Symphony to mark major milestone this weekend
Orchestra marks 70th season with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9
The Windsor Symphony Orchestra has a reason to shout for joy.
The region’s premier orchestra is celebrating three things this weekend: Canada’s 150th anniversary of Confederation, Windsor’s 125th year as a city, and the WSO’s 70th performance season.
“This orchestra is really a testimony to what can be accomplished here in Windsor,” said WSO musical director and conductor Robert Franz. “For me, this is an extraordinary community.”
To mark the occasion, Franz will lead the WSO and chorus in a Saturday night concert featuring Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 — the fourth movement of which includes the famous Ode to Joy passage.
“The idea behind the text is that all men (and women) are created equal and are brothers,” Franz said. “To me, that’s a quintessentially Canadian mantra.”
Concertgoers will hear and feel the Capitol Theatre resound with the voices of a 150-singer ensemble — 146 chorus members and four soloists.
“(Symphony No. 9) is really the benchmark by which all other composers compare their symphonic writing,” Franz explained. “It’s the musical archetype of darkness into light. It starts in a murky place in the first movement, and over the course of an hour — it transcends anything we can imagine on Earth.”
The concert will also feature Johannes Brahms’s Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn — with a special local twist.
Between variations, actors will recite excerpts from a new collection of works by Windsor’s poet laureate Marty Gervais and other area poets. The verses were inspired by the history of the city of Windsor and the various neighbourhoods and townships that became a part of it.
“Each variation has a different feel to it, and each poem has a different feel to it,” Franz said.
The WSO began as a community orchestra in the early 1940s. The group held its first performance as a professional organization in 1947.
Sheila Wisdom, the WSO’s executive director, agreed with Franz that the WSO’s history is a testament to the community.
“We have had 70 uninterrupted seasons of live performance of music. That is quite an accomplishment,” Wisdom said.
“If you think about the economic ups and downs that this community always goes through — somehow, through it all, we’ve managed to continue to support the WSO.”
A registered charity, WSO currently depends on government grants and support for a third of its budget, ticket sale revenue for another third, and private sponsorships and fundraising for the remainder.
The Windsor Symphony Orchestra’s Ode to Canada takes place Saturday at the Capitol Theatre (121 University Ave. West). There will be a pre-concert talk at 7 p.m. and the performance begins 8 p.m. Limited tickets were available at press time, starting at $42. Visit www. windsorsymphony.com for more information and to purchase tickets online. Call the WSO Box Office at 519-973-1238.