Sarasota Orchestra leads a Guided Tour through music of Mahler and Sibelius

When he was asked by the Sarasota Orchestra to fill in for the late music director Bramwell Tovey, conductor Peter Oundjian didn’t hesitate.

“I can’t say I was a close friend of Bramwell’s, but when we were together, we were extremely close. He had a warm, witty personality and was brilliant at entertaining people,” Oundjian says.

He promises to try to reach Tovey’s ability to connect with audiences and sense of humor when he leads the Masterworks concert “Mahler: A View of Heaven,” which features Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 and guest soloist James Ehnes playing Jean Sibelius’ Violin Concerto.

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“Bramwell would have been brilliant and funny. Mine won’t be as funny,” he said with a chuckle.

There will be three performances of the full concert program, which also features soprano Laquita Mitchell singing in the Mahler at Neel Performing Arts Center and the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. Mitchell, who has been acclaimed for her performances as Bess in “Porgy and Bess,” has sung with Atlanta Opera, San Francisco Opera, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra and Baltimore Symphony, among many others.

The weekend program also marks the introduction of the orchestra’s new Guided Tour series, which will give Oundjian a chance to introduce the works with a lot of context, history and musical references.

The 60-75 minute program is intended to provide additional insights into the work of both Mahler and Sibelius, through commentary and musical excerpts, which will feature both Mitchell singing parts of Symphony No. 4 and Ehnes talking about the challenges of the violin concerto.

Oundjian isn’t sure that Ehnes faces many challenges with Sibelius or any other piece of music.

“He is one of the greatest violinists in the history of the instrument,” he said. “I”ve known him since he was a teenager and I’ve done Sibelius with him and delighted to do it again. It’s one of the great masterpieces.”

He calls it a “unique concerto. It has a particular mood which is special to Sibelius anyway, an awesome mystery that he can conjure with sound and texture and color. It really is one of the most virtuosic concertos in the entire repertoire and a great vehicle for James to demonstrate that aspect of his talents as well as the depth of his musicianship.”

Ehnes performs around the world but calls the Sarasota area home.

The conductor is looking forward to bringing the audience inside the music for the Guided Tour program, particularly about the Mahler symphony.

“I love doing this kind of thing. I’m going to be giving our listeners a very clear and strong impression of what this symphony is about,” Oundjian said.

He describes the Mahler as unique in its own way. “It has a quite small orchestra. It has a kind of chamber quality to it that’s a perfect environment for Mahler to express himself. It has a wonderful kind of naivety and innocence. In a sense, coming out of the third symphony, this particular symphony is almost like another movement of that.”

For the Guided Tour evening, the Sarasota Orchestra is offering free tickets to public servants with a valid ID who sign up online. It is part of the organization’s salute to Hometown Heroes at sarasotaorchestra.org/heroes?feature.

Oundjian, who led the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for 14 years until 2018, and is currently the principal conductor of the Colorado Symphony and the Colorado Music Festival, will be back for two more Sarasota orchestra concerts this season.

He will conduct the February Masterworks concert “A Romantic Affair,” which will include Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 4, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 (featuring Nobuyuki Tsujii) and Brahms’ Symphony No. 1.

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“I cannot wait to play with this pianist. He is astonishing and I’ve always wanted to make music with him. I’m frankly honored to be on stage with him in one of the most beautiful pieces ever written.”

And he will be back with the orchestra March 2 for a sold-out gala concert featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

By then, the Sarasota Orchestra musicians may seem more like old friends rather than the group of strangers he will first meet.

“I honestly don’t know this orchestra, but I have been told by people who live in Sarasota that the orchestra is quite wonderful,” Oundjian said.

After years of guest conducting around the world, he is accustomed to the getting-to-know-you phase, and he learns a lot in “just the first few minutes of playing. You’re absorbing so much information about the orchestra, what they do,” he said.

Rather than trying to get a new orchestra to bend to his pre-planned notion, he sees his role as working with this orchestra that has created its own way of expressing itself “and getting them to be as good as they can be in that particular week. If you go in and want to sound only this way, you’re eliminating 80 people of incredible education and talent who have their own way of expressing themselves.”

Mahler: A View of Heaven

Sarasota Orchestra with guest conductor Peter Oundjian, violinist James Ehnes and soprano Loquita Mitchell. 7:30 p.m. Jan. 5, Neel Performing Arts Center, 5840 26th St., West, Bradenton; 7:30 p.m. Jan. 7 and 2:30 p.m. Jan. 8, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. Tickets are $37-$99. Guided Tour program is at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 6, Van Wezel. Tickets are $26-$69. 941-953-3434; sarasotaorchestra.org

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Violinist James Ehnes joins Sarasota Orchestra for January concert