Someone over at the Lynn Conservatory of Music got the memo.
After three very middling concerts in which the student orchestra at Lynn University’s music school sounded haphazard, unfocused, and in its brass section, something shy of competent, the orchestra turned it all around Feb. 8 and gave a rousing performance of three well-known orchestral virtuoso pieces.
Not everything was perfect, but this performance at the Wold Performing Arts Center of music by Rossini, Richard Strauss and Tchaikovsky was so far superior to its previous outings that it seemed as though a new orchestra had taken the place of the old one. Credit the group’s new conductor, Guillermo Figueroa, for cracking the whip and the student players for buckling down to business.
After some opening remarks in which he made reference to the tone poem commonalities between Rossini’s William Tell overture and Strauss’ Don Juan, Figueroa then drove his charges through a very energetic reading of the Rossini overture. The solo cellist in the opening bars was quite good, despite a slight overreach at the end of the second phrase, and his compatriots in the section enveloped his pretty sound in warm colors.
Ensemble was crisp and exciting in the storm music (with impressive trombone work, too), the English horn and flute soloists played with beauty and tenderness in the pastorale, and in the final section, trumpets and horns were on the money and militarily majestic. Best of all was the sound of the orchestra in general: Instead of sounding like a collection of feuding tribes, they sounded like a unit, like a group engaged in common purpose. And this durable warhorse of a piece came off with real fire, no mean feat for such a familiar selection.
The good news continued in the Strauss, a major showpiece that demands virtuoso playing from every section. Again, Figueroa led this with a fast hand, glorying in the vigor and exuberance of this youthful work, written when the composer was in his early 20s, around the same age as most of the people on stage playing it. String ensemble was especially good throughout, with little to none of the inconsistent intonation that makes a large section sound weak.
Solo winds also were fine, and in the big test for this orchestra, the celebrated horn soli toward the end, the brasses came through with bold and confident playing; intonation went south a tiny bit at the end of the phrase, but it didn’t matter much for the music’s forward motion. The ending, which is famously brief and sudden (as Figueroa noted in his remarks), still needs to have some shape to work properly, and in this performance, it was a little too abrupt. Some more stretching and slowing, a sharper contrast with the music before it, would have helped. But that’s a minor point: Overall, this was a crackling good, fiery reading with strong performances from every section.
One of the most popular pieces in the symphonic repertoire, the Fourth Symphony (in F minor, Op. 36) of Tchaikovsky, closed the program. You could hardly choose a piece that was more of a showcase for each section, and the Lynn Philharmonia rose to the challenge with excellent results.
The first movement, after a slightly clammed opening fanfare, unfolded admirably, sounding tense and powerful in the beginning, and huge at the return of the fanfare at the end. The orchestra performed this movement with a palpable sense of commitment; everybody on stage sounded engaged.
Tempos were on the fast side —Figueroa drives his players through the music — and contrasts were appropriately dramatic. There was fine woodwind playing in particular here, not just in the clarinet and bassoon solos, but also in the chromatic scales that float down over the music, which was buttressed by lovely work in the cellos.
The solo oboist in the second movement played beautifully, as did the solo bassoonist in the second appearance of the memorable main theme, and strings followed with precision and fullness. The tempestuous middle section was suitably dramatic, and the ending expertly judged. The third movement was delightful, not least because it put each section on the spot. It had unity of ensemble, first from the pizzicato strings, then winds, then brass and percussion, and that’s what makes this music so effective.
In the finale, Figueroa and the Philharmonia unleashed all their firepower, especially in the titanic final pages, when there was a notable rise in volume, but it wouldn’t have worked as well as it did without the intense, nervous energy the group brought to the movement overall. Figueroa rode herd on his players, dropping his baton toward the floor and swinging it back and forth like a pendulum; ensemble was tight and forceful, and those furious scales passed spotlessly from section to section.
In this symphony, as indeed it did in the whole concert, the Lynn Philharmonia played like an orchestra transformed, as if it had just shelved the volume of child’s stories it had been reading earlier in the winter and opened an adult masterwork instead. All of the elements of orchestral excellence were in place, especially overall ensemble. One listened with growing confidence that this collection of musicians was going to be able to handle all the challenges that came its way.
And the very large audience on the night of Feb. 8 was vociferous in its acclamation, as indeed it should have been. This was a thrilling night at the concert hall, and one looks forward to the Mahler Second Symphony next month with a firm conviction that this group of young people will be able to do its part with style, verve and excellence.
The Lynn Philharmonia is joined by the Master Chorale of South Florida for the Symphony No. 2 of Gustav Mahler at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 22, and 4 p.m. Sunday, March 23, at the Wold Performing Arts Center on the campus of Lynn University in Boca Raton. Call 237-9000 or visit events.lynn.edu.