Symphony series aims to intrigue, delight audiences
VSO’s composer-in-residence gets creative with trio of one-off concerts
Ever longed to hear a concerto for contrabassoon? Or for piano and classical Chinese erhu? Is a sample of an opera-in-progress more your thing?
All are on tap in the latest Vancouver Sun Symphony at the Annex series of three concerts, beginning this weekend.
The calendar insists it is not yet spring, but the Annex concerts are one of the expected musical blossoms of the season. Plum(b), described as “music that explores depths of pitch and hue,” is first up, showcasing the premiere of Jeffrey Ryan’s concerto of the same name featuring contrabassoonist Sophie Dansereau.
The VSO project began in 2004 as Symphony at the Roundhouse, an initiative that took players from the red plush of the Orpheum to the post-industrial False Creek Community Centre. After a new performance space was constructed adjacent to the VSO’s home base in 2012, the series moved to the Annex.
Curator-in-chief these days is the VSO’s composer-in-residence, Jocelyn Morlock. As the VSO audience knows well, Juno-nominated Morlock is a provocative and exciting composer; but programming music by others is something she’s learned “on the job.”
“I am always looking for music, but the whole program tends to come together the last couple of weeks or so before it must be finalized, before we send our brochures to print,” Morlock said. “Before then I’m still looking around for interesting pieces that I haven’t heard before that fit the general theme, or go with the anchor work(s) which get programmed earlier on.”
Does she have carte blanche to do whatever she wants, or are there other considerations?
“I do almost all the programming, with, of course, input from maestro Bramwell Tovey. My biggest ‘other consideration’ is how much rehearsal time we have, and what is reasonable to do in that time. Sometimes I push that a little, but I try to be reasonable.”
Balance is always an issue. This year there are good chances to hear from Vancouver’s bewilderingly
diverse community of composers including Ryan and Morlock herself (Feb. 17), not to mention scenes from Bramwell Tovey ’s latest opera (May 13); from Canadian composers like Emily Doolittle and Kati Agocs (May 13); and to sample works by international blue-chip composers such as Helen Grime and H.K. Gruber (April 14).
Then there’s the question of audience appeal; how does Morlock assemble a musical menu both nutritious and delectable?
“I have something of a musical sweet tooth, which leads me a bit away from the most dryly cerebral of music. (I’m looking at you, Milton Babbitt — although I’d have to nix you for lack of rehearsal time, regardless.) But I do love fun music, and beautiful melodies.”
The Morlock sweet tooth shows: both the VSO New Music Festivals and Annex concerts have had particularly broad appeal in recent years, and audiences have noticed. And what could be more designed to intrigue and delight than a concert like Crepuscular, Luminous, which promises to be about “cool, nocturnal and glistening sound,” or the last of the series, A Short, Slow Life, which focuses on music of “devotion, and the fragility of time?”
Finally, how does Morlock convince already hardworking musicians to learn new, often difficult, works that then get just a single performance?
“As I said earlier, I do try to be reasonable, even if I do push just a bit,” Morlock said.
“Musicians are brilliant, curious people, who are up for a good challenge. I think as long as the music is written with some regard to what is idiomatic and playable and meaningful, they are into it.”