Masterworks Series Opening Night: Fall 2011

Sunday October 2, 2011

Masterworks Series Opener: Orchestra London All-Stars

by Brian Hay

Orchestra London's new music Director Alain Trudel began this show on largely the same premise he brought into focus at the Spring Gala. Each piece was introduced in some detail and in a way that shared both knowledge and humour and he placed the spotlight squarely on the musicians. That the standard will be high goes without saying—he cares about music too much to have things any other way—but everyone involved is going to be the richer for it because he cares about the people on both sides of the stage.

The show opened with a group of brass players, two trumpet players, three trombonists and three French Horn players to be exact, and Alain on the stage. When played their enjoyment was a pleasure to watch. Their reading of Giovanni Gabrieli's 'Sonata pian é forte was one that breathed with reverence and respect for the material they were presenting. Their performance of the 'Canzon septumi toni', also by Gabrieli, sparkled with fun, both that which was written into the music and the amount they were having on stage.

The 'Sinfonia Concertante' for Violin, Viola and Orchestra by Mozart brought a pair of the Orchestra's musicians to the fore. Associate Concertmaster Mary Elizabeth Brown and the group's Principle Violist Kelvin Enns shared a rapport which can only be formed by having worked together for so long. The orchestra opened the piece with a sprightly feel that was quickly gained weight when the more dramatic passages were played. The opening movement is filled drama but (for me anyway) the personalities of the solo instruments seem to really take shape during the beautiful Andante that follows. Here, it's as if two lovers are together and intimate, but for most of the movement, not quite completely harmonious together. Brown, Enns and the players in the orchestra reached a level of musical intimacy that blossomed like a spring flower opening as the music carried them all toward the sublimely lovely resolution that closes the movement. The Presto that closes the work was played with the vigour, grace and harmony that seems as if it can only be achieved after such a resolution has been reached. It was an excellent first half.

The grandeur in the beginning of the Gary Kulesha's 'Pan American Overture' drew fierce playing from the members of the orchestra. The more subtle quiet portions were played with loving care that bordered on delicacy before the grandeur of the opening passages was reprised. All in all 'The Pan American' Overture' was probably closer to what Stalin had in mind when he requested (with an unspoken demand at gunpoint) that Dimitri Shostakovich write his Ninth Symphony in honour the end of World War Two and the Soviet Government's part in it.

Alain Trudel's introduction to this symphony was brilliant. He explained its musical connotations to make them accessible to the audience and brought the history of the work to the fore in a way that illustrated both the gravity of the circumstances that brought it forth and the wry irony that Shostakovich treated the "request" with.

The impression the work conveyed (to me anyway) was that Shostakovich wrote a symphony about a bunch of goofball toy soldiers who couldn't get along with each other, much less conquer anything else. It was impossible not to laugh. When the music shifted to its more solemn bits it seemed as if it was portraying the plight of the Russian people who who were still faced with their homeland in ruin and under the rule of a group of Despots who seemed intent on nothing more than celebrating themselves and their "triumph". The playing during all of the solo passages was especially moving. Trudel's reading was very expressive. Under his baton the orchestra crossed very "T" emphatically and drove every pointed nuance in the music home with a level of force that was almost frightening. Russian orchestras often played with that intensity incidentally so chances are the interpretation Stalin heard was similar to what London audiences were treated to last night. If so it's easy to see why he was incensed while the population embraced the piece.

This seems to be indicative of the sort of understanding Maestro Trudel wishes to pass to audiences. If so London audiences can look forward to a journey enhanced by an increased awareness about the material and touched by the warmth and humour he himself finds when he works with the music and the people who come together to present it.

It's time for more already, isn't it.

This show took place at Centennial Hall in london Ontario on Saturday October 1, 2011. This review was written to convey impressions of what it was like to be there.

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