What does an orchestra do when it suddenly loses its performance home? The Fort Worth Symphony recently had to answer this question when Performing Arts Fort Worth, which runs Bass Performance Hall, told them the hall will remain closed until January. The FWSO was notified on Sept. 4, only two weeks prior to its symphonic series opening.
Keith Cerny, president and CEO of the FWSO, says the news came as a “complete surprise.” The orchestra and PAFW had been holding regular discussions all summer to discuss reopening procedures.
Having previously rescheduled its pops concerts at Will Rogers Auditorium in Fort Worth’s Cultural District, the FWSO luckily was able to move its fall symphonic series there as well.
Performing Arts Fort Worth declined to comment on the late notice to the FWSO. But a Sept. 4 statement from the organization’s president and CEO, Dione Kennedy, attributes its “difficult, but professional decision” to postpone reopening Bass Hall to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. PAFW will continue to evaluate the possibility of reopening Bass Hall in January.
Coming to performances
In preparing for the upcoming season, the FWSO has faced other challenges. The orchestra learned in August that its opening-weekend soloist, Russian pianist Alexander Malofeev, originally scheduled to perform Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, couldn’t come to America because of travel restrictions. In Malofeev’s place, Canadian pianist Stewart Goodyear will play Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No. 2 this weekend.
“I love every second of that concerto,” Goodyear says. “The way the piano and orchestra work together and play off each other is something that’s so innovative, so sparkling, as well as dramatic.”
Patrick Summers, artistic and music director of Houston Grand Opera, will conduct. After a monthslong hiatus in performances throughout the country, Summers says, “It’s thrilling to think about being among my peers again.” It’s also “nerve-wracking,” he adds, to be returning to the concert hall — and in his FWSO debut — because he’s been used to rehearsing almost every day and performing weekly. “It feels like five years, but it’s only been seven months.”
In addition to the Saint-Saëns concerto, Summers will conduct the overture to Rossini’s The Barber of Seville and Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony.
“I always find Mendelssohn so life-affirming,” Summers says. “He just makes sound dance. … In fact, the three composers on this program probably share that quality. There’s an ebullience to each of them that I think is really important right now.”
This will be the first FWSO season opener in 20 years not led by Miguel Harth-Bedoya, who stepped down as music director Aug. 1. The search for his replacement has been put on hold due to the pandemic, Cerny says.
A stage extension at the Will Rogers Auditorium will help accommodate up to 40 socially-distanced orchestra members. String players will wear masks, while winds and brass are experimenting with bell covers. Audiences will be limited to 800, or about 28% of the auditorium’s capacity. Masks will be required.
Details
7:30 p.m. Friday, 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at Will Rogers Auditorium, 3401 W. Lancaster Ave., Fort Worth. $25 to $99. 817-665-6000, fwsymphony.org.
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