a soloist, and he has won a Western Canadian Music Award as a soloist. As violinists go, he is among Canada’s most noted.
Joel got his stellar national reputation on the cello. He was a member of the acclaimed Borealis String Quartet, was the principal cellist for the Vancouver Island Symphony Orchestra for years, and now he is both the master cello teacher for the Langley Community Music School and also the conductor of the Surrey Youth Orchestra.
No matter where these two celebrated international musicians travel, they let their P.G. show. As unofficial ambassadors of this city’s music industry, they are coming back as conquering heroes to the Prince George stage on Saturday night with the Prince George Symphony Orchestra.
Karl will be the featured soloist performing one of the great works of classical music, Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35.
Joel will be assuming the baton as the guest conductor for the entire PGSO concert entitled Canadian Contemplation & Russian Drama.
The other pieces being performed include Tse’s Three Musings by Roydon Tse, Shostakovich’s Festive Overture, and Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances.
“I have not conducted him as a soloist. This will be a first in that way,” said Joel.
The two have worked together in Prince George in the past, but not for many years. The most recent was also with their late mother Linda Stobbe as all three played Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in 2007. This weekend’s concert is dedicated to her memory.
Joel said the pieces on the program were challenging and he has incorporated some of it into his other work as part of his preparation.
“I had a few ways to help myself get ready. I’d already conducted some of the pieces and I told the youth orchestra they would do the Shostakovich, so that helped me get ready as well.”
He also researched the history of the composers and the times in which these pieces were composed “because the development of the piece colours your thoughts and ideas about it.”
Karl has played the Tchaikovsky more than once in the past, but it is such a physically demanding piece that it was almost a complete relearning of it, not just a brush-up to get ready.
“It’s virtuostic, it’s lush, it’s rich, it’s a violinist’s piece and it is an audience favourite for sure,” Karl said.
It was a flop with audiences and critics when it debuted in 1878, but over time it has become one of the most beloved and coveted pieces in the violin industry. Karl mused that it may have been too difficult for the players of the day, or too aggressive for the styles those audiences were used to, but as violinists improved their skills and fans tuned their tastes over more than a century, the strengths of this music shone through.
To be honest, the two of them could have been offered Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and they’d be just as happy. Being back in their hometown is not a trip down memory lane, it’s more like a memory freeway.
“Oh, its great to be back home, wonderful to be back,” said Joel. “We had a great night last night visiting with family and friends at a reception at the MacRitchie’s house (Don, Elizabeth and the MacRitchie family were longtime Stobbe friends and deep supporters of the PGSO). Karl played some Bach and it was a roomful of people who had, in large part, supported us our whole lives and continue to support the PGSO now. Some of them, like Dr. (David) Dahlstrom, play in the PGSO and he really was instrumental in my cello career, so it was great to be with everyone again.”
“Every couple of blocks you remember something you did, or someone you knew,” said Karl. “It was very special to see everyone at the MacRitchie’s house, and be back in the forest, enamoured by the river and the trees and the melting snow. It’s good for the soul, for sure. It feels right and wonderful. A lot of things here haven’t changed, but you can still see how it’s a growing city and things here seem to be going very well.”
Both Stobbe boys lit up when, as they departed the airport, they passed a house they knew.
“Wasn’t that where you got that old Mustang?” Karl said. “Yeah, I traded a canoe for it,” Joel remembered.
Joel was 12 years old at the time, but he already had a strong affinity for old cars. He still has that 1965 Mustang. “It’s my daily driver,” but he laughed that the previous owner “got the better deal with the canoe.” With time and perseverance he restored it, and now it has two mechanical siblings, a 1950 Mercury pickup and a ‘59 Jaguar Mark 9.
Symphony orchestras have undergone their own renovations and restorations over the years. It’s a remarkable feat that ensembles that large, playing music so outside of the Top 40, can still stand tall on stages, even in places like Prince George far away from mass populations.
“Orchestras everywhere in Canada have to be very careful about funding and they are constantly struggling to stay above water, but that doesn’t mean that they are financially nonviable. It just means they have to work hard and work smart,” said Karl. “Some of that is dependent on the orchestra’s leadership, some of it has to do with the local economy, but some of these organizations are decades old and some over 100. The fact they’ve made it this long is proof of their importance to their communities. They provide entertainment, for sure, but they are also the source of a lot of their community’s music education and cultural health, how a community sees itself, and how it is regarded in other parts of Canada. When you look at the PGSO specifically, there are a lot of musicians on the national stage and even around the world who got their start here, or played with the PGSO as a core member or a guest soloist, and they radiate that fact about Prince George wherever they go. The PGSO plays a big role all across the city, even if it’s indirect. More professional musicians have come from Prince George than professional hockey players, and the same can be said for actors and for visual artists, and those hockey players happen to be valuable as well. It just goes to show that Prince George is a very healthy, progressive, well-rounded community.”
Showtime is 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets can be purchased online at the PGSO website, the Central Interior Tickets website, or at the door.