Otto Tausk – The Vancouver Subscription Scene

Review: Mastro Tausk and the VSO open the season with a wonderful Firebird

An Assured performance of Stravinsky’s ballet was the highlight of a mixed bag season opener.

Otto Tausk conducts the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in Stravinsky’s the Firebird

Symphony season is back! The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra opened their 2024/25 season with a program of big Russian warhorses with a bit of a twist. Some of it worked, some of it didn’t but the continued confidence of the VSO’s playing made it an exciting sign of things to come.

Tausk’s Firebird hasn’t really changed much since 2018. There is still a fantastic sense of pacing, a good ear for textures, and a strangely slow infernal dance. The thing that has changed since 2018 is the relationship between conductor and orchestra, which has only deepened over the last six seasons. In 2018 the ballet sounded like it was finding its footing as it was going along, taking about a half an hour or so to settle in. In 2024 Tausk and the VSO were in the zone right from the top, nailing the atmosphere right away. The orchestra plays with a warmth and clarity that has only continued to improve as the Tausk years go by.

As for the pacing, Tausk wisely keeps the ballet moving at a fluid pace. This is the key to performing the full ballet as the incidental music can really die if left to wallow. The biggest compliment I can give Maestro Tausk is that by the time the performance got to lead up to the infernal dance I was almost surprised that we were there so quickly. Tausk and the orchestra never let the music lose my interest at any point. No self indulgence to be had here.

As for the big set pieces for the most part they were very well serviced. I had forgotten until back in the moment just how slowly Tausk takes the infernal dance it’s almost jarring after the pace of everything else. For me it worked tough, the orchestra managed to convey a grounded nature to it that built to a manic accelerando at the end. The highlight of the performance overall though was the section bridging the infernal dance and the finale. Principal Bassoonist Julia Lockhart delivered a fantastic solo and the VSO strings were as gorgeous as I have ever heard them in the tremolo build up to the finale. The finale brought the piece to a beautiful close. Tausk and the VSO nailed it in 2018 and they did here as well. Maybe the brass could have let loose a little more near the end, but with playing at this level it was hard to complain.

The twist to Friday night’s performance of the Firebird was that it was accompanied by”symphonic cinema” which was a “live directed” silent film by director Lucas van Woerkum. I am not going to lie to you I was too locked into the Orchestra’s performance itself (credit to the VSO and Tausk for that) to have really paid attention to the film itself. From what I got though it very much came off as an art instillation film, nothing super spectacular, but nothing offensively bad either. The best I can say for the film is that it didn’t add or detract from the performance itself. Given what I feared this could have been, I consider that a victory.

I wish I had more positive things to write about Stewart Goodyear’s rendition of Rachmaninoff’s third piano ticket that occupied the bulk of the first half of the program. Rach 3 is a tough customer, it contains gobs and gobs of notes, but really can’t sound like the soloist is just playing gobs and gobs of notes. There needs to be great clarity in the voices, and a real emotional weight to make the concerto work to its fullest potential. Goodyear seemed like he barely had the gobs and gobs of notes under his fingers, let alone getting close to achieving anything else. It just kind of felt like the concerto swallowed him whole. The thundering climactic cadenza of the first movement felt meek and unbalanced, the second movement failed any sort of lyricism, and all of the finale’s energy came from the VSO powering the movement forward. Unfortunately the less said about this one the better.

The concert opened in full with Jocelyn Morlock’s Night, Herself which is a beautiful 10 or so minute piece that is very emblematic of its composer. Rhythmically inspired and very texturally colorful, Night, Herself is one of the nicer “contemporary composers rework a familiar theme” pieces. One wishes the VSO could have done a more wide ranging tribute to Morlock throughout the season, but the bit we got here was nice.

Review: Maestro Tausk and the VSO Nail Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony

On a night built around Vadim Gluzman it was the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra who stole the show.

Otto Tausk, Vadim Gluzman and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
Photo Credit: VSO

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is wrapping up its 2023/2024 season in style. Friday evening’s prelude of sorts to the day of music and the season finale (Das Lied Von Der Erde yay) featured a big time performance of Shostakovich’s 5th symphony. When the orchestra is playing this well it’s hard not to be excited.

Tausk can probably conduct a great Shostakovich 5 in his sleep. The nerds amongst us remember his surprisingly excellent performance of the symphony with the VSOI program, back when that was a thing that existed. Friday night’s performance was straight forward and to the point but in all the right ways. This was the kind of performance that didn’t get in the way, and provided the orchestra a chance to go for it at every turn. The first movement moved at a quick tempo, flowing organically through its changing themes. Tausk has always had a grasp of the modernist Soviet scherzo and here was no exception, this was played with the gusto required. The Third movement, the gnarliest music of the work, had all of the emotional depth that it needed and more. The now mighty VSO strings searing through the movement’s climaxes in a way that seemed impossible 10 years ago. Also something that felt impossible for the longest time was a finale where everything didn’t get swallowed by percussion and brass. The VSO is now an orchestra that can go full bombast with the clarity of a truly great orchestra. Tausk, for his part, played the final movement with an intelligent ambiguity that made the movement feel like an internal struggle between joy and terror. Oh and those Mariss Jansons esque accelerandos peppered into the finale were a really fun touch.

The most exciting part of Friday’s performance was that the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra sounded as coherent as they have all season. The balances were perfect, the intensity impressive, and gone were some of the wobbles in the woodwinds and brass that have popped up here and there throughout the season. This felt as confident and comfortable as the VSO has been all season. Perhaps it was that Tausk has now been around consistently for the last month, perhaps it was the large special concert audience that provided motivation, or perhaps this is just one of the “VSO pieces.” Whatever it was everyone involved was on fire. Truly exciting stuff all around.

