Somehow, I have managed to make it to the third and final year of my Music degree without once going to a concert given by the Oxford University Orchestra. For seven terms in a row dating back to the beginning of my degree, the orchestra’s committee had successfully scheduled their termly concert on a night I couldn’t attend. I am greatly pleased to say that, for the first time in two and a half years, they failed in this endeavour. However, not fully believing that I would, in fact, be available, and criminally underestimating the orchestra’s popularity, I thought I would wait until the day of the concert to buy a ticket. With this concert coming amidst something of a glut of performances of Mahler symphonies in Oxford - with the Oxford Millenium Orchestra to play Mahler Symphony No. 7 on the 7th March this year, OUO performing Mahler 1 in Hilary 2023, OMO playing Mahler 4 that same term, and a spectacular Mahler 2 from OUPhil in Michaelmas 2023; it is testament to the quality both of Mahler’s music, and of OUO’s brilliant performing standards, that this concert filled the Sheldonian to capacity. With tickets sold out, I was left without one when I looked on Saturday morning. Thankfully, after appealing on Facebook, I was offered one on the condition I wrote a review for this esteemed publication – and so ignoring the copious amounts of work I have imminently due, I agreed. I’m glad to say that coming away from the evening, the decision I regret is that I did not make more effort to reschedule my diary in previous terms.
The concert began with Debussy’s ravishing Prélude à l’aprés midi d’un faune. Although she started slightly hesitantly, flautist Isabella Gregory warmed into the demanding solo role, and the rest of the players made the most of the sumptuous orchestral textures to deliver a fresh performance of such a familiar work. Next on the programme was Anna Clyne’s Masquerade. In recent years, and particularly since the extraordinary work of Evie Brenkley, Erin Townsend and Ella Machtynger on the Retune Festival (returning for a second year in just a couple of weeks), OUMS have made the championing of underrepresented composers a key part of their mission, and music like this shows why such an ambition is so warranted: Clyne’s piece is one certainly deserving of a place in the standard orchestral repertoire. It is a brilliantly frantic piece that clearly demands extraordinary amounts of its players, and OUO proved itself more than capable of handling it, all sections bringing great energy amongst fiercely technical music. The piece also featured conductor, horn player and OUO manager Tommaso Rusconi enthusiastically joining the percussion section, getting the honour of delivering the opening whip crack and the closing gong roll. After a 15-minute interval, the audience reconvened for the main event of the evening: Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. The first in Mahler’s middle trio of purely orchestral symphonies, and his first purely orchestral symphony since Symphony No. 1, it is one of the shorter of his symphonic output, despite its 70-minute run time. Written just after he had a major haemorrhage, and around the time of his marriage to Alma Schindler, the work is split into three parts: the sombre and stormy Part 1 encompassing the first two movements, the transitional Part 2 consisting of the Third Movement, and Part 3 containing the loving fourth movement, and lively Rondo finale.
The opening solo, regarded by many as amongst the most challenging in the whole trumpet repertoire due to its exposed position right at the beginning of the symphony before the entry of the rest of the orchestra, was assuredly played by Guy Barwell, who continued to meet the extensive demands placed on the first Trumpet throughout the rest of the movement and the symphony. The orchestra as a whole perfectly embodied the almost demonic character of the first two movements – with the horns clearly enjoying the plentiful opportunities Mahler provides for the brashest side of the instrument to shine through - and the wind section starring in a frenzied second movement. The central third-movement scherzo was particularly excellent, with percussion-extraordinaire Rusconi, now back in more familiar territory, playing the horn obbligato with typical brilliance, and the rest of the orchestra delivering the move between the darkness of Part 1 and the lighter quality of the latter two. If there was one part of the concert that failed to live up to the high standards of OUO, it was sadly the famous fourth movement Adagietto. Here, tuning issues, which had been almost entirely absent up to this point, began to creep into the strings, and the incredible warmth that had been present throughout, and would return in the fifth movement, was sadly missing here, where it was most needed. This, I feel, was not helped by Luis-Bassa’s conducting. Whilst her precise style was exactly what was called for elsewhere in the programme, here it felt overly insistent, and lacking the passion of more extravagant conductors such as Leonard Bernstein. Principal harpist Isabel Samuel, however, remained brilliant, as she had been throughout. The finale, although perhaps not quite as brilliant as the first three movements, nonetheless made a fitting end to a superb evening, with a number of lively solos and an unrestrained finale that encouraged an extended ovation, with the audience continuing to applaud until after the departure of OUO Leader Ella McLoughlin.As fine as the night was, there were a couple of less positive thoughts in my mind afterwards: firstly concerning the Sheldonian itself. Whilst the historical theatre rivals all for its beauty, its unforgiving acoustic made some of the first movement brass stabs, already kept short by Luis-Bassa, feel overly dry; and left some of the tutti sections in the final movement lacking the overwhelming quality we may expect of Mahler’s Symphonies in better suited spaces. I also felt a little unsure about the programming: given both how long the Mahler is, and how much it demands of its audience, I question how necessary it was include the Debussy (as beautiful as it was). The first half clocked in at less than 20 minutes in length, before a 15-minute interval: had the concert started with the Clyne, before moving straight to the Mahler without an interval, I think it may have been better paced and avoided the flagging of the audience that sadly seemed to occur after the 3rd movement of the Mahler.
However, with the orchestra playing as they did, such concerns really did pale into insignificance. The percussion section – particularly section principal Jonathan Hampshire – had a superb night, with Hampshire’s snare drum in the Clyne and timpani in the Mahler especially impressive. The strings were also in fine voice throughout, consistently finding warmth of tone even in the most frantic of passages. Compared with the requirements of last-terms OUO concert, this programme asked less of Ella McLoughlin, but the few solos she did have in the Debussy and the Mahler were characteristically beautiful. In addition to those mentioned already, Daisy Middleton (Oboe), Tom Kirkby (Oboe), Amy Fry (Flute), Alex Buckley (Clarinet), