A Fresh Start Oliveira Highlights Symphony Opener

The Spokane Symphony opens its 2000-2001 season Friday with a demanding classics concert in the Opera House.

But the orchestra has its eye on an even bigger challenge acquiring the Fox Theater which symphony audiences will be hearing a lot more about as this season progresses. The symphony is working to raise $1.1 million to buy the historic theater as a performance hall.

For now, the Opera House remains home. Friday’s opening-night audience will be treated to the sight of festive decorations in the lobby and auditorium by fabric artist Louise Kodis; a pre-concert performance by members of the Spokane Youth Orchestra; a juried exhibit of crafts by Inland Craft Warnings; a chance to shake hands with members of the symphony’s board of trustees, and the opportunity to drink almost-free champagne at $1 a glass.

Oh, yes, there is a concert, too.

Violinist Elmar Oliveira is the soloist in Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D major. The orchestra will open the program with Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture” and close the evening with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. Music director Fabio Mechetti will conduct.

The Connecticut-born Oliveira made his New York debut at 16 in one of Leonard Bernstein’s Philharmonic Young People’s Concerts in 1966. Oliveira won a series of other competitions before becoming the first (and, so far, the only) American violinist to win the gold medal of the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1978.

“Elmar has played with our orchestra several times, but it has been quite a few years since the last time he was here,” Mechetti says. “It will be good to have him here for the opening concert because opening night is always one of the most exciting times in any season.”

Oliveira will be busy with other appearances during his stay in Spokane. He will appear with KPBX-FM’s Verne Windham on the symphony’s Lunch and Learn preview program at noon today at the downtown library, 906 W. Main, followed by a visit to Shadle Park High School in the afternoon and a CD signing at Auntie’s Bookstore at 11 a.m. Friday.

Friday will be the beginning of a busy season for Mechetti as well. Along with his full-time duties here, Mechetti will begin his first full season as music director of the Jacksonville (Fla.) Symphony.

“Last year I only spent six weeks in Jacksonville,” the conductor says. “This year it will be 20 weeks in Florida as well as 15 weeks here in Spokane.”

In past seasons, Mechetti’s schedule allowed him the luxury of accepting guest conducting engagements in the United States, Europe and South America.

“This year, my only guest appearance will be with the Seattle Symphony on Oct. 20,” he says. “All that is left is Thanksgiving and Christmas, and nobody wants guest conductors then.”

Mechetti’s Seattle appearance will feature the distinguished Spanish pianist Alicia de Laroccha in works by Haydn and DeFalla, along with orchestral pieces by Turina and Ravel. Laroccha turned 77 in May but still maintains a heavy performance schedule.

A few weeks later, on Nov. 17, Mechetti will conduct the Spokane Symphony in a performance with another venerable artist, Hungarian cellist Janos Starker, who in June celebrated his 76th birthday.

Speaking of Hungarians, Mechetti says that one of this season’s concerts he most looks forward to is Bartok’s “Miraculous Mandarin,” which the symphony and the symphony chorale will present Oct. 27. “That is probably the most challenging piece of the season for the orchestra,” he says.

“I am also excited about playing some of Villa Lobos’ music, especially the Choros No. 10 with the chorus (on March 30). I sure that nobody has heard it in Spokane before.”

Mechetti has also scheduled a March 9 performance of Don Caron’s “Paradigm Shifts,” a work commissioned and performed for the Spokane Symphony’s 50th anniversary season in 1995.

“I thought then it was a very good piece,” Mechetti says. “But after a first performance, you learn how to make it even better, so I asked Don if he would like to revise it. You can’t ask a composer to revise something and then not perform it. After five years, it’s time to play it again.”

The season also includes other soloists and programs Mechetti speaks of enthusiastically: violinist Stephanie Chase, pianists Pascal Roge and Tian Ying, a concert of Shakespeare-inspired music, and Spokane-born soprano Carole Farley. And there is a February concert, near Valentine’s Day, featuring Mechetti’s wife, pianist Aida Ribeiro, as soloist in another of Villa Lobos’ rarely performed works, “Momoprecoce.”

Mechetti will discuss the music on Friday’s program as a part of the Gladys Brooks Pre-Concert Talks series in the Opera House auditorium at 7.

This sidebar appeared with the story: IN CONCERT Spokane Symphony

With violinist Elmar Oliveira. Friday, 8 p.m., at the Opera House. Tickets: $16 to $33 at the Symphony Ticket Office (624-1200) and G&B (325-SEAT, 1-800-325-SEAT or www.ticketswest.com).