Sooke Philharmonic goes out with a bang
What: Sooke Philharmonic Orchestra with Norman Nelson (conductor) and Brian Yoon (cello) When: Tonight and Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Where: Sooke Community Hall, 2037 Shields Rd. (Friday) and Farquhar Auditorium, University of Victoria (Saturday) Tickets: Friday, $20 adult or $15 student/senior, free for youth 16 and under at eventbrite.ca Saturday, $25 adult or $20 student/senior, free for youth 16 and under at tickets.uvic.ca or 250-721-8480 Information: sookephil.ca
Time is of the essence when putting together back-to-back performances for a community orchestra. The biggest downside is that there’s never enough.
“The concerts are always at least two weeks too soon,” music director and conductor Norman Nelson said of the upcoming Sooke Philharmonic Orchestra concerts. “There’s always more to be wrinkled out.”
In any event, Nelson and his charges — almost 70 musicians ranging in age from 13 to 88 — are well-prepared for the weekend, which includes a performance tonight at the Sooke Community Hall and another on Saturday at the University of Victoria’s Farquhar Auditorium.
Not including Philharmonic Fling!, the orchestra’s July 12 pops concert, the offerings mark the final large-scale concerts of the orchestra’s four-program, eight-concert season. As such, the selections on tap tonight and Saturday are designed to see the orchestra go out with a bang, Nelson said.
Dvorák’s Cello Concerto from 1895, with featured soloist Brian Yoon — principal cello for the Victoria Symphony — is the showcase piece of the evening because of its immense popularity.
The Sooke Philharmonic tackles difficult pieces over its season, including two legendary Beethoven compositions, Piano Concerto No. 5 and Eroica. Dvorák’s Cello Concerto is similar in that regard, on account of its status as one of the great concertos of its time. “It is very popular among cello works,” Nelson said. “Everybody loves the tune, it’s wonderful. It is something you could go home singing.”
The Sooke Philharmonic Orchestra will also perform, at both concerts, Brahms’ Symphony No. 3 , another “very tuneful and very accessible” composition, Nelson said. The Prelude to Act I of Wagner’s opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg will also be on the program.
Nelson, a Dublin native with an impressive resumé that includes posts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, loves the challenges he is presented with each season at the Sooke Philharmonic. In the end, he hopes the orchestra he founded in 1997 continues to please its audience.
“Our work is cut out for us, in that we have to please everybody all the time. But we love doing it and I hope everyone enjoys coming.”