Most successful season yet for Oskar Morawetz with 20-plus
performances
Oscar Morawetz has had his most successful season yet-with some 20 performances of a variety of different works noted since last fall. Some of his most popular
works-Passacaglia and Carnival Overture-were performed several times, but some of his lesser-known works also received performances; Symphony No.
2 was recorded in April by the Ankara Symphony Orchestra
in Turkey, and will be
broadcast on more than 20 radio stations throughout Europe.
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra has been strongly supportive of Morawetz'
works, performing Sinfonietta for Winds and Percussion
twice in November, and Dirge three times this Spring.
Other performances of Morawetz works have been logged by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony, and orchestras in Ottawa,
Winnipeg, Windsor, Kitchener-Waterloo, and Buffalo, N.Y.
Meanwhile, the composer has completed a variety of commissions, and will
hopefully see the premieres of a number of new works in the fall and winter. These may include a sonata for flute and piano, commissioned by Jeanne Baxtresser, principal flautist of the Toronto Symphony, and a work for voice and piano commissioned by Maureen Forrester. The work is based on the 22nd Psalm, and will be
orchestrated later.
The Orford String Quartet premiered the composer's Five Fantasies for String Quartet-commissioned with a grant from the Ontario Arts Council-in March, and May saw baritone Daniel Lichti perform a group of Morawetz songs at the Guelph Festival of Music, with the composer providing piano accompaniment.
Morawetz himself is delighted with the number of his works that have been performed. "It's encouraging when one can look back at a season and ascertain that there have been more than 20 performances of your work,"
he said recently. "It's even more encouraging when one can point out that it is not only the more popular works that are being performed, but a variety of other pieces.
"It certainly keeps a composer going, and provides a continuing level of inspiration to create more works."
