Violinist Blake Pouliot is having to learn a new piece in a bit of a hurry.
Pouliot is stepping in for Rachel Barton Pine to solo with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra in Stella Boyle Smith Masterworks season-opening concerts Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at Little Rock's Robinson Center Performance Hall.
The orchestra announced earlier this month that Pine had suffered a "minor, nonperformance related injury to her elbow" and was having to take a couple of weeks off to recover. She was planning to play the "Violin Concerto" in A major, op. 5 No. 2, by Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a piece she has been recently championing and recently recorded, and the "Scottish Fantasy" by Max Bruch, part of her signature repertoire.
Guest conductor Vladimir Kulenovic, music director of the dormant Lake Forest (Ill.) Symphony, will be on the podium.
Pouliot knows the "Scottish Fantasy" well. "It's one of my preferred concertos, and I have been asked to play it a lot recently," he says.
But he's learning the Bologne concerto on the hoof, as it were.
"Four days ago, they sent me the score," he says. "I'm having to learn that piece in two weeks, before I come to Arkansas."
Bologne, sometimes (perhaps disparagingly) billed as "the Black Mozart," was a contemporary, friend and sometimes neighbor of Wolfgang Amadeus (who, by the way, appears himself on this weekend's program in the form of the Overture from the opera "The Marriage of Figaro").
Blake Pouliot (Special to the Democrat-Gazette) This violin concerto, says Pouliot, is "very Mozart-esque, completely in the classical style, but that does not mean it's easy. It's full of tricky technical, virtuosic passages. The way it's notated, it's not very violin-friendly.
"It has been challenging to figure out. Nothing too hard, though, and I would certainly consider doing it again, given just a small part of what this piece has to offer."
Getting a fuller picture of the concerto as a whole "and seeing how all the pieces fit together" awaits rehearsing it with the orchestra, he says.
Pouliot (pronounced "POOL-yacht") plays on a 1729 Guarneri del Gesu violin that would have been almost new when Bologne was composing. Pouliot says that is, in some senses, beneficial, but while it has a beautiful sound, it "doesn't make [the concerto] any easier to play."
Subbing for another soloist isn't either a rare or regular occurrence for Pouliot, who, as an up-and-coming performer, gets occasional requests — more frequently, perhaps, since the onset of the covid-19 pandemic.
"Since the pandemic, you see ultimatums with every contract," he says, and if something happens to the "star," the call comes in to him: "'Can you come play that?'" Climbing out of that "young artist" stage of his career, he says, "It's a great way to make an impression on people."
Pouliot has not worked with Kulenovic, "but I've heard wonderful things." (Kulenovic says pretty much the same thing about him.)
Kulenovic, meanwhile, says though it's "wonderful to have that excitement" of working with a new player, "our thoughts are [nonetheless] with Rachel," whom he calls "a wonderful artist."
Vladimir Kulenovic guest-conducts the Arkansas Symphony for its Masterworks season opener. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette) Both live in the Chicago area. And, "I'm a big fan of her work. I had been looking forward to this opportunity."
Kulenovic was originally scheduled to conduct the orchestra's May 2-3, 2020, Masterworks concerts, but "the pandemic kind of delayed our meeting," he says wryly.
He is one of five guest conductors on the schedule in what is probably the final year of the orchestra's conductor search, and the only one of the five not making his second appearance on the podium. (Artistic Director Geoffrey Robson, who has shepherded the orchestra since the departure of Philip Mann, who left at the end of the 2018-19 season, will conduct the sixth Masterworks concert pairing April 1-2.)
Orchestra officials are only saying that these five conductors are ones orchestra musicians have requested, and not directly acknowledging that they are candidates for the permanent job. However, Kulenovic is up front about expecting to be considered. Among other advantages, since the Lake Forest Symphony, shuttered by the pandemic, has not resumed operations, he can start work right away — no lag time.
"It's nice to be considered for a music director [position] when you have a position," he observes, "but it doesn't make you available immediately."
Like the Arkansas Symphony, the Illinois orchestra also did six Masterworks concerts as well as educational concerts and a chamber series, all of which it added under Kulenovic. He also takes credit for the orchestra's growth in the length of season, budget, operations, "the orchestra itself" under his tenure. "Every year the orchestra and the community were in a better place," he says.
There's one other link between the two orchestras — former music director David Itkin, Mann's predecessor, is also a former music director of the Lake Forest Symphony.
Arkansas Symphony Orchestra
- 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday, Little Rock’s Robinson Center Performance Hall, 426 W. Markham St. at Broadway. Opening concert of the orchestra’s 2022-23 Stella Boyle Smith Masterworks season. Violinist Blake Pouliot solos in the “Violin Concerto” in A major, op. 5 No. 2, by Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, and the “Scottish Fantasy” by Max Bruch with guest conductor Vladimir Kulenovic, music director of the Lake Forest (Ill.) Symphony. Mozart: Overture to “The Marriage of Figaro”; Hindemith: “Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber.”
- Sponsor: Saracen Casino Resort
- Tickets: $16-$72, $10 for students and active-duty military. Sunday admission free for K-12 students with the purchase of an adult ticket via the Entergy Kids’ Ticket (arkansassymphony.org/freekids)
- Information: (501) 666-1761, Extension 1; ArkansasSymphony.org