Exemplary conduct

Maestro Victor Feldbrill remembered as champion of Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Canadian composers

By: Holly Harris

The classical music world lost a towering giant and passionate architect of Canada’s contemporary music scene when beloved conductor Victor Feldbrill died in Toronto on June 17. He was 96.

Feldbrill led the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra from 1958 until 1968, succeeding its inaugural music director Walter Kaufmann. He was appointed at the tender age of 34 as notably the youngest Canadian-born maestro to helm one of the nation’s major orchestras.

"I’ve often referred to the WSO as my first baby," Feldbrill, then 93, told this writer over the telephone from his Toronto home prior to returning to the WSO podium in October 2017 to launch the orchestra’s 70th anniversary season with his own choice of Beethoven’s Leonore Overture, No. 3. "That was the first orchestra I had as a music director... and they were truly marvellous years with the WSO."

His enduring legacy and inestimable influence on the now 73-year-old organization includes bringing such luminaries to town as violinists Isaac Stern and Yehudi Menuhin, cellist Jacqueline du Pré, pianists Claudio Arrau and Byron Janis, as well as a young upstart, 27-year old Glenn Gould (Feldbrill’s former school chum at the then-Toronto Conservatory of Music), who gave his debut performance of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15 under his baton at the WSO’s former playground, the Winnipeg Civic Auditorium in 1959.

"This was his first performance of the work and he did it at my request," Feldbrill stated matter-of-factly of the legendary pianist who regularly entrusted his friend to lead his concerto performances before taking them to the world stage. "I knew him quite well and we had done a lot of things together in Toronto. It wasn’t in his repertoire, but he learned it for the concert. It was a magnificent performance."

Born in Toronto to Polish-Jewish immigrants in 1924, Feldbrill first cut his conducting teeth with the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1942, and made his Toronto Symphony Orchestra debut the following year — he notably led the TSO a few weeks after his WSO appearance in 2017, as well as his own curated series celebrating Canadian music in his hometown earlier that spring.

He performed as first violin with the TSO between 1949 and 1956, and served as resident conductor of the TSO from 1973 until 1978. His numerous awards and accolades include being made an officer of the Order of Canada in 1985, and the Order of Ontario in 1999.

"It seems incredible to me that the eternally young Victor Feldbrill is no longer with us," Sir Andrew Davis, Interim Artistic Director of the TSO recently told Ludwig van Toronto editor Michael Vincent. "His championing of Canadian music was second to none, and many composers were and are indebted to his commitment and enthusiasm. Perhaps, above all, his positive and joyful outlook on life was an example to us all. He is much missed."

One of those in the city who remained closest to Feldbrill is WSO artistic operations associate James Manishen, a clarinettist who performed under Feldbrill during the late 1960s, and who also took weekly conducting lessons as a young teenager at the maestro’s River Heights home that he shared with his cherished late wife Zelda, and their two daughters, Debbi and Aviva.

"Victor was a builder of the WSO, in addition to being an excellent conductor and musician," says Manishen, who first attended a Feldbrill performance during the late 1950s as an elementary school student.

"Victor’s conducting style was very dynamic, very energetic and very focused. He always gave the sense that he was behind you all the way and all the musicians loved him for it," he adds.

Feldbrill is widely hailed as the driving force in the creation of an acoustically superior performance venue for his musicians. The Centennial Concert Hall opened to great fanfare on March 25, 1968 with a joint production showcasing the WSO and Royal Winnipeg Ballet, supplanting the Winnipeg Civic Auditorium.

The visionary artist also proved instrumental in creating a Pops series to entice curious listeners with free Sunday matinee performances, and the establishment of a core nucleus orchestra of then 50 players — many of whom moonlit as doctors, engineers and teachers — that provided an infrastructure of critical continuity and allowed the WSO to regularly tour throughout Manitoba, Ontario and the northern U.S., as well as local high school gymnasia, that reflected his lifelong, deep dedication to fostering a deep love for music in young people.

Revered as a champion of contemporary music, Feldbrill frequently programmed works by an unprecedented, A-list of Canadian composers during regular Thursday night performances — always beginning at 8:40 p.m. sharp to allow patrons to settle in — including John Weinzweig and Harry Somers, among many others.

"He was particularly supportive of that post-war generation of composers who worked very hard to find a distinctive Canadian voice in defiance of the new sound world emerging from south of the border," former WSO music director/composer Bramwell Tovey says of his predecessor, who returned to his then 50-year old "baby" during Tovey’s tenure at the WSO’s golden anniversary season celebrated in 1997-98, describing Feldbrill as "always a gentleman and an absolute devotee of Canadian composers."

"Maestro’s contribution to the history of Canadian orchestral music is immense. Anyone who spends a couple of hours at the CMC (Canadian Music Centre) listening to archived radio performances of the classic scores of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s will hear and read his name constantly, as a dedicatee or conductor of a world première," the British-born Tovey writes in a public statement. "Lovely man, tremendous legacy."

WSO Executive Director Trudy Schroeder likewise sings praises for the maestro, saying her organization owes him "a debt of gratitude."

"He had a real energy for taking an orchestra to the next level, as well as had a strong commitment to our community," she explains over the telephone. "A part of our role as Manitoba’s orchestra is to always be thinking of our connection to the international music community, and that was very much a part of Victor Feldbrill’s legacy here. He gave the WSO a greater context and confidence in itself."

World-renowned British cultural commentator and award-winning author Norman Lebrecht, among the first to break the news of Feldbrill’s passing to the global community on his classical music blog "Slipped Disc," had exchanged several emails with Feldbrill, describing the musician as "extraordinarily pleasant and helpful."

"From what I know of his recordings, he was also a remarkably sensitive conductor with an exceptional aptitude for shades of colour," Lebrecht states via email from his London, UK home. "I feel sure he could have cut quite a dash with European orchestras but it seems he made a conscientious decision to apply himself to the development of musical standards in Canada — and just look at the results now."

Pulitzer prize-winning music critic and notably a close personal friend of Glenn Gould’s, Tim Page, met Feldbrill at a "Gould gathering" that included the conductor autographing his copy of Walter Pitman’s 2010 biography, Victor Feldbrill: Canadian Conductor Extraordinaire, as well as presenting Page with a private version of Gould’s seminal WSO recording of the Brahms.

"Victor Feldbrill was part of that great generation of musicians who brought Canada world attention," Page writes in an email from his New York City home. "His death is a loss to us all, and especially those who came to know him and delight in his company. I’m so sorry I was never able to hear him with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, but glad that he made recordings that will continue to engage and inspire us."

Discussions had been underway to bring Feldbrill back to the WSO podium, and possibly for its 75th anniversary being marked in 2022-23. Feldbrill relished the tantalizing prospect back in 2017, clearly fearless and unflinching about taking the stage to lead his adored musicians as further testament to his lifelong zest for music, evidenced by the years simply melting away during his final curtain call three years ago.

"We’ll have to wait and see," he said of a potential encore appearance, that would augment another prior WSO concert marking his 80th birthday in March 2004. "I’m basically retired now but if anything comes up, I’ll gladly do it."

Feldbrill also didn’t miss a beat when asked if his astonishing, nearly 80-year career as then one of the world’s oldest active living conductors was what he expected when he first picked up a baton as a teenager growing up in Toronto.

"In some ways, it went beyond whatever I dreamed of," he revealed. "Roughly half of my life as a musician was conducting youth orchestras, and reliving the experience of discovering music through young people. That brings an excitement to you as a conductor, as you pass on these traditions to a new generation," he added. "There’s nothing like live performance, and the pure joy of making music together."

holly.harris@shaw.ca