Shifting gears
Symphony conductors have different ways of getting to work. Leonard Bernstein was taken to New York Philharmonic rehearsals in a chauffeur-driven limo, and Erich Leinsdorf drove himself to the Boston Symphony in a red sports car. But Eckart Preu makes his way from his home in Browne’s Addition to the Spokane Symphony offices on his bike – a mode of transport that reflects the fresh look the 34-year-old Preu hopes to bring to the symphony in his first season as music director.
“I hope we can do some things a little differently,” says Preu (pronounced PROY). “This is a very good orchestra, and it has been in Fabio Mechetti’s excellent hands for the past 10 years. But we always look for new ways to bring music to people and unfamiliar music to bring to our audiences.”
Getting the symphony out of the Opera House for concerts elsewhere in the community has been a part of the orchestra’s efforts for a long time. Park concerts, such as the one at Liberty Lake last weekend and in Comstock Park on Labor Day, have become traditions.
Taking the orchestra into churches and neighborhood centers, and on the road to such places as Chewelah and Wellpinit, Wash., were initiatives started by John Hancock, the symphony’s departing executive director.
“We certainly are going to expand those ways of getting out to people as much as we can,” says Preu, previously the associate conductor of the Richmond (Va.) Symphony. “I want to see us play in places that are cool places to go to.
“And we will be playing our first such concert at The Big Easy on Oct. 15. We are calling this concert ‘Symphony on the Edge,’ not only because it is not a ‘normal’ place to hear classical concerts, but also because we will play some music that is ‘on the edge,’ as well as some music that was on the edge when it was first performed.”
When Preu recently spoke over coffee, the plans for the concert at The Big Easy — a downtown hall that more typically hosts the likes of Orgy and Slayer — had not been fully settled. But Preu promised a program of works by composers ranging from Vivaldi and Beethoven through Leonard Bernstein and John Adams.
Asked which of the Opera House concerts held special interest for him, Preu diplomatically replied: “The next one, always.”
After a moment’s pause, he began to list some of the works and soloists he was looking forward to this season.
“I’m really looking forward to introducing our audience to some ballet music,” Preu said. “Of course the big Stravinsky ballets are familiar, but in addition to ‘The Firebird’ on our first concert, I know people will love the less familiar ballet music we’ve programmed early in the season: Glazunov’s ‘The Seasons,’ Nielsen’s ‘Aladdin’ and Roussel’s ‘Bacchus and Ariadne.’
“And there are other unfamiliar works we’ll be doing as well,” he added. “Those who like Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Scheherazade’ will surely like his ‘Sadko,’ which we’re doing in January. And it’s time people here get to hear some composers from the time of Strauss and Debussy such as Janacek and Zemlinsky.”
Preu’s programming doesn’t neglect symphonic favorites, though. Debussy’s “La Mer” will be heard in October. Tchaikovsky’s popular Piano Concerto No. 1 and Brahms’ First Symphony are scheduled for January. And familiar favorites by Mozart, Liszt, Wagner and Grieg are scattered throughout the season.
In addition to classics concerts, the season will include the SuperPops series with featured acts such as the Dukes of Dixieland and Doc Severinsen, and The Met series with three homecoming concerts showcasing pianist Stephen Drury, violist Lois Landsverk and violinist Jason Moody, musicians who began their careers in Spokane.
Preu, a native of Germany, is one of the few conductors whose earliest training was as a chorister rather than an instrumentalist.
He will feature the Symphony Chorale in Mendelssohn’s “Lobgesang (Song of Praise)” in November, and in the season’s closing concert in May with two settings of the Gloria by Poulenc and Vivaldi.
“There is so much wonderful music for chorus and orchestra other than the big Requiems by Brahms and Verdi, wonderful works by Bach and Hadyn and Mozart, for example,” Preu says. “But a lot of it is not well suited to the big spaces of the Opera House. And if you use a chorus of any size in The Met, you don’t have room for an orchestra — all the more reason that we have to get busy and get into the Fox.”
In addition to the renovation and expansion of the historic, mid-sized Fox Theater as the symphony’s performing home (an ongoing project that’s still seeking funding), Preu’s agenda for Spokane includes the reintroduction of family concerts.
“These are vital for the educational mission of our orchestra, not just for kids but for their parents, too,” he says. “The ‘Symfunnies’ concerts just didn’t do what we needed to do. So I am hoping we can work out a type of concert that will connect us better with the excellent teachers in the public schools, a kind of program that will show how music connects with other subjects.
“Music is not something that exists in isolation or for just a special group of people. It is something that let all of us express things we can express in no other way.”