The economy might be down, but the worst is over for Northwest Sinfonietta, and the orchestra is celebrating two years of fiscal smarts with a season of full-scale chamber works from Mozart to Mendelssohn. They’re even throwing in big Romantic works to boot, and three of them appear on this weekend’s program: Wagner’s prelude to Act III of “Tristan und Isolde,” Fauré’s “Pelléas et Mélisande” suite, and the Brahms piano concert no. 2.
“After two years of extreme frugality, of tightening our belts to make it through the recession, it’s like a comeback story for us to be able to have the entire orchestra featured in every concert and every cycle,” said founding director Christophe Chagnard. “The staff and board have done wonders to keep us alive. We just approved the biggest budget in our history: $825,000. It’s reassuring; there’s confidence, optimism.”
While the past couple of years have offered programs with a handful of musicians on stage, the 2011-12 season – the orchestra’s 21st – features a full 36-piece ensemble in each of the six subscription concerts in all three venues: Seattle, Tacoma and Puyallup.
Because the orchestra is bigger, the music can be also. To open the season this weekend, Chagnard has chosen three 19th-century works usually performed by full symphony orchestras, though very playable with a chamber group. Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” prelude is one of two by the composer often played by smaller ensembles; rather than loud, grand gestures, the work uses dissonance and yearning to explore the idea of unfulfilled love inspired by both the medieval legend and Wagner’s own love life.
“Pelléas et Melisande” is also about two lovers who fall short of bliss. Written as incidental music for the play by Maurice Maeterlinck, the score is the aesthetic polar opposite of Wagner, woven with delicate lines and texture like the forest horn calls in the opening or the famous Sicilienne flute solo rising mysteriously through a minor arpeggio.
“Fauré is very light, it’s all about shadings and color,” said Chagnard. “There’s a misperception of Fauré (as big) – the original (chamber) version is better than the symphonic one.”
Last on the program comes Brahms’ second piano concerto, a major work that Chagnard has been waiting to conduct – waiting for the right moment, the right soloist and the right instrument. This weekend, John Novacek will serve as pianist, an international soloist and collaborator who also regularly appears on NPR and television programs such as “The Tonight Show.” For this concert, the orchestra will move its Puyallup concert from the Pioneer Pavilion to the theater at Pierce College, which has a better piano, Chagnard said.
Chagnard admits doing this piece with a chamber orchestra is unusual: “(The piece) is more a symphony with piano solo than a concerto; it’s big and lush.”
After this weekend, the season moves on to more standard chamber fare: a Mozart vs. Salieri program with Sinfonietta concertmaster Adam LaMotte and principal violist Heather Bentley as soloists (November), a Puccini aria evening (February), violin prodigy Marié Rossano playing the Tchaikovsky concerto (March), an evening of Prokofiev, Saint-Sans and Mendelssohn with local cellist David Requiro (April) and a June gala concert pairing former Seattle Symphony conductor Gerard Schwarz with his son Julian as cello soloist.
“Our musicians are thrilled,” Chagnard said about the season. “To have all players appear in every concert, that’s good to have again.”
Rosemary Ponnekanti: rosemary. ponnekanti@thenewstribune.com
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