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MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n
The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra rehearses with conductor Daniel Raiskin.<\/p>\n
Both symphonies are so hefty and canonical, one might have expected half of the concert would be devoted to a concerto, tone poem or something smaller or lesser known.<\/p>\n
But they are also highly contrasting works. From its thunderous da-da-da-DUM opening to the blazingly sunny arrival of C major in the finale, Beethoven\u2019s Fifth feels like a force of nature, and boasts one of the most famous earworms. It was received badly when it premi\u00e8red in Vienna in 1808, but in a few years critics recognized it for the revolutionary work it was.<\/p>\n
It took another leap into pop cultural fame during the Second World War, when the BBC prefaced wartime broadcasts with the four-note motif, because those notes \u2014 short-short-short-long \u2014 corresponded to the Morse code for V, then a rallying symbol for victory and resistance.<\/p>\n
Tchaikovsky\u2019s Fifth Symphony, composed over a few months in 1888, is more lyrical and intimate. Written nearly a century later, it may not sound as modern as Richard Wagner or Claude Debussy\u2019s experiments around that time in continental Europe, with their extended dissonance wandering in search of a tonal home that feels elusive.<\/p>\n
But the symphony\u2019s lush, expansive orchestration is modern in other ways, anticipating Hollywood film scores. It is, in any case, one of Tchaikovsky\u2019s most celebrated works and the WSO\u2019s performance is a chance to hear T in a setting that isn\u2019t the familiar Nutcracker once again.<\/p>\n
Raiskin underlines another key contrast between these works.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth, of course, inevitably deal with the notion of fate and the role we tend to assign to the notion of fate taking rule of our lives,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
But where Tchaikovsky, composing in Czarist Russia, described the piece as a struggle with what he called \u201cthe inscrutable predestination of Providence,\u201d Beethoven channelled the revolutionary energies of continental Europe \u2014 and a healthy helping of his own ego.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeethoven famously shouted that he is not going to bend to Fate. He is going to take it by the throat and would never bend to it entirely,\u201d says Raiskin.<\/p>\n
Beethoven composed his fifth symphony during the Napoleonic era. By 1804, Beethoven had, in fact, turned against his former hero, after Napoleon declared himself Emperor of the French, leading Beethoven to furiously erase Napoleon\u2019s name from his third symphony (Heroica).<\/p>\n
But the ideals of individual liberty and self-determination, which Napoleon symbolized in the minds of many radicals, continued to resonate with Beethoven in his struggle against deafness and the arbitrariness of hereditary privilege in the ancien regime.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS <\/p>\n Daniel Raiskin: really letting the orchestra rip.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I am, I am through myself. There have been and will be thousands of princes; there is only one Beethoven,\u201d he famously wrote.<\/p>\n Raiskin nods to the relevancy of the work\u2019s optimism of the will in what he calls an era of \u201cenvironmental catastrophes, wars raging around the world, failing social systems, fractured societies.\u201d<\/p>\n But, as a conductor, there\u2019s a more basic pleasure in programming these two symphonies side by side: really letting the orchestra rip.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it (sets the tone for the rest of the season) because if you look at the rest, you will recognize that it\u2019s a little bit back to the masterworks, rightfully,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a real celebration of what the symphony orchestra can do best. Overwhelmed with incredible sound, the richness of sonorities, but also by some of the greatest music, by the greatest composers.\u201d<\/p>\n The WSO\u2019s season opening concert is also a chance for Winnipeggers to get to know the orchestra\u2019s new composer-in-residence, Kelly-Marie Murphy. The concert also includes a performance of her new work, Dark Nights, Bright Stars, Vast Universe.<\/p>\n With Murphy first performing with orchestra in the early years of the WSO\u2019s New Music Festival in the 1990s, Raiskin calls her new role at the WSO \u2014 where she will now guide the festival \u2014 \u201cfull circle in a very positive way.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not going to be that the artistic path and a view of the WSO is suddenly going to look entirely different from what it was a year ago,\u201d he says. \u201c(But) I\u2019m very receptive to any new ideas, and I\u2019m very curious and open to the perspectives Kelly-Marie is going to bring.\u201d<\/p>\n conrad.sweatman@winnipegfreepress.com<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Conrad Sweatman Conrad Sweatman is an arts reporter and feature writer. Before joining the Free Press full-time in 2024, he worked in the U.K. and Canadian cultural sectors and freelanced for outlets including The Walrus, VICE and Prairie Fire. Read more about Conrad.<\/a><\/p>\n
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