“I want the CPO to be one of the greatest orchestras in the world and to do that we need to bring the best conductors in the world to Calgary,” says Andrea Brussa, explaining why she founded The Brussa Bravo! Legacy Program. The long time supporter of the CPO believes “music is an essential component of life and the CPO is a vitally important part, not only of the artistic, but also the economic and social infrastructure of Calgary and Alberta.” Ms. Brussa adds that “it is especially important in these challenging economic times that we work together to create a strong and beautiful Orchestra that will nourish and sustain us through the years, a clear legacy for our children and our country – a million voices, one vision.”
Afterthoughts with Andrea
Around the world, back and forth through time, from Heritage Park to the distant reaches of the universe, the CPO has taken us on a whirlwind tour of...everywhere and forever this past few months. Hang on to your seat! It’s been quite a ride.
Thanks to the incredibly varied talents of the CPO we’ve visited Broadway, Haiti, Lake Louise (literally), 1791, ancient churches and new religions and the incredible elations of love and depths of drug-induced despair. Oh, and a tour or Europe, parts of the Old West and a witch’s sabbath and execution, too!
Where to start? With Marvin Hamlisch, of course. He came to Calgary with his big heart, huge reputation and immense talent in February. Certifiably brilliant, with a ready wit and steady baton, he kept the orchestra in stitches during rehearsals and us entertained during two concerts performng some of his Broadway and career highlights.
Friendly and talkative, he bantered with the audience before, during and after his concerts. He even composed and sang a little ditty about “Fabulous Andrea” during one of the concerts! I was thrilled - and embarrassed, but happily so. A kind and delightful man, everybody loved him, and it’s easy to understand why he is so revered. It was also a revelation to hear the well-known tunes most of us have grown played live by the CPO instead of on a bad stereo or car radio. Surprise! It’s good music! Rich, live and lush, full of nuance and depth - no wonder people love it. Live is definitely better than canned. Thank you, Marvin and the CPO, for a wonderful experience.
Music is more than just entertainment, though. The CPO has a conscience and I was impressed when they participated in the March 10th fund-raising concert for Haiti. The organizers asked if 4 or 5 of our musicians would volunteer....and the whole orchestra turned out! Good for them. Music really does come from the heart.
The concert included a wide variety of entertainment, from The Dudes to Sheri D. Wilson and Corb Lund. Michael Bernard Fitzgerald brought the audience to their feet and the high-energy, largely younger crowd was stamping their feet, cheering and dancing.
The most poignant moments were provided by the CPO, however, which balanced the enthusiastic vigour with a heart-rending performance of Dvorak’s “New World Symphony.”
Conducted by the young, beautiful and immensely talented Melanie Leonard (our Resident Conductor), the music, very slow and quiet in places, showed us the beauty of Haiti, the land, the death, the sadness and then the possibilities of rebirth. After seeing photographs of the unbelievable devastation wrought by the quake, Dvorak and the CPO showed us what Haiti needs... a New World.
Even this young, noisy audience was stilled by the immensity of the music and the message, and this blue-jeaned crowd, drinks in hand, gifted the CPO with a moment of quiet after the music stopped,
and then long, slow appreciative applause. It was moving beyond words, and I was so grateful to be there, in the privileged safety of the Jack Singer, to enjoy it.
Engaging experience after youth, and a living example of rebirth, legendary conductor and pianist Leon Fleisher, with his wife and partner Katherine Jacobson Fleisher, performed in March. Leon Fleisher lost the use of 2 fingers on his right hand decades ago, but persevered and with special treatment he regained enough mobility to be able to play the piano fully again. They delighted us with some lovely “Mozart for Two” and then Maestro Fleisher conducted a fabulous “Symphony No. 1" by Sibulius.
Passionate, big and full, thrilling the strings and raising to an electrifying climax, the orchestra played with Leon’s baton and produced a sound that raised the roof and brought the audience to it’s feet for a long Standing O. Wow! Nothing like the full power of a great orchestra and a great conductor to bring the house down!
