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Alix Goolden Performance Hall
June 25, 2011
Led by Norman Nelson, the Sooke Philharmonic have established a reputation for routinely turning out high-calibre performances, well-evidenced elsewhere on these pages. With that reputation in the back of my mind, I took my seat for my inaugural experience hearing them perform.
The concert opened with the third of Beethoven's Leonore overtures. While originally intended as an overture to the opera we now know as Fidelio, the work now more frequently serves as a dramatic symphonic poem. The overture sums up all of the grand gestures of middle-period Beethoven, with bold crescendos and a triumphant finale. The Sooke Philharmonic players did the music proud, although some of the intricate interplay of parts was lost in the blend. How much of that is attributable to the acoustic qualities of the hall is uncertain, though.
Dvoràk's 1885 D minor symphony (now recognized as Number 7, but originally published as No. 2 and referred to by the composer as No. 6) is one of the great symphonic works. Reading through literature on Dvoràk's symphonies one comes across repeated assertions that the seventh (or the eighth, for that matter) are in some way superior to the more famous ninth, the "New World" symphony.
One can't help but wonder if some of this is critical snobbery, dismissing the famous named work as some sort of pop fluff. For my money, though, the three are different enough from one another to make any qualitative comparisons spurious. We need them all.
With that said, the seventh moved up a notch in my estimation after hearing Nelson and the Sooke Philharmonic close the concert with a dynamic performance of this symphony. The performance was a little ragged around the edges; some intonation flaws and imprecision in the more rapid passages were detected. But I was reminded of Oscar Wilde's delightful quip from The Importance of Being Earnest: "I don't play accurately - any one can play accurately - but I play with wonderful expression."
And what expression! The tragedy of the work, particularly the lamenting slow movement, was always the focus of the performance. And the angry grief of the finale was palpable, with Nelson pushing his orchestra right to their collective limits, and perhaps a bit beyond, to wring every ounce of energy out of them. A wonderful performance.
But the real reason I wanted to attend this concert was to hear the concerto on offer, Brahms's wonderful Double Concerto in A minor for violin and 'cello, Op.102. This work has been part of my musical memory nearly as far back as I can remember, so I jumped at the chance to hear Ann Elliott-Goldschmid (violin) and Pamela Highbaugh Aloni ('cello), one-half of the Lafayette String Quartet, as the soloists.
I entered the hall with high expectations, and those expectations were exceeded in every way.
As they would be later in the Dvoràk symphony, Nelson and the Sooke Philharmonic were vigorous and restrained in turn as required by the music. And Nelson was sensitive to the soloists as he appeared to the holding back the orchestra at times, while pushing them harder in others.
But it was the soloists who made the performance something very special. For all of the occasions I have heard Elliott-Goldschmid and Highbaugh Aloni play, I have never heard either of them perform as concerto soloists. In their rendering of the Brahms Double, their 25 years of experience performing as colleagues in the LSQ paid rewards. They were constantly playing together, ever attentive to the other throughout the concerto.
This was a lovely performance, one justifiably appreciated by the audience who stood to applaud the musicians.
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