Review Details
MUSIC IN THE UNIVERSITY TEATIME CONCERT STUDENT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Alan Cooper
06 May 2009
Zeste at Crombie Hall
The final Teatime Concert of the current season marked the debut performance of a new ensemble, the Student Symphony Orchestra. What a splendid addition to University Music. It will pay its way in terms not only of learning and performance opportunities but in the domain of happy social interaction among the students themselves as exemplified by the happy banter of orchestra members as they left the concert after the performance. This splendid new orchestra has grown from its initial beginnings in a conducting course run by Dr Roger B Williams and Alistair Macdonald in October 2008 and the concert was conducted in turn by four different alumni of the course, Kevin Philip, Christopher Barr, Greig Porteus and James O’Neil. I suspect that the conducting course must have been radically inspiring since the flourishing of the orchestra has been the result of a continued flush of enthusiasm from the students themselves. In addition, the four conductors, far from being identical clones, had very different styles of working from Christopher Barr’s dynamic and pointed attention to every detail through the almost self effacing technique of Greig Porteus to the relaxed yet nicely focused styles of Kevin Philip and James O’Neil. It is splendid that the skill of conducting is actually being taught and explored at the University. In my day, it was just left to people to “grab a stick and have a go” sometimes with disastrous results.
Taking into account that this was the very first public concert by the orchestra, the performances were remarkably fine. All right, there were some rough edges, entries not completely well focused, and occasional lapses of intonation but at least none of these really got in the way of the music.
Kevin Philip opened the concert conducting the Overture from Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The portentous opening chords followed by the restless allegro and further development of the themes struck just the right alternation of light heartedness with a suggestion of darker melodrama; all these elements emerged clearly from this performance.
Even better was the orchestra’s performance of Haydn’s Symphony no. 101 in D “The Clock”. Christopher Barr brought verve and intensity to the opening movement before Kevin Philip returned to give “The Clock” its constant steady beat. Greig Porteus continued the performance with an attractive lilting minuet and trio before James O’Neil kept the orchestra firmly on track through the most testing movement, the Finale with its dangerous fugal passages. Congratulations to the orchestra, the four conductors and their trainers for a performance which was thoroughly enjoyable throughout. And there was cake too! A veritable feast of cake, laid on by one of the orchestra members at the conclusion of the concert. The happiness of the event and the infectious enthusiasm of all those taking part suggested to me that this is an orchestra with a bright future ahead.