Making a good impression(ist)

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This article was published 02/03/2016 (3500 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra is mixing celebrity with community for its 2016-17 season.

The celebrity side includes American violinist Joshua Bell, Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt, and award-winning singers Sheena Easton, Jann Arden, Denzal Sinclaire and Fred Penner.

The season also includes collaborations with a host of Manitoba-based artistic groups, including a three-night production of South Pacific with Rainbow Stage to be held at the Centennial Concert Hall, and a fall music festival inspired by an upcoming Winnipeg Art Gallery exhibit of Marc Chagall’s works.

The Classics season begins with a bang on Sept. 20 when Bell brings his 303-year-old Gibson Ex Huberman Stradivarius violin to the Centennial Concert Hall for an evening of works by Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Dukas.

“The opening night is like a gala night,” Mickelthwate says. “We really start with international, top of the line…

“I’m excited because he’s famous, but also because he’s a great musician. It’s nice to play with someone who has a really clear vision and understanding of music. It pops out with those artists and it’s inspiring for everybody.”

Besides Bell’s recordings, which include seven albums that have reached No. 1 on the Billboard classical chart, the violinist has performed in several films, including on soundtracks for The Red Violin and Angels and Demons.

Away from the stage, he also took part in a 2007 experiment with the Washington Post. Bell took his Stradivarius to a busy Washington, D.C., subway station and performed as a busker while a hidden camera filmed the public’s reaction to his 45-minute performance. Few people interrupted the hustle and bustle of rush hour in America’s capital to listen. Bell raised a grand total of $32.17 — $20 from the one passerby who recognized him.

The WSO has to fork out considerably more for Bell’s Sept. 20 performance. The budget for assembling the entire 2016-17 season is well over $500,000, says WSO vice-president Neil Middleton.

Some of that will go toward bringing pianist Hewitt to the Centennial Concert Hall stage March 10 and 11, 2017. She is scheduled to perform works by Spanish composer Manuel de Falla and French master Maurice Ravel. The WSO will be led that weekend by British conductor Benjamin Wallfisch.

“She has this very particular style, a very refined way of playing,” says Mickelthwate, who compared Hewitt’s playing to that of another Canadian pianist, Glenn Gould. “That kind of high-level, cerebral, but beautiful, playing.”

Mickelthwate can’t wait for Nov. 4-5, when the WSO teams up with six operatic singers for Wagner Unmasked, when the orchestra will perform a Manitoba première of the Prelude, Liebestod and the complete second act from the opera Tristan und Isolde.

“Personally, honest to God, I think it’s the most beautiful music ever written,” Mickelthwate says. “Since I’ve been here, this is one every year I’m trying to do, and this year we’re finally doing it. It’s a very personal connection.

“To bring this to a place that has not had an opportunity to hear it makes it even better.”

The WSO also makes a road trip, of sorts, to the Westminster United Church Sept. 30-Oct. 1, as up-and-coming organist Sarah Svendsen performs with the church’s newly expanded Casavant organ.

The celebrity appearances continue during the orchestra’s pops program. On the weekend after Bell’s concert, James Bond fans will be shaken, and perhaps stirred, as singer Sheena Easton, who sang the Oscar-nominated song For Your Eyes Only in the 1982 James Bond film, is the star for The Spy Who Loved Me, an evening of Bond songs (Sept. 23-25).

The weekend of Dec. 9-11 will test the orchestra’s versatility. The first two nights has the WSO performing A Jann Arden Christmas, two evenings of Christmas carols and holiday favourites with the Edmonton pop star. The final day has the orchestra onstage twice more, but instead of carols, it they will accompany the Steven Spielberg film E.T. — the Extra-Terrestrial for a Sunday matinée and an evening showing.

“It’ll be a huge stretch, yes,” Mickelthwate admits. “But the audiences are very different and we were so successful for Home Alone. We had people in there who had never come (to the symphony before), so we wanted to continue that.”

The collaborations begin with Music of the Impressionists (Oct. 14-22). The fall festival is inspired by two upcoming exhibits of Marc Chagall’s works at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, which open May 28.

“We love to collaborate with the city to make it even bigger,” Mickelthwate said of the fall fest. “They have this amazing exhibit of Chagall, with little vignettes, and then a couple of months later, we’re taking that a step further. Three main orchestra concerts that delve into the impressionists… That will be a great way for two great organizations collaborate into one main beautiful theme.”

Other community collaborations include a weekend performance of Handel’s Messiah with the Mennonite Festival Chorus (Dec. 2-3) and Once Upon a Dance, on Feb. 17-19, 2017, with five city dance groups.

A smaller version of the WSO has performed at Rainbow Stage’s auditorium at Kildonan Park, but never has the musical theatre company brought a production to the Centennial Concert Hall to perform with the full orchestra.

Even on Broadway, musicals rarely perform with a full symphonic ensemble, Mickelthwate says.

“You’re going to hear the musical exactly as Rodgers and Hammerstein wanted you to,” says Middleton.

The final collaboration has the orchestra performing the Second City Guide to the Symphony (March 17-19, 2017), a concert with members of Toronto’s Second City comedy troupe and hosted by Winnipeg Comedy Festival founder Lara Rae.

alan.small@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter:@AlanDSmall