Bergman springs into action with Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons’
Spring, summer, autumn or winter, Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” is always in season.
So, this Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in FirstOntario Concert Hall, the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra under guest conductor Patrick Dupré Quigley performs Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” with seasoned HPO principal second violin Bethany Bergman springing into action as soloist.
Bergman loves playing on a period instrument, but will be performing Vivaldi’s baroque era masterpiece on a modern violin, a 1975 Peresson. And here’s why.
“The HPO is a modern symphonic orchestra, whose members play on modern instruments and bows with modern set-ups. As such, the instruments will be tuned at a modern pitch (A=440 Hz), played on steel or synthetic strings, and the modern, longer bows will also pull a more pronounced and bigger sound out of the instruments. Baroque instruments generally are smaller, are tuned a semitone lower, and are played on gut strings. The bows are shorter and lighter, which is fantastic for baroque-style instruments, but not so much on a modern instrument,” she said.
“If I were to play on a baroque instrument and bow, it would only make sense if we were all playing on baroque instruments and bows. I do not feel that Vivaldi would mind the brilliance and power of our instruments, range of colour and dynamic, and higher pitch. The music is beautiful and evocative on any instrument.”
The bill also includes Stravinsky’s 1942 “Danses concertantes” and the live premiere of New ZealandCanadian composer Juliet Palmer’s “fire break.”
Commissioned by the HPO, “fire break” was to have been premiered in March 2020, but was postponed due to the pandemic. However, a virtual orchestra performance video was uploaded to the HPO’s YouTube channel last June. The work draws on sounds collected in Palmer’s field recordings while bowing old cedar stumps in a reservoir in Oregon’s Andrews Forest in 2019, a year of unprecedented worldwide forest fires.
Tickets at hpo.org: $20 to $80; online broadcast of the evening performance available to view on-demand until May 28, $23.89 (prices excluding service fee and sales tax). Masking is required for attendees. There will be no intermission and concessions will remain closed.
Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Playhouse Cinema, 177 Sherman Ave. N., Ted Harms’s VOC Silent Film Harmonic provides live musical accompaniment to the 1922 silent horror classic, Nosferatu. Tickets at eventbrite.ca: Playhouse member $16.93, non-member $20.11.
Thursday from 7 to 8:30 p.m., Friday from 7 to 8:30 p.m., and Saturday, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. and 7 to 8:30 p.m., McMaster’s LiveLab, 1280 Main St. W., presents Chisato Minamimura’s “Scored in Silence,” a sign mime performance, with Holo-Gauze projection and Woojer vibration straps for the audience, that unpacks the perspectives of deaf people who survived the atomic bombing of Japan in 1945. Tickets at livelab.mcmaster.ca: $25, student/senior/deaf/disability $10.
Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in the Burlington Performing Arts Centre, 440 Locust St., Sabatino Vacca’s southern Ontario Lyric Opera presents “Encore! Favourite Moments in Opera,” replacing Bizet’s “Carmen” which will be performed at a later date. Guest soloists soprano Karoline Podolak and baritone Alexander Hajek will take the spotlight in favourite arias and/or duos from “Il barbiere di Siviglia,” “Le nozze di Figaro,” “Don Giovanni,” “Die Fledermaus,” and “La traviata” accompanied by Vacca and the SOLO Orchestra.
The SOLO Chorus will also be heard in a few numbers including the closing piece, Vacca’s arrangement of Denza’s “Funiculì, funiculà.” Tickets at burlingtonpac.ca or by calling 905-681-6000: $55, senior $45, 18 and under $20, 12 and under $10.
Sunday at 3 p.m. in Central Presbyterian Church, 165 Charlton Ave. W., Musicata returns for its first public concert in two years with “Choral Gems,” selections by Palestrina, Bach, Beethoven, Raminsh, Penfound, and others. Musical guest: guitarist Gary Santucci. Tickets at eventbrite.com: $22.23, under 14 free. Masking encouraged.
The livestream broadcast of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra’s May 1 “Postcards from Buenos Aires” concert is available on-demand until May 15. Tickets at hpo.org: $23.89.
May 19 at 8 p.m., the Hamilton Music Collective’s Jazz at The Gasworks, 141 Park St. N., presents the Pat Collins Trio. Tickets at hamiltonmusiccollective.ca: $45, student $25.