Festival celebrates the music of Mozart
SSO puts the WAM in Mozart Festival, Cam Fuller writes
Six events and five partners are working in concert to celebrate Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart this week.
The Saskatoon Symphony is collaborating with Saskatoon Opera, the University of Saskatchewan Department of Music, McNally Robinson and the Roxy Theatre on Mozart Fest.
Events range from lectures to a Master Series Concert with a star violinist. There’s even birthday cake.
“A lot is going on,” says Saskatoon Symphony artistic director Eric Paetkau. “It’s a big logistical deal but we’ve got it all worked out.”
It all started Sunday with The SSO Chamber Players performing Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet and Horn Quintet at the Bessborough Hotel.
On Tuesday, it was Music Talk at McNally on The Genius of Mozart, featuring panellists Barbara Montalbetti from Saskatoon Opera, pianist, singer and educator Lynn Ewing, and Paetkau.
They looked at why Mozart’s music endures and what goes into learning his music.
For music and film fans, the 1985 movie Amadeus is a must-view. Winner of eight Academy Awards, it was set for a Wednesday screening at the Roxy Theatre. Paetkau was 12 or 13 when the movie first came out. “Now when I see it I realize there are so many things that are wrong. There is very good evidence that Salieri was not jealous of Mozart, that they weren’t on bad terms. But it makes for a wonderful story, and it’s so well done that it’s a delight to see.”
Thursday and Friday, it’s Love Play by Saskatoon Opera in the SSO rehearsal studio at 8 p.m. starring sopranos Andrea Lett and Chelsea Mahan, tenor Spencer McKnight, and bass Brenden Friessen.
On Friday, there’s a Fine Arts Research Lecture entitled Mozart’s Violin at 12:30 p.m. in the U of S Quance Theatre. David Bowser from the Toronto Mozart Project lectures on Mozart’s violin music and performance style at a free event.
Saturday is the Master’s Series concert at TCU Place featuring Mozart’s Symphony 41 - Jupiter and the 5th Violin Concerto with rising star Timothy Chooi who brings with him a Stradivarius valued at $5.5 million.
After the concert, it’s Mozart’s Birthday Bash at The Hub at the Holiday Inn featuring cake and live jazz. Mozart was born on Jan. 27, 1756.
There hasn’t been a lot of Mozart played in Saskatoon, so that was the impetus for the event, Paetkau says.
“And his music is so well received and so well known not just by classical music lovers but the general population.”
What stands out for Paetkau is the vocal essence of Mozart’s music. It’s in the operas, of course, but permeates his style.
“There’s a natural singing quality to everything that he wrote.”
Mozart had his share of struggles in life — financial problems, difficulty finding patrons and, of course, the disease which claimed him at 35. But it’s not as dire as it’s made out to be in films like Amadeus, Paetkau posits.
“With the exception of him dying so young, he actually had a very, very good life with some bumps along the way. He did get paid quite well at times. There were times when he was in debt but I think we have to look at it as any of us go through life. We have debts and mortgages, we have a car loan maybe. Generally, he had a good life and he enjoyed life to the fullest.”
Central to Mozart Fest is Saturday’s Master Series concert. Chooi is a natural choice to play Mozart, Paetkau says.
“Tim has a natural joy and love of life, so there’s playfulness. And when you’re playing Mozart it’s always nice to have a bit of that in there. A lot of it has this mischievous cheekiness to it, and I think I can tell already just by what Tim posts on social media and from some of his interviews that he’s going be a perfect fit for this music.”
There are several things to note in the concert, starting with that incredibly expensive piece of wood Chooi has on loan from the Canada Council.
“It’s been played by wonderful artists throughout the years. It’s great that Timmy has one because he really is a rising superstar and has this exquisite sound.”
Another element is the ending of Symphony 41, Mozart’s last and one he likely never heard played. Mozart defies convention by hearkening back to the Baroque era with a fugue.
“Here, he introduces something completely new and it’s a five-voice fugue. Five individual subjects, and it’s with the whole orchestra. It’s extraordinary when you hear it, you can’t even keep note of all the entrances.
“That encapsulates what the Jupiter symphony is. Very aweinspiring. When you hear it, you think ‘wow, this is something more than normal.’”
THAT OTHER MOZART
Did you know there’s a Mozart, Saskatchewan? The tiny hamlet between Saskatoon and Yorkton is named after the famous composer and its streets are named Schubert, Haydn, Wagner, Liszt, and Gounod. Paetkau and his wife chanced upon it last summer driving back from Winnipeg.
“I thought, we’ve got to stop. It’s wonderful, all the street names are named after composers. I thought, wow, I’ve never seen that.”
The Regina Symphony had a Mozart concert in Mozart in 1991. It was also known for its distinctive postmark, which stamp collectors would often solicit.