On Wednesday, the Oxford University Philharmonia (OUPhil) presented the audience at the Sheldonian Theatre with an exciting programme of music rooted in folk and dance traditions from the Americas. Starting with Florence Price’s rarely performed Concert Overture No.2, followed by Arturo Márquez’s carnavalesque Danzón No.2, and concluding with Dvořák’s ever-popular Symphony No.9 (“From the New World”), Joe Sollis curated a satisfyingly cohesive programme of uplifting and engaging works that promised to be an enjoyable evening.
Alongside my excitement for this concert, I was also keenly aware of – and intrigued by – the potential challenges the orchestra faced: an unwaveringly high-energy programme, the often troublesome acoustics of the Sheldonian Theatre, and the added pressure of the concert being Sollis’ debut as conductor. It was certainly to be a demanding evening for the players, but one that had the potential of being highly rewarding for the listener.
Thanks to Sollis’ energy-efficient and highly functional conducting style, however, the orchestra felt as secure as I have ever heard them. Similarly, he did an admirable job overall in managing issues of balance in the Sheldonian (a space prone to being dominated by brass and percussion sections). It’s also worth noting that I often spotted members of the orchestra smiling – something I’ve rarely seen so consistently. It’s clear that the players both respect their new conductor and enjoy performing under his direction. That, I believe, is part of the brilliance of Sollis’ programme: it’s packed with music that excites the performers, and in an ensemble comprised entirely of students, that kind of engagement is vital. When OUPhil’s players are enjoying themselves, the orchestra is at its best.
My main concern with Sollis’ direction was the limited range of contrasting colour; the shifts in sound rarely ventured beyond basic dynamic changes, which left the works, whose structures in many instances relied heavily on juxtaposing sections, feeling paradoxically repetitive and erratic. Whilst the music itself drastically altered, the sound didn’t. Still, this concert most certainly marked a promising beginning of Sollis’ journey with OUPhil as he continues to explore the orchestral effects and colours he can extract from them.
This issue was perhaps most apparent in Florence Price’s Concert Overture No. 2, a work characterised by the composer’s amalgamation of African American spirituals, American jazz, and the Western classical style. Although the piece hastily moved through a wide variety of distinct sections and styles, the performance did not express these contrasts strongly enough. As a listener, one had no sense of progression or interconnection.
That being said, the orchestra did well to bring out the unique harmonic language and rich orchestration of Price; the strings consistently produced a pleasantly warm sound, and the brass and percussion were fantastically brash and pompous in fanfare sections. Notably, principal trumpet Lucinda Bell gave a sensational performance, leading the orchestra through these passages with wonderfully stylistic panache.
Thanks to its championing by renowned Venezuelan conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, Arturo Márquez’s Danzón No.2 has become a real crowd pleaser for classical audiences with its exhilarating and catchy Cuban dance motifs. Whilst some of the rhythms may have felt slightly sloppy, the strings were perhaps a little bit too light and the piano and piccolo had issues in playing their duet passages together, the orchestra gave a truly rousing and exciting performance of the piece. At Márquez’s gloriously crafted climax, the orchestra seemed almost entranced by the immense energy of the moment, swept up in a surge of electrifying rhythmic vitality.
The second half consisted of Dvořák’s monumental 9th symphony, a musical reminiscence of the composer’s Bohemian homeland, composed during his time in America. Whereas the first half of the concert felt impressively under control, the Dvořák was generally less together and unfortunately had far more, albeit minor, mistakes. The first movement was well performed but suffered from the same issue of having no real difference in sound quality between sections. It was in this movement alone that I found balancing issues to arise as the brass would often invalidate the sound quality of the strings; they sounded as though they were made of plastic in their subservience to the brass.
However, the second movement was distinctly the best-performed part of the night. It was here that the sound world truly interested me. It felt as though the orchestra had vanished, leaving only a faint, shimmering constellation – heard as if from some ethereal, imagined distance. Samuel Oliver-Sherry’s string section fizzed splendidly, like the shimmering surface of a lake on a hot summer’s day, before Francesca Lamberti entered with the beloved cor anglais solo. Her performance was stunning, and in it, I can find no fault. The simplicity and naturalness of her tone stood in exquisite contrast to the soft, shimmering buzz beneath her. With the poised grace of a swan, she seemed to glide effortlessly above the gently rippling water below.
Whilst the third movement suffered from a frustrating laboriousness, the fourth was a wonderfully emphatic ending. The entry of the brass after the string introduction was exceptional, powerful and demanding yet tastefully balanced with the strings. Dvořák’s grandiose conception of his homeland was captured well by the orchestra in this satisfyingly rousing conclusion to the concert.
In all, this concert marked a commendable start to a new chapter for the Oxford University Philharmonia. Whilst not without some issues, the orchestra once again illustrated the infectious energy that young musicians can create when they are having fun playing music together. Ultimately, this is the appeal of OUPhil, for players and audience members alike; it is a reminder of the joy of classical music and the inherently collaborative process involved. I have no doubt that everyone in the Sheldonian left the concert feeling thoroughly entertained and uplifted – I can certainly vouch that I did.