93-year-old conductor returns to celebrate the WSO

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This article was published 11/10/2017 (3237 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

History comes alive when fabled Canadian conductor Victor Feldbrill raises his baton to lead the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra this weekend in Happy 70th WSO!

The 93-year-old maestro is widely recognized for transforming the WSO into a professional-calibre orchestra during his 10-year tenure as its visionary music director, appointed in 1958 at the tender age of 34. Feldbrill remains the youngest Canadian-born conductor chosen to lead one of the nation’s major orchestras, and — jaw-dropper alert — the only Canadian-born music director to date in the WSO’s illustrious, 70-year history.

“I’ve often referred to the WSO as my first baby,” Feldbrill says over the phone from his Toronto home. “That was the first orchestra I had as a music director… and they were truly marvellous years with the WSO.”

Born in Toronto to Polish-Jewish immigrants in 1924, Feldbrill first cut his conducting teeth with the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1942, and made his Toronto Symphony Orchestra debut the next year. He performed as first violin with the TSO between 1949 and ’56, and the CBC Symphony Orchestra from 1952 to ’56, among others.

Revered worldwide as a champion for Canadian music, Feldbrill is also a passionate advocate for music education, and has worked tirelessly with young musicians throughout his 70-plus-year career. He’s won numerous awards for his work throughout North America, as well as Europe and Asia, including being made an officer of the Order of Canada in 1985, and the Order of Ontario in 1999.

He last appeared on the WSO podium in March 2004 in honour of his 80th birthday.

For his latest guest appearance, Feldbrill will be conducting Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3 during the pair of weekend concerts that launch the WSO Classics series. The lion’s share of the program, which also features Moscow-born cellist Yegor Dyachkov performing Cello Concerto No. 5 in C major, as well as Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 in D major, will be led by current maestro Alexander Mickelthwate, now in his 12th and final year with the orchestra.

At an age when most would have long hung up their batons, the nonagenarian is among the world’s oldest active conductors. He led the TSO this past spring in his own curated series celebrating Canadian music, with his next gig leading that same orchestra slated for Oct. 21-22.

He happily recounts details of his Winnipeg days, sharing memories and anecdotes as well as personal musical highlights.

One of those including leading an upstart, 27-year old Canadian pianist named Glenn Gould in his debut performance of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1, with the jam-packed WSO concert held at the orchestra’s former stomping grounds, Winnipeg’s Civic Auditorium, on Oct. 8, 1959.

“This was his first performance of the work and he did it at my request,” Feldbrill states matter-of-factly of his former school chum at the then-Toronto Conservatory of Music. “I knew him quite well and we had done a lot of things together in Toronto. It wasn’t in his repertoire, but he learned it for the concert. It was a magnificent performance.”

In addition to conducting star-studded seasons filled with such luminaries as Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern, Claudio Arrau and Byron Janis, Feldbrill is particularly proud of his Canadian programming, which continues to this day. Nearly every concert featured a Canadian work, a notable achievement at a time when neither audience members nor orchestra musicians were exactly flocking to new music.

“It’s like everything else in the arts. You have phases of ultra-modern going back to a conservative kind of writing,” the maestro explains. “I’m so pleased that it’s now possible to do a program of all Canadian music and get an audience. That wouldn’t have been possible 60 years ago.”

He also insisted that the WSO tour when he signed his first contract as music director, with the orchestra performing his newly expanded series of pop and youth concerts in Brandon, Dauphin and Virden, and northern U.S. border towns.

“He was exactly the right person for the WSO at the right time,” says WSO artistic operations associate James Manishen, a clarinetist with the orchestra during the late 1960s under Feldbrill’s baton, of the conductor’s legacy. “He made the Canadian face of the WSO nationally known.”

Another significant feather in Feldbrill’s cap proved to be having a core nucleus of musicians, many who moonlit as doctors and engineers, sign a season contract, creating a strong backbone of infrastructure that provided artistic stability and firm foundation for future growth. When asked about the secret to his longevity, the maestro doesn’t miss a beat.

“Roughly half of my life as a musician was conducting youth orchestras, and reliving the experience of discovering music through young people,” he replies. “That brings an excitement to you as well as a conductor, as you pass on these traditions to a new generation.

“Conductors also explore a lot of emotions and are exercising every time they take the podium. So they live long lives because of it.”

And would he like to return to his orchestral “baby” someday and the Centennial Concert Hall, where he led the WSO’s first concert on its nearly 50-year-old stage in 1968? “We’ll have to wait and see,” he replies with a chuckle. “I’m basically retired now, but if anything comes up, I’ll gladly do it.”

“I’m delighted to be a part of the celebrations for the WSO’s 70th anniversary, and really looking forward to being in Winnipeg again,” says Feldbrill, who will be accompanied by one of the two daughters he had with beloved late wife Zelda. His son-in-law and two grandchildren will also be on hand for performances that feel more akin to a homecoming than concert for the musical icon.

“It’s going to bring back a lot of memories.”

Happy 70th WSO! will be performed Friday and Saturday at the Centennial Concert Hall at 8 p.m. For further information, visit wso.ca.

holly.harris@shaw.ca