Short season filled with events to tantalize
Leadership changes coming for Vancouver Symphony, Chamber Choir
Our autumn performance season is actually the shortest where classical music is concerned: just a week or two of September, plus October and November, before the onslaught of holiday music.
Fortunately, our major players start as they mean to go on, with events designed to tantalize. The big news for 2017-18 is restructuring. At the Vancouver Symphony this is Bramwell Tovey’s last year as music director. The implications are enormous, however smooth the transition may prove. The best news is two fall Tovey spectaculars: the season-opener, Time Tracks, with the Australian String Quartet (Sept. 22-23, Orpheum Theatre), features music by Tovey and John Adams. Just as special is a Nov. 4-6 Orpheum performance of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, a work many consider the English master’s finest achievement. vancouversymphony.ca 604-8763434 Our other classical home team, Vancouver Opera, is retooling its “festival” concept to something that looks a good deal like the old tried and true season. It launches with a blockbuster: Puccini’s Turandot, offered in four performances Oct. 13-21, in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Everybody loves Puccini, and “Nessun dorma” has become a virtual pop anthem. But there’s a dark side to this tale of love and cruelty in ancient China, and it’s always interesting to see what contemporary directors can make of — or paper over — in the often unpleasant saga. vancouveropera.ca 604-683-0222 Since the Vancouver Chamber Choir’s founder Jon Washburn has announced plans to step down, the vocal ensemble is another yet major player in transition as it searches for a new artistic director. This fall it’s mostly business as usual, with Washburn launching the season with a performance of Canadian favourites, Sept. 22. vancouverchamberchoir.com 604738-6822 So, lots of change underway. Then there is an astonishing one-off this fall, the annual gathering of the International Society for Contemporary Music, right here on the West Coast. David Pay’s visionary Music on Main has brokered the deal along with the Canadian League of Composers. Vancouver should be abuzz with visiting composers and performers (including the National Arts Centre Orchestra), and more new music than any human can possibly assimilate. Nov. 2-8, various locations.
MAINSTREAM
The Vancouver Recital Society’s formula of lots of new talent, plus a handful of international superstars, plays out this fall with a particularly strong run of pianists in October. Zhang Zuo and George Li play, Oct. 15, 3 p.m. (Vancouver Playhouse) and 22, 3 p.m. (Chan Centre), respectively. And after winning the prestigious Van Cliburn competition, Yekwon Sunwoo returns to Vancouver Oct. 1, 3 p.m., to play a remarkably interesting recital at the Chan, including the keyboard version of Ravel’s La valse and the marvellously titled Ramble on the last Love-duet from Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier by that inimitable Aussie, Percy Grainger. Tickets from $25. vanrecital.com 604-602-0363
INDIE
Hard to consider an organization celebrating its 70th anniversary as an indie group, but if you think about it, Vancouver’s Friends of Chamber Music wrote the book on what an indie classical presenter can do. Founded by a bunch of idealistic visionaries right after the Second World War, Friends doesn’t do conventional subsidies and grantsmanship, expensive advertising or even reserved seats, preferring to call its own shots in the service of bringing the world’s very best chamber ensembles here. The fall season offers three favourite string quartets at the Vancouver Playhouse: the Borodin (Oct. 17, 8 p.m.) the Pavel Hass (Oct. 22, 3 p.m.), and the Takács (Dec. 12, 8 p.m.), with the CMS String Trio added in for extra value (Nov. 7, 8 p.m.).
Tickets $50 ($15 for students). friendsofchambermusic.ca 778300-1895.
WILD CARD
Early Music Vancouver’s season launch features the return of soprano Amanda Forsythe, teamed with one of Vancouver’s favourite tenors, Colin Balzer, in Baroque Duets of Love and Passion, Christ Church Cathedral, Sept. 29, 7:30 p.m. But for fans of early opera, there’s a red-letter date on Oct. 29, 3 p.m., at the Chan Centre, a performance of the work that pretty much defined opera at the turn of the 17th century: Monteverdi’s Orfeo. Listeners who recall EMV’s stellar performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers will be wellfamiliar with the treats in store. Tickets from $18. earlymusic.bc.ca 604-732-1610.