Coming up on Wednesday October 23 at 7:30 at the Crecent Arts Centre, The Manitoba Chamber Orchestra is inviting audiences to go on a journey with them; from the serene waters of Bach to the stormy waves of Shostakovich and back.
Called Tempest, this concert will feature two renowned soloists, the MCO’s own concertmaster, violinist Karl Stobbe and pianist Andrew Armstrong.
Stobbe will also be leading the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and guiding listeners through these serene, and at times, blustery waters.
Andrew Armstrong is one the hottest pianists on the stage today. He has won 25 national and international piano competitions and has made a name for himself not only as a soloist but also a collaborative partner performing with the likes of Itzhak Perlman, the American string Quartet and his long-time duo partner James Ehnes.
For Winnipeg listeners Karl Strobbe needs no introduction, aside from being concertmaster of the MCO he is also Associate Concert Master of our Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. He is equally at home performing as soloist, chamber musician or section string player. His playing has been described by London’s Sunday Times as “A master soloist, recalling the Golden Age of Violin Playing.”
There are sure to be many amazing moments at this upcoming concert, but one of the highlights will be a world premiere arrangement of Bach’s monumental Chaconne from his Second Partita for solo violin in D minor. A piece the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin called “the greatest structure for solo violin that exists.”
The twist is that Stobbe himself has written the arrangement for the players of the MCO. Stobbe is known for his love of solo violin literature, and the Chaconne is a work he knows intimately and has taught his students many times. As Stobbe explains, "I tell many of my students that ‘I want you to orchestrate it... to think about if I was to orchestrate this how would I orchestrate it,’ because that is how you approach the different [tonal] colours that you need to grasp even as a solo player. Now, I didn’t orchestrate it for a full orchestra just for strings, so I kind was halfway there. I had already thought of orchestration ideas in my head even as a student of it and as a teacher of it.” Stobbe goes on to say, “It actually translates very well there are lots of parts where there are actually four voices going on, so then you just write them out for different instruments.”
The process of arranging such a Mount Everest of a composition in the solo violin literature, was daunting for Stobbe, but thankfully he had his friends in the WSO and MCO to help take snippets of the arrangement for a trial run. “I called some friends up and said, ‘okay I’ve got something written out that I want to try, can you come over.’ So, they came over played it ...I re-wrote a bunch of parts and eventually I came up with something that, fingers crossed, is going to work.”
With Stobbe's knowledge and love for the work, the results are sure to be wonderful.
The other Bach work on Wednesday's program is his 5th Brandenburg Concerto. The work has three soloists, violin, flute and piano. Stobbe will be playing the solo violin part and leading, Andrew Armstrong will play the keyboard part. The flute part will be performed by the MCO’s long time principal flute player Laura MacDougall.
Bach wrote some amazing music for all three soloists, but it is the virtuosity of keyboard that Bach really displays throughout. In regard to Andrew Armstrong, Stobbe says, “He is a fantastic pianist. One of the world’s great pianists by any stretch, and certainly one of the world's great collaborators with violinists.”
The storm of the concert is Shostakovich’s spellbinding Sonata for Violin and Piano. Written for the legendary violinist David Oistrakh, the sonata is both beautiful and fiery. In describing the piece Stobbe says, “It’s a wonderful piece...to me it has these broken bells going on. Instead of ringing true they kind of ring out of tune and with this little buzz going on... through the whole piece... it kind of gives you this very eerie feeling. Everybody I know loves Shostakovich because he says something. He’s reflecting on his world, and what he has to say about the world through his writing is deeply profound and very important for the world we live in today.”
Rounding out the concert is a stunner of a miniature by Joseph Suk, his Meditation on an Old Bohemian Chorale “St. Wenceslas.” The tune is not based on the Christmas Carol Good King Wenceslas, instead, Suk has made use of a chorale that for Czechs may be very familiar, but for us in the West could be considered obscure. “It’s just beautiful lyrical string/ choral writing,” says Stobbe.
Tempest with the MCO this Wednesday, October 23 at 7:30 at the Crecent Arts Centre, is sure to take Winnipeg audiences on a memorable journey. Take a cruise with the MCO and let Karl Stobbe be the captain of this fabulous ship!
For more details on Wednesday's performance click here.
