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Alix Goolden Performance Hall
November 3, 2007
One of the abiding delights of reviewing concerts in and around Victoria for the last fifteen years and more, is watching (or, to more precise, hearing) the continual improvements in the various local "non-professional" orchestras, not least the Sooke Philharmonic.
Saturday evening's excellent concert confirmed my opinion that the Sooke Phil are now a force to be reckoned with.
Opening a concert with Rossini's William Tell Overture may seem like a concession to popular taste; it certainly made no concessions to the cello section.
In the event, principal Janette Chrysler and her colleagues played that famous divisi opening section superbly. The transition into the more agitated music was deftly handled and the long crescendo leading to the "storm" was terrific.
The tranquil interlude which follows allowed James Warner (English horn) and Alison Crone (flute) to demonstrate their considerable talents.
All of which, of course, ultimately served as a mere prelude to what must be one of the best-known passages in the orchestral literature. However, so well did Norman Nelson shape that final "gallop", with finely controlled dynamics, that it was not until the very close that the temptation to shout "Hi Ho, Silver!" rose within me (I resisted).
Performances as good as this enable one to hear the seemingly overfamiliar with fresh ears. Wonderful.
Dylan Phillips is a young pianist with a marvellously fluid technique and a thoughtful manner. Winner of the orchestra's annual Don Chrysler Concerto Competition, he played Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto with style and no little panâche.
Just as impressive was the accompaniment: what an unalloyed pleasure it was to hear those lush, Romantic melodies soaring over the soloist for a change. The combination of the weighty and full string tone with the warmth of the horn section made the exposition of the main theme quite sumptuous.
The piano's passagework was on occasion buried beneath the accompaniment - rather that than vice-versa - and, as I have noticed this phenomenon in the hall before, I am beginning to think that a combination of the bright acoustic with a very large orchestra would probably overbalance all but the most titanically-endowed technique.
When it mattered, though, Phillips was entirely audible, whether in the dizzying bravura passages in the outer movements or the more reflective slow movement; and his playing was more than worth hearing. He is clearly a musician with taste and something to say.
Debussy's Petit Suite was not composed for orchestra, but arranged by conductor Henri Büsser from the original four-hand piano suite.
While hardly indicative of the later Debussy, the suite consists of four entirely delightful movements, all of which were played with verve and even, in the third movement, delicacy.
it is remarkable, not to say scarcely credible to those of us lesser mortals, that Felix Mendelssohn never allowed his Symphony No.4, the "Italian" to be published in his lifetime, as he was not satisfied with it, in particular with the finale.
Norman Nelson directed a sizzling account of the symphony. The outer movements fairly brimmed with energy; the second movement, taken for once at a real andante pace, was solemn without becoming sombre; the third movement was simply charming.
Throughout the work Nelson showed his superb grasp of the music, shaping it wonderfully, with tremendously exciting crescendos and superb dynamics.
If I remark that the playing in the Mendelssohn was not quite (and I emphasize the 'quite') on the same level as earlier in the evening, well it was a fairly long concert and musicians can get tired.
Which does nothing to undermine the fact that Norman Nelson and the Sooke Philharmonic (together with George Corwin and the Civic) are busy redefining the term "community orchestra".
For which all lovers of "big" orchestral music should be as grateful as am I.
A thoroughly rewarding, not to say engrossing evening.
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