This Sunday, November 26th at 3:00pm at the Lutheran Church of the Cross, this Winnipeg Wind Ensemble will be presenting their first concert of the 2023-24 season. Called Field Full of Folk the concert will feature music of Gustav Holst, Florent Schmitt and Franz von Suppe amongst others.
The Winnipeg Wind Ensemble is Manitoba’s premiere wind orchestra. Consisting of professional players from around Winnipeg, the group is made of Band Directors, high calibre freelance performers who also perform with other ensembles around the city such as the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra, as well as musicians who perform in military bands.
The concert on Sunday will run the gamut of wind band literature. There will be orchestral transcriptions, 20th century works written specifically for wind ensemble as well as tried and true and staples from the wind band oeuvre.
One of the works on the program is French composer Florent Schmitt’s colorful and rhythmic piece “Dionysiaques.” The piece is heavily influenced by Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring.” Schmitt was at the premiere performance and after seeing it was inspired to compose this piece. As Winnipeg Wind Ensemble (WWE) Conductor Ginny Helmer says, “The piece is about a bacchanalian festival so there is a lot of the sort of Rite of Spring vibe to it.”
The ensemble will also be doing American composer Norman Dello Joio’s piece Variations on a Mediaeval Tune.” The tune that Dello Joio makes use of is In Dulci Jubilo. (In Sweet Rejoicing) I hymn that is very often heard around the holiday season. Helmer finds the variations fascinating. “There’s a lot of little snippets that he develops throughout the five variations…different tempos, different moods. The more you get to know the piece, the more you hear in it the original melody.”
The ensemble will also be performing wind band standards that have been heard for more than a century on Sunday afternoon wind band concerts. They will be playing a thrilling arrangement of Franz von Suppe’s “Poet and Peasant Overture,” as well as Gustav Holst’s Second Suite in F for Military Band; a piece that has been loved by audience members and wind players since it was written in 1911.
Rounding out the program is Tchaikovsky’s Dance of the Jesters from his opera the Snow Maiden, in a stellar arrangement by the American Band Master and Arranger Ray Cramer.
This is sure to be a wonderful concert on Sunday as presented by the Winnipeg Wind Ensemble. The concert Field Full of Folk takes place this Sunday, November 26th at 3:00pm at the Lutheran Church of the Cross which is at 560 Arlington Street. Tickets are $15.00 dollars for adults and $5.00 for students.
For more details visit the Winnipeg Wind Ensemble’s website.
