Last night, the School of Music’s own University Symphony Orchestra and University Philharmonia Orchestra came together to present a concert of orchestral works with French influences. The program was quite diverse, including works by Mozart, Debussy, Bitsch, and Berlioz, which allowed for the orchestra to showcase their skill in playing music from the classical, impressionist, romantic, and modern eras.
The concert opened with Mozart’s 31st symphony, nicknamed the “Paris Symphony” due to his composing the piece while looking for work there. The piece is charming, and the USO demonstrated precision and attention to the stylistic idioms that come with playing in the classical style. This was followed by the gorgeous and evocative Sacred and Profane Dances by Claude Debussy, a concerto for harp and string orchestra, which was performed gracefully and beautifully by the School of Music’s harp professor, Joan Holland. Then, Daniel Fendrick, the winner of the School of Music’s 2016 Concerto Competition, performed the Bitsch Concertino for Bassoon. I had never heard the piece before, but found that it was modern and exciting, often reminiscent of Gershwin’s compositional style, but with more atonal figures. Fendrick had an amazing sound that filled Hill Auditorium, but at times the orchestration was too thick to be able to fully appreciate some of the virtuosic passages.
The first half of the concert was played by about a half-sized version of the USO, since the other half performed in the pit orchestra of the recent opera production, Roméo et Juliette. For the second half, members of of UPO joined them onstage, doubling the size of the orchestra for the grandiose and revolutionary Berlioz piece, Symphonie Fantastique. In this work as well there are several wonderful solos that showcased the talent of several orchestra members, particularly the woodwinds. The piece is programmatic, meaning that it follows a specific storyline, and all of the players certainly told a story with their musical expressivity.
In my opinion, this performance was not the orchestra’s strongest showing, as at times there seemed to be some issues of playing exactly together. That being said, USO and UPO do not play easy music, and they always amaze me because of the amount of quality concerts they give every semester. There is absolutely no denying the talent and dedication of every member of both orchestras. I was thoroughly impressed by all of the soloists both within the orchestra and without, and the orchestra’s ability to support them.
Overall, this concert certainly made for an exciting and enjoyable way to spend my Tuesday evening!
