reviewvancouver: Tea & Trumpets Series

This is the second concert in the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra very popular Tea & Trumpets Series. The theme, as its title suggests, is an international musical excursion. First stop: the south-west coast of England where we listen to the first of two of Sir Malcolm Arnold’s Four Cornish Dances the orchestra performs this afternoon. It’s a locally inspired work that characterizes the rugged landscape of the county of Cornwall that Arnold knows particularly well. Vivace is a short and sweet folk dance (less than 2 minutes). The second piece heard later, is the slightly longer Allegro ma non troppo. It has a hymn theme starting off somewhere in the distance, but eventually coming to a crescendo.

I can only recall hearing Arthur Honegger’s Pacific 231 once before and that was an unconventional interpretation by synthesizer virtuoso Isao Tomita. The piece starts slowly and quietly, almost mimicking the sound and sense of a steam locomotive pulling out of the station before picking up speed along the track. A wonderful way to travel.

Sunrise is the first movement of Ferdinand (Ferde) Grofé’s Grand Canyon Suite, which of course, celebrates the Grand Canyon in north-west Arizona. Starting with a solo piccolo, it’s certainly an orchestral tour-de-force. I’ve personally only visited the Grand Canyon National Park once. That was to seek a more spiritual experience away from the made-made attractions of Las Vegas. I was rewarded with a vista of a natural wonderland. Grofé’s Grand Canyon is rather less to do with technical structure and more in its images and textures.

The next piece takes us back to Europe, in particular – Vienna. Christopher Gaze introduces Johann Strauss’ Blue Danube Waltzes by reciting a poem by British actress and humorist writer Joyce Grenfell. Essentially, it was about women at a dance club partnering each due to a shortage of male dance partners. The music is synonymous with the composer’s home city, though it didn’t start out that way.

Georges Bizet’s Intermezzo from Carmen is from one of two suites of orchestral music taken from the music of Bizet's 1875 opera Carmen and compiled posthumously by American-born composer Ernest Guiraud. The piece is instantly recognizable as the interlude before act three and features a solo flute.

Our next port of call is Prague, capital of Czechia (formerly Czech Republic) and Bedrich Smetana’s home town. His most famous work just has to be Ma Vlast (trans: My Fatherland), from which The Modau is the second in a set of six individual tone poems for orchestra. The Modau is the German name of the river that runs through Prague, though locals prefer the name Vltava. The music has a nationalistic theme and is inspired by Bohemia's colourful history. Maestro Bui’s reading of Smetana’s strong lyrical melodies is truly astounding.

For the final stop on the tour we visit “The city of light” for George Gershwin’s jazz-influenced symphonic poem An American in Paris. Gershwin seemed to write the piece with tongue firmly in cheek. His expansive arrangement evokes the bustling atmosphere of the city with occasional motor horns depicting the traffic noise that Paris is famous for. The jaunty beginning gives way a 12 bar blues and a melancholic section in the middle. Patrons who attend the Orpheum this weekend (Nov. 15 & 16) will see and hear this piece again as part of the Gene Kelly – Life in Music Special that will be hosted by Kelly’s widow Patricia Ward Kelly.

With the Tea & Trumpets Concert Series, we invariably get an encore and this concert wasn’t an exception. The orchestra offered a stirring interpretation of the Toreador March from act two of the opera Carmen.