Thank goodness for hotels, though. The Chateau at Lake Louise was the gorgeous setting for an interesting weekend in May with the “Mountains, Music and Masterpieces program that featured the Great String instruments. The CPO and the Mount Royal University Conservatory hosted the International Department head of Fine Musical Instruments and a renowned violin expert from Christie’s Auction House as well as 4 of our CPO musicians.
I took my Mum, and we joined a variety of fellow music aficionados for a delightful weekend. We dined well while overlooking Lake Louise, listened to Thomas Megee, Robert Penner, Craig Hutchenreuther and Arthur Bachmann creating heavenly music in the shadow of the glaciers and learnt about the history and value and magic of various stringed instruments. Talking with Kerry Keane and Roy Feldman from Christie’s, spending time with the gems of the CPO and basking in the music-saturated atmosphere of this special Mother’s Day weekend, I came home relaxed and refreshed and ready for the next installment from the CPO.
And what an installment it was. The “Symphonie Fantastique” was...well, fantastic! World renowned Maestro Matthias Bamert led the CPO with his restrained, technically superb but still passionate style of conducting in a symphonically triumphant performance that overwhelmed the rapt audience with it’s power. The stunning interplay of music, drama, vision, story and imagery that is the “Fantastique” came indelibly to life under his baton.
The orchestra was tight and energetic, and obviously was enjoying the challenge of bringing to life the crazy infatuations of the composer, the sensitive, imaginative music of Sibelius that chronicled his experiences of love and loss. Full of longing and elation and melancholy, emotions transformed into notes and noise, the audience held it’s collective breath during the softer passages and then exploded with joy and enthusiasm when the music faded away.
The opium induced deliriums, the tranquil interludes, the march to the scaffold and the Witchs’ Sabbath all conspired to bring an alternate reality to the Jack; all consuming to play, conduct or listen to, it was a glorious tour de force.
Maestro Bamert has worked and studied with some of the legends of music, including Leopolf Stowkowski and Georges Szell. A living treasure, he is debonair, charming and surprisingly humble. Introducing clarinettist James Campbell, he stepped back to allow Campbell center stage.
And what a clarinettist James Campbell is! I didn’t realize how good a clarinet could sound until I heard Oesterle’s “Perennials” by this musician. Sweet, resonant and with unmatched clarity, it’s easy to understand why Campbell is world famous. He was relaxed, smiling, seemingly casual and just kept making beautiful music. The Mozart Concerto felt like warm water scented with orchids, sweet and lilting and then a soft bed washed over by a gentle summer’s breeze, restful and refreshing. The audience was lulled into a peaceful reverie, quiet for a suspended moment after he finished, and then a huge standing ovation for the talent on the stage.
The appreciation between the musicians of the CPO, James Campbell and Matthias Bamert flowed like the Bow River; everyone clapped for each other and the audience left smiling and happy after another glorious night at the CPO. Afterwards, during dinner at Centini’s, I further enjoyed the company of Maestro Bamert and James Campbell. Perfect gentlemen both, erudite and entertaining, we discussed the joy of music and the challenges of our world into the wee hours. Hopefully, they will both return to our stage. As one of the CPO musicians said, “We learned so much from both of them. It was a pleasure to have them here.”
It wasn’t a pleasure, however, to have the unpleasant Spring weather here during the “Hear and Now New Music Festival” May 27th and 28th. While the weather was rotten, the music was sublime, and it was worth braving the icy blasts to enjoy the brave choices of Conductor Pierre Simard during the 2 night extravaganza of new and unusual music.
Pierre Simard is a former Resident Conductor of the CPO. He returned to lead the orchestra in a wonderful potpourri of pieces that included...a bit of everything: from discordant clashing to melodic delights and pop-art performance surprises as well as stirring classically based compositions.
Guest violinist Lara St. John and the CPO wowed the audience with their virtuosity and interpretations of “Perennials” and “Australian Postcards”, pieces that required the musicians to move quickly, slowly and everything in between. By the end of “Postcards”, the music swirled around the room like the proverbial flight of bumble bees over the theme from Bonanza, heightening tension in the hall and finally crashing to an end with the exhilarated audience whooping and clapping and expressing their excitement.
