Sneak peek at HPO’s new season
the unveiling of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2018-19 mainstage season, four key features come to the fore.
“To me, it’s about love and passion and drama and exotic escapism,” said music director Gemma New, who, along with HPO executive director Diana Weir, sat down with The Spectator at The Hamilton Club for a sneak peek at the new season.
“I was looking at this as being, I’ve had some time with the orchestra and now we can venture out to perhaps deeper and more mature works in some ways,” said New.
The season was assembled by New with input from the HPO’s artistic advisory committee which includes a number of HPO musicians and staff.
“I treat each one of these as precious jewels,” said New of the HPO’s nine mainstage concerts which will take place on Saturday evenings in FirstOntario Concert Hall. “They’re very thoughtfully, carefully and lovingly created. Each one of them is a special evening.”
The season opens in a big way on Sept. 15 with passion, drama, and celebration courtesy of Beethoven’s “Leonore Overture no. 3,” Elgar’s “Cello Concerto” featuring the return of soloist Cameron Crozman, plus New’s favourite symphony, Brahms’s “Symphony no. 1.”
Oct. 20 sees the return of Canadian pianist André Laplante in Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto no. 4” under guest conductor, Capde-la-Madeleine native, Jacques Lacombe, former music director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra when New was associate conductor there. Gluck’s “Dance of the Furies,” Jacques Hétu’s “Antinomie,” and Mozart’s “Symphony no. 41” nicknamed Jupiter round out the bill.
To mark the centenary of the Great War, New and the HPO will be turning to the music of Tin Pan Alley and early Broadway with selections by Scott Joplin, Irving Berlin and George Gershwin. Musical guests are Michigan-born, Big Apple-based vocalist Doug LaBrecque, as well as the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry Band and the Bach Elgar
Choir.
The HPO’s Dec. 15 Home for the Holidays concert will bring back celebrated Canadian author Roch Carrier to narrate his iconic “The Hockey Sweater” as New conducts music by the HPO’s composer-in-residence, Abby Richardson-Schulte. Expect plenty of seasonal tunes, holiday favourites, a singalong, and the Hamilton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra to boot.
In the new year, the HPO’s composer festival will spotlight Johann Sebastian Bach. Tafelmusik Chamber Choir director Ivars Taurins returns on Jan. 19 to lead the HPO in Bach’s “Orchestral Suite no. 3” among other works. Featured soloists are HPO concertmaster Stephen Sitarski and his deskmate, associate conWith
certmaster Lance Ouellette.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, love is all you need. Polish up your Beatle boots, dust off that Nehru jacket and celebrate Valentines like a mop top as Hamilton’s Darcy Hepner returns to curate another show devoted to the music of the Fabs as performed by the HPO and a corps of local talent on Feb. 16.
March 16 will hear New and her crew in two of Claude Debussy’s masterpieces, “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” and “Nocturnes,” the latter with the McMaster University Women’s Choir, plus Gustav Holst’s sonic blockbuster, “The Planets.”
Canadian conductor Nathan Brock makes his HPO debut on April 27 with Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville Overture,” Prokofiev’s “Violin Concerto no. 2” with the aforementioned Mr. Sitarski, Ravel’s “Le tombeau de Couperin,” and Stravinsky’s “Jeu de cartes,” the latter with dancers from the Hamilton Academy of Performing Arts.
On May 11, New closes the season as it opened, in a big way and with gravitas, leading the HPO in Mahler’s “Symphony no. 5” and “Orion” by one of her favourite Canadian composers, Claude Vivier.
Subscriptions come in three-, five-, seven- or nine-concert packages with small discounts given to purchases prior to June
30. According to the HPO office, for the first time in three years there is a slight increase in ticket prices. Subscription prices for adults and seniors will be available online at www.hpo.org on Tuesday, April 10. Single tickets will be available online from July
1. There is no increase in single ticket prices for young patrons and children. The HPO box office can be reached at 905-526-7756.
Outside of its mainstage series, the HPO will continue its family concert series, its Gallery series of chamber music, its Literary series, and will recalibrate its Intimate & Immersive series which New says “is going to have a contemporary feel to it.”