A season of symphonies

Fall might be the furthest thing from our minds right now, but it will usher in a new Winnipeg concert season with much to look forward to.

Luminary guest artists such as French cellist Edgar Moreau, Montreal pianist Janina Fialkowska and internationally renowned local soprano Andriana Chuchman are some of the highlights from the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s recently announced 2026-27 season, with an emphasis on symphonic masterworks.

“The symphonic part of the season is really the backbone and bread and butter of what every great symphony orchestra needs to do from time to time,” says WSO music director Daniel Raiskin.

“This season is very much the orchestra’s voice.”

It starts with perhaps the two great fifth symphonies — Beethoven’s and Tchaikovsky’s — and certainly two of the greatest “fate” symphonies.

Few classical themes are as baked into popular consciousness as Beethoven Five’s “da-da-da-dum” opening — “thus Fate knocks at the door!” as Beethoven’s secretary described it — which earns the piece the “Fate Symphony” nickname.

Tchaikovsky’s fifth symphony boasts fewer earworm melodies than, say, his ballets Swan Lake and Nutcracker, but this is also by design: the piece centres largely on one theme, whose recurring quality reinforces, in the composer’s words, “total submission before fate.”

The remaining concerts in the Saturday and Sunday Masterworks series are all concertos, each giving centre stage to a soloist. These include not only Fialkowska and Moreau — starring in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 and Dvorák’s Cello Concerto, respectively — but also Russian pianist Anna Geniushene performing Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 and violinist Karl Stobbe playing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto.

Stobbe, who is finishing up his first year as the WSO’s concertmaster, nabbed the first fiddle spot after a blind audition where Raiskin says he delivered an “absolutely tremendous” performance of just that concerto.

“And the moment it came out that it was Karl who got a contract, I said, ‘Well, now we have to play this Beethoven in front of people,’’’ he says.

Fialkowska is the other Canadian guest artist featured in this series. Her remarkable career as one of the world’s leading Chopin interpreters was nearly cut short in the early 2000s after a cancerous tumour in her arm threatened her ability to play.

Now, many decades later, she shows no sign of slowing down, even if she’s chosen one of Mozart’s less flashy, more pensive works for her WSO appearance.

“She’s one of the foremost Canadian pianists, celebrating her 75th anniversary next year,” says Raiskin. “She’s also one of the people who gave so much to Canadian piano and education, really bringing (up) the whole generation of talented young piano virtuosi who are winning competition after competition around the world.”

The WSO’s exploration of the symphonic canon veers toward slightly more exotic territory in its casual Thursday series, Symphonic Sessions, which features such works as Stravinsky’s Petrushka, Britten’s Four Sea Interludes and Glière’s Horn Concerto.

The remaining series in the WSO’s 2026-27 season are devoted largely to pop-friendly fare — orchestral renditions of music by Pink Floyd, Billy Joel and Elton John, and screenings of Hollywood movies, including Skyfall and Barbie, alongside live orchestra and more experimental one-offs. One of these is Symphonic Speedrun, a riff on a delightfully bizarre video game trend.

Most video games aren’t races, but speedrunners approach them like they are — applying an obsession for performance-optimization that rivals sports scientists. Players compete to complete a James Bond level in under 20 seconds, or the entire Super Mario Bros. in a matter of minutes.

A newly discovered glitch, button-pressing technique or route can shave off tenths of a second — lighting up the nichest corners of the Internet with news of a fresh world record.

Symphonic Speedrun lets audiences watch these surprisingly dramatic races in real time, with the orchestra playing the iconic scores of the associated video games.

While many of the most famous game-score composers have come from jazz, electronic and pop backgrounds, it’s the orchestral composers who most resonate for Raiskin.

“The line between the serious symphonic music (and) video gaming music — it’s very thin. The great gaming music … it is still really well written by people who have a serious symphonic classical music education,” he says.

Among other recent significant WSO news is Angela Birdsell’s decision to extend her contract as executive director for another two years. The distinguished arts administrator announced her plan last August to retire from the WSO at the end of the orchestra’s current season, going out on a high note after the WSO posted a comfortable operating surplus for 2024/25.

And then a change of heart. Effective April 1, Birdsell now holds the expanded role of chief executive officer for both the WSO and Pantages Playhouse Theatre, as the WSO moves forward with renovating the former vaudeville theatre next door into a modern 1,080-seat performing arts facility.

“We are now poised and ready to move confidently into the next phase of creating beautiful experiences in the performing arts for all to enjoy, including in Pantages,” Birdsell said in a press release earlier this month.

“I’m excited and proud to continue this work with the PAC and alongside the amazing team at the WSO.”

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