The VSO maestro’s latest composition takes its cues from the lighthanded love poetry of Dorothy Parker

Love affairs—many love affairs—inspired Bramwell Tovey’s new chamber-music opus, Pictures in the Smoke, which receives its North American premiere at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre on Friday (January 18). But the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s music director wants to make one thing perfectly clear: while his piece has a biographical dimension, it’s not his biography.

“It’s actually based on a little-known poem by Dorothy Parker,” explains the composer, conductor, and pianist, reached on his cellphone while negotiating the “ambling” drive between his downtown office and his home. “Basically, the ‘pictures’ are of various love affairs that she had. The first one was very intense, and the second one was all about him, and the third one was a bit less interesting, and after that she gets them all mixed up. It’s a very funny little poem.”

It’s not unusual for Tovey to find inspiration in literature. His 2007 composition Fugitive Voices, for instance, was inspired by the written records left behind by American slaves who found sanctuary in Canada through the Underground Railroad. Pictures, however, is comparatively lighthearted—and there was one audience member in particular that he aimed to please.

“A lot of my music is pretty dark,” he says, amusement in his voice. “And my wife once said to me, ‘Oh, for Christ’s sake, can’t you write something a bit more cheerful?’ So that’s really why I came up with this piece: to be a little bit more humorous.”

Poet and journalist Parker’s bittersweet love lyric—“Woman wants monogamy/man delights in novelty”—was just the ticket, he says, although he cautions that the resulting music has only a tangential relationship to the original text.

“It’s a sort of jazz-slash-minimalist work,” he explains. “And although it’s not a literal description, it follows the pattern of the poem, which starts off relatively seriously for the first couple of lines and then just sort of disintegrates into this semi-farce.”

Literature of a kind inspired at least one of the other pieces on Friday’s bill. Harold Meltzer’s Full Faith and Credit is named for a phrase from the constitution of the United States—although so far, Tovey can’t find any direct link between this source and the way his New York City–based colleague’s work sounds.

“It’s just wonderful, isn’t it, that something as erudite as the U.S. constitution—I choose my words carefully—can inspire a piece for two bassoons,” he says. “I’m not sure how he has arrived at that place, but I sometimes find that these connections, however obtuse they might seem, reveal themselves once you get down to work.”

The other featured pieces—Brian Cherney’s In the Stillness of September 1942 and Omar Daniel’s Strategies Against Architecture—were chosen for their musical content alone, and for the opportunities they afford VSO wind specialists Beth Orson, Julia Lockhart, and Sophie Dansereau.

“I lead a great team, you know,” Tovey says. “And I’m lucky that they indulge my various passions, not only for conducting, but also for composition and playing.”

The maestro diplomatically declines to comment on whether he intends to renew his contract, which expires in 2010, but he notes that he plans to be present for the opening of the VSO’s new headquarters and learning centre on Seymour Street, scheduled for September of that year.

In the more immediate future, there are other things for Tovey to look forward to, including the Grammy Awards gala on February 10. This year, the VSO and violinist James Ehnes have been nominated in the category of best instrumental soloist performance (with orchestra), for their CBC recording of works by Samuel Barber, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and William Walton. (Ehnes and the orchestra are set to play the Chan Centre on Friday and Saturday [January 18 and 19], in an all–Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart program.) After that, Tovey will head to the awards show in Los Angeles with high hopes.

“Just yesterday, we made a family decision that we’re going to go and see what happens on such occasions,” he says. “And—touch wood—things have gone very well in the last three or four years, so I hope that that upward trend continues.

“In general,” Tovey adds, “the future’s looking pretty good.”