In Loving Memory of Maestro Akiyama

Sad news over the weekend – Maestro Kazuoshi Akiyama, beloved and long-term music director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (1972 – 1985), died in Japan.

 

Growing up in Vancouver during the tenure of his music directorship of the VSO, Maestro Akiyama was a significant presence in the Vancouver’s music scene. My first encounter with him was an all-Brahms programme – the first piano concerto with Claudio Arrau, and the first symphony. Even with the atrocious acoustics of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, the music, as well as his brilliant direction of the orchestra, came through loud and clear.

 

It was during those formative years that I experienced many of the great musical masterpieces under his direction – Brahms’ second symphony, Dvorak’s eighth symphony, Mahler’s fourth and fifth symphonies, Bruckner’s zero, many of the Strauss’ tone poems, Elgar’s Enigma Variations, Tchaikovsky's 4th symphony, Mussorgsky/Ravel’s Pictures at an Exhibition, to name just a few, not to mention the great number of distinguished soloists who were guests of the orchestra. In addition to that Brahms performance with the great Claudio Arrau, I clearly remember an incredible performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat Major with Mitsuko Uchida, a gorgeous Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor with Vladimir Ashkenazy, and a beautiful Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor with the young Cho Liang-Lin. 

 

There was a specially arranged concert – a fundraising performance (I no longer remember the cause) – where the orchestra played Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été with Delia Wallis, and Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 in C minor. The way the orchestra played that evening – the sound and the sense of style - under Maestro Akiyama’s direction, rivalled any of the world’s great orchestras.

 

I was sorry that the orchestra did not extend his contract beyond 1985, because the last couple of years of his tenure witnessed some of his most outstanding concerts.  

 

During his farewell performance as music director, he conducted Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor with the then young Jon Kimura Parker, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in G Major, with Delia Wallis. At the end of the Mahler, he did not lower his baton for a long time, as if he was hearing sounds that no one else heard, and that he did not want that moment to end. It was an absolutely magical and stunningly beautiful performance.

 

After a brief stint as music director of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, and other than guest conducting orchestras all over the world, Maestro Akiyama later limited his musical activities in his native Japan. He did return to Vancouver on numerous occasions, and all those return appearances were special. The musicians were evidently happy to see him return, and so was the audience. 

 

After the death of Seiji Ozawa last year, the music world has now lost another great "soldier of music" (to use Shostakovich's words). Audience and musicians in Vancouver ought to be grateful to Maestro Akiyama for his many years of dedicated service in our city. 

 

Personally, I will miss this gentleman and gentle man – not to mention his beautiful prematurely silver-grey hair - his graceful way on the podium, and his indelible music making. The best way to honour a person is to remember them. I will cherish all my musical memories with Maestro Akiyama, and I am certain all the people whose lives he touched would have their own memories of him as well.

 

May he Rest in Peace.

A Less Than Magical Dream

It is difficult to think of summers in Vancouver without Bard on the Beach, our annual Shakespeare festival. Twenty-five years ago, Bard began its history in the city with a modest single production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Since then, the festival has grown bigger and, in most cases, better. It seems entirely fitting, then, for Bard to celebrate its 25^th summer by revisiting this divine comedy yet again.

From the outset of the performance, it seems clear that director Dean Paul Gibson and costume designer Mara Gottler are aiming for maximum silliness and raunchiness in effect. Hermia and Helena appear in tight-fitting corsets, and Puck dresses throughout in ballet tutu, complete with punk hairdo. A friend remarked that this is a reference to A Rocky Horror Picture Show. Indeed, there are numerous pop culture references throughout the evening. Laughs were milked by slapstick antics that became outdated even in Hollywood decades ago with shows like I Love Lucy and The Three Stooges. Moreover, the production was saturated with sexual innuendoes and double entendre, which would have been acceptable, even funny, if they are done with taste, with cleverness, and if they serve the play.

Rather than using Shakespeare’s immortal and oh-so-beautiful words to elevate us from our everyday existence, the production appears to be aiming at the lowest possible common denominator. If the director thinks that dumbing-down Shakespeare would make the play appeal to a younger audience, he has seriously underestimated what young people are capable of.