Oh yeah and Vadim Gluzman was there too. Gluzman is one of the most reliable soloists out there and Friday’s performance of the Tchaikovsky concerto was no exception. The first movement took a bit to get going but once the first orchestral outburst came halfway through the movement the VSO jump started what was a pretty great performance from there. The second movement was beautifully sweet and lyrical. Gluzman and the orchestra played off of each other wonderfully. The final movement, the highlight of the performance, Gluzman went full folk delivering a movement that felt almost stuck to the ground in the best ways possible. This was a really good performance from a great soloist that got its due from an enthusiastic Orpheum audience Friday evening.

At the end of the day though it was the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s magnificent Shostakovich that stole the show. This performance was so good that it made me question why not just put this symphony on as your big day of music ending performance? I understand not wanting to feel like you are ripping off paying customers the night before, but the VSO sold this concert on the Vadim Gluzman performance not the Shostakovich. I feel like there was a real missed opportunity here to really grab some potential new fans for the orchestra. You could have still done the Carmen fantasy and the VSO Sinfonietta play along in the first half and then really tried to blow the audience away with Shostakovich in the second. It feels like the VSO plays these kind of big splashy “not the usual crowd concerts” (and lets be honest most of next season) too safely. Casual classical crowds can handle thorny major works! You might just convert a few of the free customers into paying ones that way!

At The VSO: Lack of Chorus Hollows Otherwise Great Daphnis and Chloe

Puzzling decisions lead to a frustrating start to the 2022/23 Vancouver Symphony Orchestra season

Otto Tausk Photo Credit: AARON AUBREY PHOTOGRAPHY 2017

Well I guess Otto Tausk was bound to miss at some point. The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s music director has had a habit of making unique and fresh interpretive choices that have enhanced a lot of the standard repertoire he has conducted in Vancouver. One remembers the stunning contrasts of his Bruckner 4, the incredible rubatos at the end of his Dvorak 9, or the magnificent use of tempo changes throughout his Tchaikovsky 5. It was a small miracle all to itself that to this point the vast majority of these unique decisions worked so elegantly.

Tausk’s big miss finally came at the opening concert of the 2022/23 season with Ravel’s full ballet score for Daphnis and Chloe. For whatever reason the choice was made to perform the ballet without the usual wordless chorus. It created a performance that felt unfortunately hollow at the center. Even in the moments where Tausk and the orchestra dubbed over the chorus parts instrumentally the hole that was left in the overall atmosphere and mood of the piece remained. Most of the ballet’s bigger set pieces, especially the grand finale, just felt empty. Why go to the effort of performing the whole ballet without the chorus? It was a puzzling choice to say the least.

This was especially frustrating given how spectacularly the orchestra performed. This was some of the best orchestral playing I have heard from the VSO. The warm lushness in the strings that has been developed throughout the Otto Tausk’s tenure was on beautiful display here. This is a string sound that has really come a long way and they really got the chance to show it throughout. The VSO’s woodwinds are usually great and there was no exception here, principal flute Christie Reside and principal clarinet Janette Jonquil were especially excellent in their major parts towards the finale. Even Tausk, despite the choice to omit the chorus, gave an overall excellent interpretation. The ballet flowed beautifully from beginning to finish and most importantly had a real rhythmic energy. This was a Daphnis that really moved in a dynamic fashion and never threatened to be brought down by the weight of its lushness. It’s a real shame that all this orchestral excellence ultimately felt a little wasted in a performance that, despite the orchestra’s best efforts, felt frustratingly hollow.

Stewart Goodyear Photo Credit: Andrew Garn

The first half of the program saw Stewart Goodyear come last minute to play Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto. Goodyear’s last two performances with the orchestra have been rather fine with a very good Gershwin piano concerto back in 2019 and an equally spirited Rachmaninoff Variations on a Theme of Paganini early last season. The Tchaikovsky unfortunately never quite got to the level of either of those two performances as it never felt like it really got going until the final movement. In the first two movements it felt as though Goodyear failed to carry the dramatic tension of the piece. Goodyear had a way of making the fortes forceful throughout but really struggled to make the less flashy or dynamic parts of the concerto interesting. This especially made the first movement feel like it was dragging a fair bit. That being said Goodyear brought the goods for the final movement and the orchestra followed suit giving an exciting race to the ending that generated great applause from the packed Orpheum crowd. Not a great Tchaikovsky concerto by any measure but not a bad one either especially given the circumstances.

If there was an award for the strangest part of the night though it was in the opening. After a stirring Nimrod in tribute to Music Director Emeritus Bramwell Tovey, who passed unexpectedly in the summer, the VSO made the rather strange decision to bring out a BC MLA to trumpet the return of live music. It was an odd placement for a speech that really felt like it cheapened the tribute to the VSO’s most important music director. Why not just allow for a moment of silence instead, or have someone come and actually speak about Tovey? There was no need for a politician to speak here even if it is a strange staple of opening concerts and galas. Why cheapen such a nice little tribute? Who thought this was a good idea?

All that aside while I did leave the VSO’s opening concert a hint frustrated I also left hopeful for the season ahead. The orchestra is playing at a very high level at the moment and more often than not throughout the first few years of his tenure Tausk’s unique interpretive choices have helped more than they have hindered. A miss is going to happen every once and a while one just wishes it didn’t happen when the orchestra was playing as well as it was.