Article content September 6, at 7:30 pm Orpheum Theatre September 8 at 3 pm Vancouver Playhouse September 13 at 7:30 pm St. James Anglican Church The last weeks of summer are often a rather empty, even dull stretch of the calender: summertime specials are over and done with and the short but rewarding fall season yet to start. Not this year.
Three very worthwhile events mark the transition period with interesting options. Ken Hsei and the Vancouver Metropoitan Orchestra have a major late summer event on tap, Sept. 6 at the Orpheum.
This is the VMO’s 22nd “opening night,” and it has a fine program is store: Brahms’ Second Piano Concert featuring soloist Stéphane Lemelin, and Robert Schumann’s glorious Fourth Symphony. Lemelin is one of this country’s finest pianists, and currently Director of McGill University’s Schulich School of Music; he has an expansive opportunity to shine in Brahms’ great symphony/concerto. If there are those who quibble about Schumann’s prowess in orchestral composition, give a listen to the Fourth Symphony—one of the most formally innovative works of its age.
In all, an exemplary program for Hsei’s ensemble of budding professionals. It’s rather rare for the Vancouver Recital Society to begin its season in the first days of September, but that’s exactly what’s on offer Sept. 8 with a unique performance by Rachel Fenlon and, well, Rachel Fenlon.
Fenlon was trained here in British Columbia but has a thriving international car.