カナダの放送オーケストラ再編；CBCRO→NBO

ヨーロッパからは今でも放送オーケストラが来日していますが，北米大陸に唯一残っていたCBC Radio Orchestra （Ottawa) が事実上解散し，National Broadcasting Orchestra に転進して西海岸の　Vancouver, B.C.　に本拠を移したことに，これをscandal だとして強い批判が高まっています．

指揮者，Conductor Alain Trudel はそのままで，カナダの首都ではあっても比較的小都市のOttawa から西海岸の中心都市，Vancouver （2010年冬季オリンピック主催都市）に移すことには，集客の面ではプラスも大きいのでしょうが，それが全国レベルで上手くいくという保障はないのです．

The ensemble intends to be a new orchestra for a new age, offering live performances and traditional radio broadcasts but adding high-definition video projects and Internet broadcasts into the mix. と唱っているように，ライブ演奏会も出来，そのラディオ放送に加えて Videoや　Internet broadcasts も加えたいということのようですが，英語と仏語が公用語になっているカナダで，比較的英語色の強い西海岸への転進が，反対の高まった国民世論にどのように受け容れられていくかが大きな課題として残されているようです．

また，これまでは放送にカナダ人作曲家の新曲を含めることになっていたものが，その伝統が近年では重荷になっていた事実があり，その伝統の継承の有無もなお議論の余地が残されているようです．指揮者は作曲家から範囲を it is essential for Canadian talent: composers, performers, and conductors.”　とやや広げる意図のようですが，それでカナダ色が維持できるのかどうか，まだ課題が残されていると思われます．                                                  　放送だけでいえば，United States からの放送をほとんど自由に受信できるのですが，フランス語圏を抱えたカナダの公用語，英仏語を使った放送を，Vancouver でも続けるのかどうかも課題でしょう． 

その初演では，ベートーヴェンのスケッチから収拾されたピアノ協奏曲0 が初演されると報じられています．

 

Listen to the music: A new national classical orchestra is born in Vancouver

By David Gordon Duke   , Vancouver SunSeptember 15, 2009

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Conductor Alain Trudel conducts the National Broadcast Orchestra 　　　　　　　　　　　　Tuesday at the Telus Studio Theatre in the Chan Centre on the 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Univeriity of British Columbia in Vancouver, B.C.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Photograph by: Bill Keay, Vancouver Sun

VANCOUVER - It was the big scandal in the classical music scene: the head office decision to close down the CBC Radio Orchestra. The demise of the last surviving broadcast orchestra in North America, and the flagship national musical institution based on the West Coast, created a storm of protest and left a legacy of bitterness.

Another chapter in the saga began Tuesday with the official launch of the newly established National Broadcast Orchestra. At the Chan Centre’s Telus Studio Theatre, plans were revealed for the new ensemble’s first performances and projects.

The reconstituted ensemble no longer has administrative ties to the CBC, although it is said to enjoy a productive relationship that will extend to future broadcasts and other projects. 

Alain Trudel, conductor of the CBC Radio Orchestra in its last days, has put his reputation on the line backing the new model, which is supposed to “carry on the spirit of the disbanded CBC Radio Orchestra,” particularly its mandate to perform orchestral music by Canadian composers.

“It’s not going to be easy,” Trudel said in a break right before the press conference, “but it is essential for Canadian talent: composers, performers, and conductors.”

The ensemble intends to be a new orchestra for a new age, offering live performances and traditional radio broadcasts but adding high-definition video projects and Internet broadcasts into the mix. The whole idea is to redefine what a national broadcast orchestra is in a 21st century context: There will be public performances, but not in the accepted sense of a regular series of concerts in a specific locale.

If all the details have yet to be worked out, it’s because nothing quite like this has ever been tried in Canada before. Classical music is still in its infancy as far as new media are concerned and, with all the goodwill in the world, the NBO will succeed — or fail — depending on how well it can capture new audiences.

Although it has been almost a year since Trudel conducted the group, he found working with the ensemble “like we had rehearsed yesterday.”

Then, after the briefest bit of speechifying, Trudel allowed his musicians speak for themselves, and in their most eloquent way: a cracking good example of neo-Neo-Classicism from contemporary composer Michael Oesterle, then the first movement from Prokofiev’s irrepressible Classical Symphony, every bit as polished and professional as one would have heard in the CBCO days.

The orchestra plays on Saltspring Island tonight, a program featuring Prokofiev, Haydn ( his first symphony and the popular Trumpet Concerto, with Jens Lindemann) and Canadian works, including Rodney Sharman’s Scarlattiana.

The formal debut — in the orchestra’s new home, the Chan Centre — is slated for Jan. 8, 2010, a concert to be broadcast by the CBC. Designed as a fundraiser for the “fledgling” ensemble, it will feature the premiere of a CBC-commissioned work from Oesterle plus veteran pianist Anton Kuerti in a performance of Beethoven’s so-called Piano Concerto No. 0, in fact a Kuerti-assembled compilation and orchestration from Beethoven sketches.

Although ultimately the group will be in a position to apply to funding agencies, the emphasis at the moment is on grassroots support. As Trudel points out, more than 100,000 people denounced the decision to disband the Radio Orchestra. Those supporters are now critical to the ensemble’s success.

“We’ve done what we can to this point,” he said. “Now it’s up to everyone to keep it going.”