Beverly Wang embraces hard work of ‘effortless’ sound

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This article was published 16/02/2022 (1694 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra showcases one of its own when it features principal oboist Beverly Wang during its next (B)eyond Classics concert Mozart and Beethoven on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The concert led by Daniel Raiskin replaces originally scheduled program Thrills, Chills and Romance: Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky and Alexei Volodin, postponed due to travel restrictions affecting Russian-born headliner, pianist Alexei Volodin.

Wang will perform Mozart’s Oboe Concerto in C major, hailed as one of the Wunderkind’s most popular concertos in his lifetime and notably the player’s premiere performance of the work in its entirety.

“I am very excited and looking forward to this Mozart performance with the wonderful Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra,” Wang says via an email. “I hope the audience will enjoy this phenomenal concerto as much as I do.”

Spanning a gamut of musical expression, the three-movement piece shows off the instrument’s quicksilver versatility, from impish wit to cantabile style worthy of an opera diva, rife with technical perils and knotty artistic challenges the soloist must navigate along the way.

“Even though Mozart’s works sound simple and light most of the time, they are quite difficult to perform. You have to make it sound effortless to play,” the oboist reveals, adding that the cadenzas — those flashy, solo passages near the end of the movement in which the soloist typically unleashes their full arsenal of pyrotechnics — are particular nail-biters.

“It basically covers almost the entire range of the instrument. The whole point of the cadenza is that it should sound like an improvisation on reoccurring motives that come out through the piece,” she explains. “The challenge is to have the audience be able to recognize or be familiar with those motives… but at the same time make it sound fresh, like you just came up with it in the spur of the moment.”

Born in Florida, the Taiwan-raised artist first joined the WSO in September 2013 immediately after graduating from Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music, with her last local solo performance of Czech composer Bohuslav Martin’s Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra, H. 353 heard back in June 2019. She has frequently been featured in guest appearances with an A-list of North American orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra and National Arts Centre Orchestra, as well as attending numerous festivals including Le Domaine Forget International Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Pacific Music Festival, Colorado College Summer Music Festival and Tanglewood Music Center’s Festival of Contemporary Music.

However her journey to artistic excellence nearly took a significant detour, with “fate” orchestrating a different path for her. When she was in third grade, her elementary school in Taiwan held an orientation day in which budding musicians would choose their favourite instrument to learn. A pianist since age four, Wang’s “perfect dream” of playing the trumpet became dashed after realizing the all-too-real challenges of playing a loud ‘n’ proud brass instrument within the close confines of her family’s walk-up apartment.

When returning to school for a second choice, only the “ginormous” bassoon and oboe remained options with all the “popular” instruments like flute and violin long picked over. Unfamiliar with the instrument at the time, the petite player settled on the smaller-scaled instrument, happily honing her career on its sinewy, penetrating tone and ability to spin phrases of sublime, lyrical beauty.

“We didn’t even know what an oboe was, but it’s small, tiny, easy to travel with and so became a good fit for me,” she told this writer during an interview in 2019. “Composers write all the most beautiful lyrical lines for the oboe, and Mozart’s music is really timeless. I’m sure everyone is going to love it, and enjoy hearing this work,” she promises of this weekend’s performance.

The one-night-only concert also features Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21, early evidence of the great things to come that followed from this beloved musical master.

For tickets or further information, visit: wso.ca

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Manitoba Chamber Orchestra is now offering its four-concert Winter Season highlighting Manitoba’s finest classical musicians entirely online, and the price of admission is right – free. Next up is Oblivion, being released on the MCO’s dedicated YouTube channel Thursday. The concert features violinist Rachel Kristenson, violinist/violist Momoko Matsumura and cellist Minna Rose Chung in an eclectic chamber program, including Argentine-born composer Astor Piazzolla’s sultry tango and the concert’s namesake, Oblivion. Still on tap is Goldberg Variations, available online March 3. The MCO is planning to kick off a full, 10-concert Spring Series this March, for in-person audience as well as a virtual option. For further details, visit: https://www.themco.ca/

holly.harris@shaw.ca