Former WSO director Andrey Boreyko welcomed like a long-lost hero

One thing became abundantly clear during the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra latest (A)bsolute Classics concert offered Saturday night: its decades-long love affair with former music director Andrey Boreyko has never wavered nor waned over the years, with the celebrated maestro welcomed like a long lost hero to its podium to lead the aptly titled “Boreyko, Tchaikovsky and Falla.”

The Polish-Russian conductor helmed the WSO between 2002-06 and is now in his third season serving as Music and Artistic Director for the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also currently wrapping his eight-year tenure with the Naples Philharmonic, in addition to ongoing guest appearances with high-profile orchestras around the globe. Many WSO musicians still speak in hushed tones of those glory days under Boreyko’s baton, with several now-retired players spotted among the audience of 1,343 making the weekend concert often feel a grand reunion.

Mykola Lysenko’s “Overture to Taras Bulba,” written for his four-act opera based on the same-titled novel by Nikolai Gogol, is the latest instalment in the WSO’s ongoing journey of highlighting works by Ukrainian composers. Last performed here in 1996 under the late Bramwell Tovey, it also provided the first taste of Boreyko’s highly expressive — and often mercurial — conducting style, as he brought the shorter, Slavic flavoured work to life with poetry and imagination.

Why we haven’t heard Manuel de Falla’s “Fuego Fatuo” more often — if at all — is one of life’s imponderables, with the WSO premiere of the utterly charming, nine-movement confection originally intended as an (unfinished) opera in homage to Chopin’s lushly romantic piano works bringing both a smile to the lips and a tear to the eye.

While there will always be purists who rail at transcriptions – and in this case, Falla takes it a leap further, essentially mish-mashing various Chopin waltzes, ballades, nocturnes and the like together into one big lyrical melting pot — this performance became a revelation of how seamlessly the “poet of the piano’s” music translates to orchestral timbres with individual players highlighted throughout, including fine solos by Principal Clarinet Micah Heilbrunn and Principal Oboist Beverly Wang. Albeit at times feeling too much of a good thing, clocking in at around 35 minutes, it is still hoped this ear-pleaser will be performed here again — and soon.

The evening rounded out with Tchaikovsky’s “Suite No. 3 in G major, Op. 55,” another arguably lesser-known gem not performed locally since 1989 under Kazuhiro Koizumi, comprised of four darkly hewn movements brimming with “Russian soul.”

Boreyko set a thoughtful tempo for the opening “Elegy,” coaxing sweetness from the strings that leads to the subsequent “Melancholic Waltz.” This latter section is not one to be danced, but reflected on, with the orchestra responding to the maestro’s every sensitive gesture — at times simply laying down his baton to lead with only his hands — who sculpted sound like an artisan.

The following “Scherzo,” brought greater dynamic force, at its heart an ebullient tarantella but riddled with militaristic overtones, with crisp percussion and bold brass infusing the movement with rhythmic drive.

Last but not least, the extensive “Theme and Variations” finale also incorporated in fabled American choreographer George Balanchine’s same-titled ballet in 1947 became an even larger showcase for this now 75-year old orchestra.

Kudos to concertmaster Gwen Hoebig for her richly coloured, dramatic solo that caps the ninth of a total 12 variations, as well as Principal English Horn Robin MacMillan for her own plaintive solo in the eighth. A nod also to the winds for their unusual chorale — and the suite’s sweet spot with the other sections tacit — heard during the seventh variation as the work drives forward to its exuberant close.

As expected, the crowd leapt to its feet at the end with loud cheers and prolonged applause at the end, demanding three curtain calls from Boreyko who held his hand to his heart with genuine appreciation. Not to be outdone, the musicians similarly clapped and stamped their feet in approval, proving that while the much-missed maestro may be long gone from this stage, he will not soon be forgotten.

Holly.harris@shaw.ca

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