When asked what the highlight of the upcoming West Australian Symphony Orchestra season is, WASO’s Executive Manager of Artistic Planning , Marshall Maguire, simply says ‘everything’. Pressed further he’ll let you know that the calibre of visiting artists working with the orchestra this year is quite spectacular, but you can’t keep Marshall Maguire’s enthusiasm for everything WASO from spilling over. Zoe Carter caught up with Maguire for a little insight into upcoming season..

It’s an exciting year ahead for WASO, they’re embarking on a major tour to Japan, working with artists as diverse and exciting as Simone Young, Yefim Bronfman and Melvin Tix the clown. The popular summer outdoor series is returning, and includes a collaboration Human Nature, who Maguire describes as ‘cute, gorgeous, sexy, Motown, yummy, dreamy… something glorious’. Human Nature are performing with WASO and conductor Guy Noble in Kings Park – ‘one of the great outdoor venues in the world’ according to Maguire.

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One of the significant changes for WASO this year is the appointment of new Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser, Paul Daniel. Maguire had plenty to say about the fresh face at the helm of WASO, predicting a great year ahead for Daniel with the orchestra…

‘He’s young for a maestro (he’s just turned 50) so he’s got lots of good ideas. He’s grown up in an era where technology’s not an issue – it’s a real asset for orchestras. I think that that’s something that he’s encouraging us all to embrace more – and that can mean anything; we’ve got podcasts up on line now, we’ve got programme notes up on line, we’re streamed on line now and next year we’re getting on school of the air. We’re hoping to do more streamed concerts on the web –which is great, especially in WA where we’ve got such a big area to cover. You know we want people in Kununurra and Albany and Esperance and Fitzroy Crossing to watch – nothing like being there of course, but it’s the next best thing.

‘[Daniel] gets on really, really well with the orchestra; I mean the orchestra chose him as their chief conductor so there’s a really nice alchemy there… It’s going to be a really, really good journey. He’s got great international contacts and he’s got a really broad repertoire…Paul is a part of the community of musicians that is there and I think he wants to make music with the players in the orchestra, so it becomes more like a chamber music thing, and everybody shares their musical ideas so there’s real ownership of the end product, the musical product

‘I think there’s a real rigour that he brings in terms of certain styles of music, certainly classical music and by that I mean Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert and even into works like Mendelssohn where there’s a whole new performance style where you play with no vibrato or you play with different bows or whatever it is and he’s had a lot of experience with that and I think it’ll be a great experience for audience and orchestra to have that. He’s also had a whole career in opera and so he knows about breathing and about singing and about phrasing beautifully, and I think the musical results are going to be (hopefully) just exquisite in everything we do.’

In the meantime, the 2008 series concludes with Fauré’s Requiem on November 21 and 22, featuring New Zealand born baritone, Teddy Tahu Rhodes and Australian soprano Sara Macliver. Faure’s Requiem, described by WASO as ‘a paradisiacal imagining, with no trace of torment or doubt, scarcely even of mourning’ should be a fitting end to the orchestra’s 80th Anniversary year.

Via phone from New Zealand, Teddy Tahu Rhodes shared his thoughts on….

Singing in Perth…
I love coming to Perth…I’ve worked with WASO a few times now… and it’s always just such a joyful and happy and great musical experience. I know that sounds all kind of gushing, but I just know I’m in for a nice experience which I think just transpires across to the audience.

Fauré’s Requiem…
I first sang it as a chorister when I was touring Europe many years ago with NZ youth choir. And I’ve sung it many times since both as a soloist and a chorister, so I have a very strong geographic affiliation with it as well … the places I’ve sung it have seemed so romantic, or authentic. It was the first piece of music I ever recorded, it’s just beautiful music really, the Agnus Dei is just divine and I just love singing it, I just love the French syle of music. Sara and I recorded it together and we’ve been friends ever since. I’m such as great admirer of hers, she’s such a fabulous singer

Performing…My favourite time be it in opera or concert … is the first moment you get to stand up in front of an orchestra. It’ss always as exciting as the first time you ever did it because it’s a privilege, you feel like you have this amazing musical engine with you and you’re kind of invited into their world and you get to be part of it, it’s a phenomenal.
Quite honestly I never ever get tired of having that chance.

For full details of the upcoming WASO events, see www.waso.com.au.

Zoe Carter