After a trying few months, the band plays on

Temporarily silenced by the labour dispute, the CBC Radio Orchestra returns with a “Mozart by request” concert

by David Gordon Duke

“Mozart By Request,” with host Shelly Solmes and the CBC Radio Orchestra, takes place Sunday at the Chan Centre, beginning at 3 p.m.

Jokes about the subterranean studios of Paul Merrick’s very 1970s CBC building on West Georgia Street are old, but justified. Way down, there is Studio One, the home of one of this country’s national treasures: the CBC Radio Orchestra. The players are going to be allowed up and into, if not the light of day, then at least the late autumn rain, on Sunday at the Chan Centre in “Mozart by Request,” conducted by another national treasure, Maestro Mario Bernardi.

It’s been a tough few months for the CBC Radio Orchestra. Labour troubles at the Mother Corporation meant the cancellation of the first two Chan Centre programs. But there’s still time for the Orchestra to get a head start on next year’s Mozart sesquicentennial.

Today the 40-member ensemble is North America’s last surviving broadcast orchestra. Back in the ’30s, Ira Dilworth, an energetic but not especially scholarly prof from UBC, had just joined the corporation; he saw lots of potential for a Vancouver-based orchestra.

In Europe, radio ensembles had already sprung up in conjunction with national, regional, and/or language-group based broadcasting. The North American scene was slower to respond, but in 1937 the establishment of the NBC Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Arturo Toscanini changed everything.

Dilworth wanted a house orchestra to broadcast light music and to be on tap for radio drama, not to mention the occasional performance of more serious repertoire. Finding the right conductor wasn't easy. Bandsmen of the era were either tied down to specific venues or inclined to search out the main chance on the road. Symphony conductors prepared to stay put in Vancouver were few and far between.

Young John Avison saw his moment. A B.C. native like Dilworth, Avison was long on ambition, if a bit short on background. He became synonymous with the orchestra from its establishment in 1938 until his retirement in 1980. After the orchestra’s flirtation with historically informed playing (under the baton of John Eliot Gardener, who quickly left for pastures far greener), Mario Bernardi was appointed principal conductor in 1983; he'll be conducting one of his great specialties Sunday afternoon.

Producer/manager Denise Ball is the orchestra’s latest steward. The weeks of the lockout were stressful, but it now looks like clear sailing for the orchestra. She’s at work booking future seasons and planning broadcasts including a spring season at the Chan presenting even more Mozart with Vancouver favourites the “Parker clan”—pianists Jon Kimura, James, and Ian—in January, and another program with the popular Vinyl Cafe host Stuart McLean in April.

Ball is still scrambling to reschedule at least one of the cancelled programs from the fall. If listeners only knew the time frame involved in concert planning: violin soloist James Ehnes is booked through 2008, and every local performing group seems to perform on Sunday afternoons. Miraculously, James does have exactly one day free next spring. The other five soloists are available, so that just leaves finding a venue.

As for this Sunday’s concert, Ball has become a fan of the by- request concept—even if this did mean choosing soloists with particular care. She’s very familiar with pianist David Jalbert, but soprano Joni Henson was Maestro Bernardi’s pick, someone he knew would be able to handle any of the potential vocal tasks up for grabs. Over 6,000 "Mozart By Request" votes were cast. Their preferences: the G minor Symphony K. 550, the Magic Flute Overture, “Dove sono” from The Marriage of Figaro, and the A major Piano Concerto K. 488.

Ball has no problem at all with the Canadian Idol aspect of the stunt. Mozart, like the CBC Radio Orchestra, belongs to us all; why shouldn't we have our say?

Vancouver Sun
12 November 2005

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