VAM Symphony Orchestra expresses all the moods of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4, February 25 and March 3
Maestro Ian Parker conducts concert of work that follows composer’s journey from melancholy to euphoria
Maestro Ian Parker takes the podium.
Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra plays the Kay Meek Arts Centre on February 25 at 2 pm and the Orpheum on March 3 at 2 pm
“I adore terribly this child of mine; it is one of only a few works with which I have not experienced disappointment….This is my best symphonic work.”
SO WROTE Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky of his 1878 Symphony No. 4—a piece that followed a disastrous marriage and a period of intense mental duress for the composer. Classical-music fans will get the chance to experience all the moods of his journey when the Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra plays the masterpiece live in two concerts.
Maestro Ian Parker conducts the symphony, which opens by heralding the power of Fate with striking fanfares by brass and wind instruments; then, in the second movement, the unmistakable melancholy of depression sets in. But by the third, the mood is lifting, carried along by a Russian dance, reaching something close to euphoria by the virtuosic fourth movement. Within that arc, there’s much more to discover—and to relate to on a deeply human level, over a century later.
VAM pairs the iconic symphony with a work by another Russian composer: Sergei Prokofiev’s 1921 Piano Concerto No. 3—a modern masterpiece that also travels a range of emotions. At the keyboard for this famously punishing work that demands so much dexterity and stamina: Merett Khamis, young winner of the prestigious Kay Meek Competition.
Joining those two showpieces on the program is Leonard Bernstein’s “Overture” from Candide—a work that further displays the orchestra’s range, drawing as it does from classical, jazz, and Latin American rhythms.
The orchestra consists of more than 100 students from the academy. 
Related Articles