Another piece reflecting our world was Andrew Norman’s “Sacred Geometry,” spurred by an 8th century poem and the caveats of church architecture. Frightening at times and inspiring at others, I kept thinking of the great Futaleufu River in Chile, which I rafted a couple of years ago. Gorgeous, wild, filled with Class 5 rapids and waterfalls and fish and beauty, it roared beneath a volcano that blew for the first time 2 weeks after I was there. Much like the music.
“Atlas Elipticalis “ by John Cage was a different sort of fascinating journey into time. Maestro Simard actually stood using his arms like the hands of a giant clock to mark the time, and the scaled-down orchestra produced “random” music as calculatingly haphazard as creation.
I think it is like a lot of modern art; I may not like it, but I am glad someone did it. It made me think, of how music was, perhaps, a marker of time and a way of imposing order upon our non- linear brains.
An order of another type introduced tonight was a piece by young Calgary composer Joel Balzun. “Missing Generation” was inspired by the epic tragedy of the holocaust in Cambodia by the ruthless attempts of the Khymer Rouge to establish their kind of order. With simple Cambodian melodies floating through the larger piece, Balzun created a haunting and beautiful work that evoked the scale and scope of a people gutted by their government and the hope that sustains humanity even during chaos and horror. Although still a relatively unsophisticated piece, it was emotionally effective and well received. Balzun reflects the talent here in Alberta and I’ll look forward to hearing his future works.
Maestro Simard premiered a beautiful piece of his own during the second night of the Festival; “Passacaglia “ was a reworking of an earlier piece, based on historical patterns but reflecting Pierre’s interest in fantasy and magic.
With a dark opening, the work is deep, complicated and sophisticated on many levels. Beautiful, evocative and a joy to listen to, we were privileged to be the first to hear it in a concert hall. Completely dedicated to the art of music, as well as his family, intelligent, hard working and innovative, Conductor Simard is a rising star.
One of the challenges of the program for the New Music festival is the complexity of a lot of the pieces, which of course have not been part of the standard repertoire of any orchestra. For example, Joseph Schwanter’s work “New Morning for the World” has very long bars of considerable difficulty, with lots of beats per bar. The timing is also very unusual, non-traditional and hard to master.
CPO First Violinist Robert Penner said at the conclusion of the first performance he was “going home to study the music for tomorrow!” I think that meant he was pouring over his notes late into the right...not unusual for a dedicated musician such as himself, but above and beyond the call of duty.
The audience reaped the rewards the next evening. Schwanter’s work was played while Deputy Principal Officer of the US Consul, Daniel Fennell, read from the works of Martin Luther King. “There comes a time when people get tired of being trampled...” A speech about oppression and glory and change, about equality and justice and rights.
And the music played on, the full orchestra playing all out, and the words dimmed as the language of notes took over. The music was chaotic as were the ideas King expressed for the times. The music was beautiful and poignant as Fennell read “Now is the time to make
real the promise of democracy.” The music was so evocative and so strong we hardly needed words to understand the concepts.
As Fennell read “Now is the time to make justice a reality for all,” I thought of the poverty and misery I have seen in Africa and America and Chile and all over the world, and as King said “not satisfied until justice runs down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream” I thought of the security men in Zimbabwe at my hotel room 2 weeks before Mugabe’s election and how sure I was I would never get on my plane to freedom at home. As the music lifted and soared and became ethereal and was really about hope, life, death and the triumph of humanity, I was transported in the presence of greatness to the higher ideals of our existence.
Clearly, so were many others in the audience, as the Bravos, standing ovation and enthusiastic applause continued for a long time.
Music is about communication, emotion and ideas, as is most art, so “Thank you” to the Calgary Philharmonic, the musicians, the maestro and the artists that made this New Music festival an extraordinary experience.
In the name of music,
Peace, beauty, truth and art forever,
See you at the Philharmonic next year!
Andrea Brussa
andreabrussa@gmail.com
SHARE THE MUSIC
Join Ms. Brussa in strengthening the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra by donating to The Brussa Bravo! Legacy Program. For more information contact Alison Geskin at ageskin@cpo-live.com or call 403.571.0273.
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