WSO give online audience a treat with first livestream performance

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This article was published 31/10/2020 (2145 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On the night before All Hallows’ Eve, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra offered its own bag of tricks and treats as it launched its (B)eyond Classics series with Halloween with the WSO! on Friday, Oct. 30th.

The one-night-only concert led by WSO Associate Conductor Julian Pellicano ostensibly marked a historic moment in time with the now 73-year old organization performing the 75-minute program (sans intermission) exclusively for a livestream audience through the wizardry of modern day digital technology — a Halloween trick unlike none other.

The WSO aborted all in-person ticket sales mere hours before the 7:30 pm curtain time following Friday’s anticipated albeit still chilling announcement that the city will be moving to a “code red” status today due to frightfully rising Covid-19 case numbers.

All players (except brass/wind players) were kitted out in face masks, physically distanced onstage with a cavernous house of empty seats creating an eerie backdrop for Pellicano when filmed from upstage (and what a rare treat to see his facial expressions, albeit masked from the front angle, as well as up-close-and-personal shots of musicians paradoxically creating greater intimacy during their performance).

A total of 215 viewers (which will increase until today when the paid hyperlink is removed from the internet) tuned in from across Canada and France, among others, including WSO Music Director Daniel Raiskin viewing during the witching hour back home in Amsterdam. Once again, Claudia Garcia de la Huerta served as gracious host, offering tidbits and lore about each of the night’s four offerings.

The WSO is showcasing its own throughout the season of Covid-19, and this time Principal Trombone Steven Dyer had his moment to shine, treating listeners to Nina Rota’s Trombone Concerto.

The late Italian composer is renowned for such iconic film scores as The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, with his catalogue of concert works, including 10 operas and five ballets arguably lesser known.

Dyer who first joined the WSO as second trombonist in 2001 and was promoted to principal player in 2011 showed us what a charmer the three-movement piece really is, as well as how his instrument as an orchestral backbencher, typically relegated to harmonic underpinnings — as necessary as those are — can sing with a mellow soul and lyrical heart.

He immediately executed acrobatic wide leaps and rapid-fire shifts during his more playful interpretation of opening movement Allegro giusto, accompanied by plucked strings. Greater punch with the piece’s syncopated accents (and this writer freely admits the vagaries of listening through home speakers, despite all best attempts at sonic fidelity) would have been welcomed to inject even more personality into his otherwise solid performance.

The slower-paced Lento, Ben Ritmo that becomes a thoughtful dialogue with individual instruments showed off the trombonist’s gorgeous lyrical phrasing, as he scaled the heights with a well controlled, focused tone while building in intensity before plummeting back into the depths. Finally, Allegro moderato including tricky double-tonguing effects tossed off with the acuity of a serpent’s tongue further displayed his virtuosic chops, with this early Halloween treat poignantly earning enthusiastic applause by his supportive colleagues in lieu of a live audience.

Another highlight proved to be the WSO premiere of Roydon Tse’s imaginative Jest, composed in 2011 and inspired by his long defunct flip-phone’s chirpy, four-pitch ringtone that forms the basis for its thematic material, while riffing on the idea of musical “gesture” throughout the estimated six minute piece.

The Hong Kong-born composer and a rising Canadian star, whose talent earned the CMC Prairies’ Emerging Composers Competition awarded during the 2014 Winnipeg New Music Festival clearly knows how to write a light hearted bon-bon brimming with youthful vitality, underscored by his knack for creating tightly crafted, textural effects given further life by Pellicano’s setting a brisk, bright tempo.

The concert that opened with Weber’s spooky overture to Der Freischütz, including a chorus of noble horns bookended with Bizet’s Symphony No. 1, written at the tender age of 17 and notably never performed during his lifetime.

A special bravo goes to Principal Oboe Beverly Wang for her hypnotic, sinuously winding solo that fuels the Adagio, rendered with poise and precision that plays foil to the crisply performed Allegro. The energy nonetheless lagged in several places during the Menuetto (Scherzo), with Pellicano picking up the pace to end the night on a high-spirited note with rollicking finale, Allegro vivace.

Naturally there were no standing ovations at the end, however the masked musicians and maestro – ever consummate professionals — gave dignified bows to a silent, empty house. This powerfully moving sight offered a final Halloween trick for the senses, while underscoring the resilience of artists unafraid to stare down all that which sends up a chill up the spine.

Holly.harris@shaw.ca