Psychic salvation

A dose of melody soothes the soul

By Adam Stewart

Sundays are depressing. There's no denying it.

It can be hard to face reality on the brink of another five-day work/school stint. Melancholy and resignation hang in the air and the standard opportunities for diversion here in Vancouver are generally at their slimmest during the so-called Day of Rest.
 
To compound my ennui, those activities that are available on Sundays tend to involve some slow-burning chore - homework or housework - or some sort of familial obligation.
 
I'm sure I speak for many when I say that I would just as soon see a movie, read a good book, or lie back in a field of grass counting fluffy white clouds (weather pending) than pursue the typical weekend fare.

But this particular Sunday, April 20, was different.

At the last possible minute, I was given the rare opportunity to kill a trinity of metaphorical birds with one stone - work, play and relaxation all in one - and this in a church, no less!

Bravo! Vancouver's fourth musical event of the season was enticing enough to tempt me out of my torpor in search of stimulation.

While I'm no stranger to arts reviewing, I'll confess at the outset that I've never had the privilege of attending a symphonic performance on assignment before. I have had some experience as the single, lonesome string component in a handful of amateur wind ensembles, but I've never entertained much more than a casual interest in orchestral music - a musical genre requiring, in my own experience, copious caffeination to maintain optimum concentration as a listener.

In other words, my expectations regarding the possibility of an action-packed afternoon were pretty low. Happily, Bravo! Vancouver's orchestral offerings proved to be a real treat.

I arrived fashionably late - if it's possible to be fashionably late to a presentation of chamber music - and was grateful to the welcoming staffers who ushered me to an open seat despite my having neglected to arrange for tickets in advance.

Blessed with this providence, I settled in, removed my cap, and let business and pleasure mingle to create something magical and rare - an enjoyable Sunday.

For one of the first times that weekend, the sun broke through and warmed the room, adding an unlooked for aesthetic quality of enchantment to the vast church space

The first movement of Mozart's Symphony #9, conducted, in this instance, by Michael Kissinger, greeted me as I settled in. It was a good piece to begin with - Mozart's polished and often-playful style being accessible to such a wide variety of moods. It may go without saying, but seeing an orchestra perform is a much more intimate experience than hearing it on record: watching the jerking arms of each violinist, the tightening faces of the French horn players, the conductor's swimming motions and so many pairs of eyes, bobbing to keep time during rests.

For the second piece, Richard Strauss's Duet concertino for Bassoon, Clarinet & String Orchestra, Kissinger gave up the podium to Maria Manzo and played clarinet in a duet with bassoonist Ann Kosavonich-Brown. And it was everything a duet ought be: a relationship and a conversation, with the strings providing an artful backdrop. At the conclusion, a standing ovation was clearly in order, and the audience happily complied.

After an intermission - starring coffee, donuts and wine - the ensemble again shifted for the third piece, Beethoven's Triple Concerto. Kissinger reclaimed the podium while Manzo took her spot at the piano, as one of three featured soloists for the piece. Tylor Neist and Dale Tolliver took their places beside her on violin and cello, respectively.

If there were any aural slips to this admittedly untrained ear, it was in Neist and Tolliver's occasional falling out of tune. Yet all three soloists took their turns entertaining the audience with intense, energetic performances. When the axe-like drop of the conductor's arms ended the piece, the attentive crowd erupted with enthusiasm and another standing-O.

I exited the church with music in my head and my normally dour Sunday lighter than I dared have hoped for in advance.

Returning to my car, the usual Sunday routine picked up with a vengeance - grocery shopping, laundry, dreading the commencement of a bleak Monday morning - but my newfound blissful state of mind remained unassailable thanks to the laudable efforts of Michael Kissinger and Bravo! Vancouver.

(For more information, contact Bravo! Vancouver at 906-0441)