At the Performing Arts Centre, only hours after the sets for Thoroughly Modern Millie were removed, the Okanagan Symphony arrived for the season’s closing concert.

These two shows emphasized yet again the strength of locally produced entertainment, and how fortunate we are to have a venue which is both a top quality theatre and an excellent concert hall.

The concert’s theme, Spirit of the North, featured compositions inspired by nature:  snow-capped mountains, pristine lakes, glaciers, even the aurora borealis, from three countries bordering on the Arctic Circle.

Canada brought us I Send Only Angels by Vancouver composer Marcus Goddard, commissioned by the VSO in 2007.

Here, head-on, was the breathtaking force of nature: startling staggered chords piercing through a richly textured background in the strings; dark, rich, and bitter, like good chocolate.  As Rosemary Thomson explained, “light going into dark.”

It was based on a children’s fable about good and evil, where God reminds: “but remember, I bring only angels.”

From Norway, one of the most popular concerti in the repertoire, Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto, was performed by Kinza Tyrrell from Victoria.

This was the only concerto Grieg completed, also his only full-length piece. Written in Denmark, it was premiered there in 1869.

It opens with a dramatic statement from the piano, one of the most well known concerto openings, much beloved by Hollywood.

The second movement, “a tender song without words,” was a beautiful dialogue between piano and strings.

The third shows Grieg’s love of Norwegian folk music, beginning with one of his dances. The piece concludes with a rich stately theme:  Here was colour, drama, passion and sensuousness.

Grieg had revised the piece numerous times, and it was the first piano concerto ever recorded. But in 1909, due to limitations of 78 rpm technology, it was abridged to only six minutes.

On Sunday this was a bravura performance from Tyrrell. The critics have called her a “sensation,” and here she triumphed despite the Steinway having gone slightly out-of-tune, and she earned an instant standing ovation.

Finally, representing Finland, came Jean Sibelius’ Fifth Symphony.

Whereas the classic four-movement symphonic form had prevailed for over a century, the early 1900s were a time of upheaval. Schoenberg championed dissonance, Stravinsky wrote revolutionary ballets, Ravel and Debussy developed impressionism, and Richard Strauss further embraced the new styles.

But Sibelius received poor reviews for his fourth symphony, and it was said that the composer “was beginning to sense his own eclipse.”

He was forced to choose between trying to modernise his style or to continue in traditional vein. The success of the latter in the new symphony proved he made the right decision.

He was commissioned by the Finnish government to write it for his 50th birthday. He premiered it with the Helsinki City Orchestra on that day in1915, then and now declared a national holiday.

It’s a piece reflecting the wild Scandinavian landscape, and was here beautifully played. It’s full of textures and rhythms, responding to the moods of nature and the changes in the seasons of Sibelius’ native Finland.

In three movements (the first was originally split into two), it opens with vast open spaces, maybe in winter.  Lone calls come out of the wilderness. Then magnificent brass chords, textured layers, intricately woven, build to a sudden dark ending.

The second was quieter, again, suggesting wild beauty.  Nature doesn’t need patterns or order, and this piece is almost totally without tunes.

The third movement introduced the approaching flutter of swans wings, and the famous swan theme is nothing less than a majestic anthem.

Editor’s note: In the April 27 Classical Notes on the Metropolitan Opera’s HD-Live-at-the-Met end-of-season performances, the wrong start time was given for the Wagner’s Die Walküre.

The live transmission at Vernon’s Galaxy Cinemas Saturday will start at 9 a.m. to allow for the five-hour opera.

 

Vernon Morning Star