Christina McEwan
FOR Bernhard Gueller, opening the Cape Town Philharmonic’s winter season on June 16 is a pleasure for several reasons … not only because he is joining forces again with cellist Peter Martens, a “fantastic cellist’, he says, not only is he conducting Tchaikovsky Symphony no 5 which is a work very close to his heart, but because he is conducting a new work.
Gueller is known for embracing contemporary works, and his latest CD with Symphony Nova Scotia, The How and Why of Memory by Canadian composer Tim Brady, included a new symphony, a concerto for violin and one for viola, and won the prestigious East Coast Music Award in Canada a couple of months ago.
He is looking forward to the release of another CD which includes some Schubert art songs orchestrated by Britten, Webern, Reger, Berlioz, as well as two new orchestrations by young Canadian composers, with the Third Symphony by Germany.
He has had new works dedicated to him in Canada and in Germany, as well as by Peter Klatzow here in Cape Town.
So conducting the opening piece on the programme, Overture, the accessible and very orchestrated piece by Cape Town composer Shaun Crawford, will be a privilege.
Gueller applauds the CPO for its collaboration with the SA Music Rights Organization (SAMRO) Foundation and ConcertsSA which enables the CPO to showcase up and coming young South African composers and enable them to have their works played by a professional orchestra . The second work will be played in on June 23 - Christo Jankowitz’s Revelation.
He also looks forward to another collaboration with Martens.
“I always enjoyed Peter’s playing, as a chamber musician as well as a soloist – we played the Cello Concerto by Friederich Gulda in the Stellenbosch Chamber Music Festival a few years ago. It is a very difficult piece which he played brilliantly with a huge success. I really look forward to play THE Cello Concerto of all times, Dvorak, with him.”
Gueller, who has been music director of Symphony Nova Scotia in Canada since 2003, says that Canada really supports musicians through grants and encouragement.
“The result is that Canada has a whole generation of wonderful instrumentalists and singers, many of whom have world careers.”
Support also comes directly to orchestras. Symphony Nova Scotia’s Endowment Trust received a boost of millions when it launched its Listen to the Future campaign, a campaign that is matched almost dollar for dollar by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Another difference between the two countries is the spirit of volunteerism.
Canada is a leader in terms of volunteerism and generosity. Community service is a given, and a vast number serve on various boards from large corporations to small non-profits, or garden at the Children’s Hospital or answer phones in festivals.
They rise to the occasion.
The recent wild fires in Alberta which made international headlines saw Canadians cough up “a ridiculous amount of clothes: and more than 50 million Canadian dollars in a few days.
Conductors there become part of the fabric of society - the music director conducts the bulk of the serious symphony concerts, with perhaps only one or two guest conductors a year.
The music director is a well-recognized figure in society, which, says Gueller, “has its drawbacks because I can rarely go anywhere incognito and should really dress well always!”
The upside is that Dalhousie University recognizes the contribution of artists and he was awarded an honorary doctorate there some years ago.
The musicians certainly are part of that fabric, too. Most, like those in Cape Town, work at two jobs – teaching being one option - and play at every function. Because Halifax is a smaller city, there are not as many professional and good free-lance musicians as there are in Cape Town so the symphony musicians are the first point of call for any function anywhere.
The orchestra also does a week of free concerts in Symphony Week in the autumn, where you will see the orchestra in places like the airport and the train station, at a museum or art gallery. This also helps the community take ownership.
Gueller has been music director, principal conductor or principal guest conductor of several orchestras, the Victoria Symphony Orchestra in British Columbia being the most recent , on the other side of the continent.
Conducting two orchestras on the outer extremes of the second biggest country on earth has its challenges, he says. “After the CPO’s 10th International Summer Music Festival in Cape Town last February, I went straight back to Halifax (a six-hour time difference) and the next day to Victoria (another five) to go into rehearsal almost at once. This was after leaving Halifax on February 1 immediately after a concert with the Vienna Boys’ Choir and travelling to Cape Town to go into rehearsal the day I arrived. Two days before snow had closed the airport so you can imagine how tense it was! And there were mechanical and weather problems on the way from Victoria back to Halifax and another rehearsal on the day I got back! “
He’s delighted to be back in Cape Town, in his home, and he says, most definitely with the CPO.
“The musicians are always a pleasure to conduct.”
The CPO’s opening concert in its winter season of three concerts (on June 16, 23 and 30), takes place at the Cape Town City Hall on Thursday, June 16, at 8pm. Subscriptions, which attract a 20 per cent discount (an extra 10 per cent for members of Friends of Orchestral Music), are available along with single seats from Computicket.
l Book: 0861 915 8000, www.com
puticket.com, or Artscape Dial-A-Seat 021 421 7695. One new subscriber can win a night in a two-bedroomed suite in the 5-star luxury Iconic Apartments in Stellenbosch. Information on the concerts: luvuyo@cpo.org.za or 021 410 9809