His First Symphony
This work of Czech-born Oskar Morawetz, a down-to-earth composer who likes to write melodies,
is being anticipated as a significant contribution to contemporary music
This spring music lovers across Canada will hear, via the CBC Trans-Canada network, the world premiere
of a Canadian symphony which might well become world famous. It is the first symphony of Dr. Oskar Morawetz, who is 38.
[...]
Actually, the finale to this first symphony of his is gay in the Bohemian way. Officials of the French radio
network obtained permission from the composer to play this one movement in mid-January. It was performed by the
French national radio symphony orchestra; but, unfortunately, Morawetz was not able to hear his own work being played.
He, too, has to wait until the entire symphony is premiered over the CBC.
Montreal-born Dr. Wilfred Pelletier, who has conducted opera at New York's Metropolitan as well as Chicago and
San Francisco, and many of the major symphony orchestras in North America, will conduct the premiere on Monday, March 5,
at 9 p.m. It will be played by the CBC Symphony orchestra. Reports have it that Walter Susskind, successor to Sir Ernest
MacMillan as a permanent conductor of the Toronto Symphony orchestra, is interested in playing it, too.
It took the composer a year and a half to write the symphony. Actually he revised it three times before he was
satisfied; and, judging from his previous record, this should be a most appealing and significant Canadian composition.
[...]