Regarding the female characters, I believe the director is aiming to portray these women with assertiveness. However, Gibson seems to have mistaken assertiveness with vulgarity. In the confrontation between Hermia and Helena in Act III, the actors were shouting their lines like men and women in the fish market haggling over the price of the latest catch. Shakespeare, like Mozart in his operas, has always endowed his female characters with wit, with cleverness, and with confidence. The concept of the current production has, to me, robbed the female characters of their true beauty and, more importantly, dignity.

This attempt to update this, probably Shakespeare’s most timeless play, has robbed Midsummer Night’s Dream of all its magical elements. By the time the performance reaches Act V, the play-within-the-play - the “tragedy” of Thisby and Pyramus - feels very tedious with even further attempts at slapstick humour more appropriate for a Christmas pantomime by an amateur theatrical company.

At the end of the performance, I did not feel a sense of wonder, or of joy. I did wonder what, if any, is the director’s concept for the production? Surely there is more to this great Shakespeare play than just to elicit a few laughs from the audience? By the time the performance reaches Puck’s beautiful final monologue, I could not wait to escape into the beautiful summer evening.

Just a few days later, on the same stage, I witnessed a production of Twelfth Night, given by the young players of Bard on the Beach youth programme (“Young Bard”). For me, the enthusiasm and earnestness of the young actors make the performance a much more joyful and joy-filled experience than what the professional players had accomplished a few nights before. Personally, this performance of “unadulterated” Shakespeare is closer to what the playwright had in mind.

In this 25^th anniversary season, Artistic Director Christopher Gaze should feel justifiably proud of what the festival has accomplished. I do hope, however, that Gaze would also carefully examine the future direction for the festival. Rather than using Shakespeare to further whatever personal or political agenda of the director, should they not be directing their talents toward bringing us, the audience, into new and wondrous discoveries and insights into Shakespeare’s heart and soul?

Dreaming Out Loud

Peter Ladner, a former city councillor and mayoral candidate in Vancouver, recently said that our city “desperately needs a visible centre for the high-tech industry.”

Well, Mr. Ladner, there has been something I’d want to get off my chest for a long time now. What this city truly and desperately needs are some world class performing arts centres. Let us look at what we have right now.

The Queen Elizabeth Theatre, opened with great fanfare in 1959, represents the absolute worst of architecture from the 1950’s and 1960’s. This hall is now, unfortunately, the home of the Vancouver Opera. Whenever I am inside the theatre, I am taken back to the time when Vancouver was a quiet and very provincial backwater. What is more, the acoustics of the hall is deplorable, and both the stage and the orchestra pit are far too small. Unless you are seated at the first ten rows from the stage, there is no immediacy in the sound. If you happen to be unlucky to be seated in the upper balconies, you can perhaps see figures moving on stage, but the music being played on stage would, unless amplified, sound like listening to a stereo system from far, far away. The theatre is one of those so-called “multi-purpose” halls that ends up being good for not much else, and is a disgrace to our city. Perhaps it is good enough for Andrew Lloyd Webber, with all the voices singing into hidden microphones, but it is certainly not good enough for Mozart.

The Orpheum Theatre, home of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, dates from 1927 and was restored in the 1970’s. It is, and deserves to be, a heritage building, because of its old world splendour. But it is not a concert hall. No matter how many acoustical panels they install, there are far too many dead spots for sound. Again, unless you are one of the lucky ones sitting close to the stage, you might as well stay home and listen to your own sound system.

We are certainly fortunate in our city to have the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, situated in the campus of the University of British Columbia. The hall, not much to look at from the outside, does have comfortable seating, and the acoustics is beautiful. But the hall is limited because of its small stage and lack of an orchestra pit.

Apparently Vancouver did have a “real” opera house once upon a time. In 1890, the Canadian Pacific Railway built The Vancouver Opera House, on

733 Granville Street

, for the sum of $100,000. At the time, it was considered outrageous to spend such an amount of money for a “small town”, but it was an indication of the CPR’s optimism in the city’s future. The opera house seated 2,000 - when the population was a little over 10,000 - and it opened in 1891 with a performance of Wagner’s Lohengrin.

I have a dream. That one day we will have a world class performing arts complex that can house both our orchestra and opera company. I have a vision that the complex will be situated in the Vanier Park area, looking out towards Burrard Inlet. Like Sydney Harbour, we will then have a beautiful performing arts centre in the midst of spectacular natural beauty. Do we have someone with the optimism in our city’s future to initiate such a project?

When that day comes, Vancouver will truly be the international city it purports, or wishes to be.

Hey, a guy can dream, can’t he?