VSO, dancer Ralph Escamillan perform Carnival of the Animals; streaming starts March 7
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra takes a walk on the wild side with works by Camille Saint-Saëns, Bohuslav Martinů
VSO music director Otto Tausk.
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s Carnival of the Animals begins streaming March 7 at 2 pm PST and will be available for viewing until the end of the season at TheConcertHall.ca
VANCOUVER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA’S new virtual concert is a wild one: on the program is Camille Saint-Saëns’s raucous Carnival of the Animals and Bohuslav Martinů’s boisterous La Revue de Cuisine, with Vancouver choreographer and dancer Ralph Escamillan adding a playful performance to the mix.
Vancouver dancer and choreographer Ralph Escamillan. Photo by Robert Gilbert
Called Carnival of the Animals, the online show is part of the VSO’s OriginO Kids Concerts series, though its appeal is hardly limited to younger audiences.
Saint-Saëns’s Le carnaval des animaux, scored for 11 players, including two pianists, was completed in 1886 but not published until much later because the French composer worried that its “fun” nature would harm his reputation as a serious artist. It’s now one of his most popular works.
Martinů, meanwhile, lived in Paris during the Jazz Age of the 1920s and 30s. A one-act ballet, La Revue de Cuisine (The Kitchen Revue), from 1927, was his first major foray into combining jazz and dance with his classical style. It tells the story of a day in the life of kitchen utensils based on a plot by Jarmila Kröschlová of a love triangle among Pot, Lid, and Whisk. Martinů composed a four-movement chamber suite with clarinet, trumpet, piano, bassoon, violin, and cello.
Pianists Adam Sun and Jonathan Weng, star pupils from the VSO School of Music, perform. with VSO music director Otto Tausk conducting. Escamillan, a queer, Canadian-Filipinx performance artist, is the founder of FakeKnot dance company.
For more information, visit TheConcertHall.ca.
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