The Gazette October 16, 2010
Another Montreal institution that we should not take for granted is Boris Brott. Despite the conductor's identification hereabouts with the McGill Chamber Orchestra -the ensemble founded by Boris's father, Alexander Brott -this native Montrealer has his share of international dates. To judge by his schedule, he is eating well.
Last night, he was conducting the orchestra of the Teatro Petruzzelli, a refurbished historical jewel in the coastal Italian city of Bari. On the program were two Fifth Symphonies, Beethoven's and Tchaikovsky's.
This concert followed the world premiere last Sunday, also in the Petruzzelli, of a violin concerto (titled Zephir) by noted American minimalist Terry Riley. Francesco D'Orazio, a young Italian, was soloist.
Boris Brott conducting a Terry Riley world premiere in Italy: You find that surprising? Maybe incredible? Check out the clip on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch? v=LYtXBQ48UeA. There was also some Canadian music, Alexander Brott's Oracle, on this program.
The language of rehearsal for all this, necessarily, was Italian. "You can barely get along here with English," Brott writes from overseas.
People who hear this affable conductor introduce works bilingually at McGill Chamber concerts might be surprised to learn that he speaks Italian better than passably.
"When I was 17, I was inscribed in the Guido Cantelli Conducting Competition in Stresa, Italy," Brott explains. "My mother and father thought it was a good idea for me to be able to speak to the orchestra in Italian and sent me to a 9-to-5, six-days-a-week immersion course at Berlitz Language School.
"I took to the language very quickly as I had learned to speak Spanish when I spent nine months studying conducting with Igor Markevitch at Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.
"I was 14 and was billeted there with the composer Tapia Coleman and his family of seven girls and one boy. He was also the developer of Acapulco and quite wealthy.
"Anyway, back to Italian, I enjoyed my courses very much as there was a very attractive teacher. I was still quite innocent at 17, but I wanted to impress her."
As for the Petruzzelli Theatre, Brott endorses its looks as well, to say nothing of its comfort and its acoustics. As for Bari and surrounding Puglia, they are unspoiled: beautiful scenery, great seafood and not a McDonald's in sight.
Brott is in California in mid-November, leading three concerts by his Los Angeles-area New West Symphony (another hit by Alexander Brott, Critic's Corner, is on the program). By Nov. 20, he is back in Italy, leading the orchestra of the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona through Beethoven's Second Symphony and Holst's The Planets (or "I pianeti," as the famous suite is known in the language of Galileo).
Brott's winter schedule includes chilly dates with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa (where he is principal youth and family conductor) and the National Academy Orchestra in Hamilton, Ont. (where he actually lives). But in February, he resumes his burgeoning Italian career with a run of Saint-Saens's Samson et Dalila at the Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi in Trieste. This major house has also hired Brott to conduct the Verdi Requiem -a job one might reasonably expect to go to a conductor who speaks Italian as a first language.
Back to Montreal. On Monday you can hear the Maestro concertatore e Direttore of the McGill Chamber Orchestra in Salle Claude Champagne, 220 Vincent D'Indy. On the program are Jacques Hetu's Poeme, the Double Concerto of Mendelssohn (Laurence Kayaleh, violin, and Stephane Lemelin, piano) and the Concert of Ernest Chausson.
This last item is conducted by Jean-Francois Rivest, professor of conducting at the Universite de Montreal. Tickets range from $11 (students) to $45. The concert starts at 7:30. Go to www.ocm-mco.org.
akaptainis@sympatico.ca