The still-spewing Icelandic volcano has forced the Red Deer Symphony Orchestra to move to Plan B for its last concert of the season on Saturday night.
Since most flights from Germany are still being grounded because of the volcanic ash cloud trailing across Europe, the RDSO realized there was no chance Saxony-based soprano Nancy Gibson would make it to Red Deer to perform Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs for the Power and Splendour concert.
Transport officials have indicated that stranded people who have been sleeping in airports will be given first priority when flights resume.
“Of course we were all devastated,” said music director Claude Lapalme — but he soon realized this predicament was just a “small blip” in the grand scheme of things.
Many other performing arts groups across the world have also had to scramble to change their concert line-ups because of flight cancellations.
The RDSO, fortunately, has a young bassoonist, Michael Macauley, who just performed Mozart’s ruthlessly difficult Bassoon Concerto with the Calgary Philharmonic, and is happy to play it again in Red Deer, in place of Strauss’s Songs.
Lapalme said the bassoon is possibly the most challenging instrument for which to write a concerto because of it’s “dark” sound — which in Mozart’s time would have also been softer than the sound produced by today’s bassoons.
“We’re so lucky to have that guy,” said Lapalme of 22-year-old Macauley, a gifted musician and soloist, who is moving to the U.S. in the fall to begin his Masters studies at Indiana University’s prestigious Jacobs School of Music.
His solo performance with the RDSO at the Gaetz Memorial United Church is being billed as a “triumphant farewell.”
Lapalme said the RDSO still intends to have Gibson perform Stauss’s challenging Songs in Red Deer at the earliest opportunity, which in RDSO terms will mean on Sept. 24, 2011.
In the meantime, besides hearing Mozart’s fun and virtuosic Bassoon Concerto this week, the RDSO audience will also enjoy the church’s organ, played by Wendy Markosky during the much requested Camille Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 in C Minor. And the 8 p.m. concert will open with Canadian composer Colin McPhee’s Bali-inspired Nocturne.
Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com