Vancouver Symphony Orchestra records versions of “O Canada” for Vancouver 2010
Kevin Griffin, Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, September 22, 2008
METRO VANCOUVER – One of the biggest challenges of recording more than 100 anthems for the 2010 Winter Olympics is finding each one’s emotional core, conductor Bramwell Tovey said Monday at the Bell Performing Arts Centre in Surrey.
“We have to rummage around and try and get inside each one,” Tovey told the media prior to a recording session that included O Canada.
“It’s just the same as digging inside Beethoven – of trying to find what the core of Beethoven is all about. With each national anthem we have to discover what the core is.”
Over three days ending today, Tovey conducted 73 musicians in the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra for a recording session organized by Vanoc, the organizing committee for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Although about 85 countries are expected to compete in 2010, Vanoc was recording anthems for all countries with Winter Olympic organizing committees in case more attend.
If approved next spring by the various Winter Olympic organizing committees, the versions recorded by VSO will be played during the gold medal presentations and when the national Olympic delegations arrive at the Olympic Village. They’re all instrumental and contain no lyrics.
Under Tovey, the VSO has won its first Grammy and Juno awards.
Playing an anthem isn’t as simple as just following the notes. Anthems for countries such as Madagascar and Ethiopia required new arrangements for a full orchestra. The Spanish anthem was marked on the score to be played at a pulse of almost one a second – yet the Spanish government’s website said it should be played at two pulses a second.
“I feel a little bit like a one-man United Nations,” he said. “The biggest worry is that you’re going to play an anthem and you’re not going to please the country where the anthem come from.”
Tovey praised the Brazilian national anthem, comparing it to a sparkling overture by Gioachino Rossini.
Tovey said he wasn’t concerned about playing the U.S. national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner. The version played during the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens wasn’t considered stirring enough by some Americans.
“I conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic as the principal guest conductor at the Hollywood Bowl and every single concert at the Hollywood Bowl begins with The Star-Spangled Banner,” he said. “So I’m used to doing that.”
But the first time he conducted the LA Philharmonic, he got a quick education about how patriotic Americans are about their anthem.
“I asked the orchestra if we could rehearse it,” said Tovey. “They actually stood to rehearse it, which I found astonishing. Certainly in Canada, we don’t stand to rehearse the national anthem – we stand for the actual event.
Video credit: Vancouver Sun
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Duration : 0:2:56
Rare to see such …
Rare to see such powerful performed versions of the anthem. Simply great!