LancasterChorale
www.lancaster chorale.com
The chorale will perform “Symphony of Voices: Choral Landscapes and Transcriptions,” a program featuring Robert Schumann’s “Four Songs for Double Chorus” and a selection of American tunes.
8 p.m. Saturday, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2151 Dorset Road; 4 p.m. Sunday, St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, 105 E. Mulberry St., Lancaster
$25, or $20 for senior citizens, at the door; $20 and $15 online
When conductor Peter Stafford Wilson works with a guest artist for the first time, he hopes for the best.
“My mantra is you do everything you can to accommodate the artist,” Wilson said, “and then, on Monday morning, you decide whether or not to ever engage them again.”
In 2016, in his role as associate conductor of the Columbus Symphony, Wilson led a performance of Camille Saint-Saens’ “Piano Concerto No. 5,” featuring French pianist Pascal Roge. Although the two had never before teamed up, they felt an instant rapport.
“We really did have a great time from when we first sat down to go through the piece before the first rehearsal,” Wilson said.
Roge, who in 1988 received a Gramophone Award for a recording of works by Francis Poulenc, said that rarely does he form a connection with a conductor so quickly.
“It was a very friendly encounter,” Roge said.
On Saturday, the conductor and pianist will reunite for a concert with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra. Wilson will conduct a program of French music, including Francis Poulenc’s “Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra,” featuring Roge and his wife,
fellow pianist Ami Roge. Works by Claude Debussy and Olivier Messiaen will also be performed.
Plans for the concert were hatched two years ago, when Roge was in town to perform with the Columbus Symphony. Roge and his wife were taken by Wilson and his wife, Barbara, to a post-performance dinner at a Short North restaurant.
“We were like old friends even though we had just met at that time,” said Ami Roge, who lives in Switzerland with her husband. “I’m a real cat person, and Barbara ... is also a real cat lover. We were on our iPhones. We were showing off our pet cats.”
Meanwhile, Wilson and Pascal Roge resolved to work together again.
“We both at the same time said ‘Poulenc,’” Wilson said. “He, of course, plays everything brilliantly, but his real signature is the French style and sound.”
Pascal Roge, who suggested programming a piece that would also feature his wife, booked the engagement without involving his management.
“It’s great when it happens this way rather than because of the managers pushing,” Pascal Roge said.
Wilson said that the pianist’s appearance for a drastically reduced fee represents “an amazing gift” for the orchestra.
“With an orchestra the size of Springfield, ... literally, his fee alone could eat up my entire annual budget,” Wilson said, “which shows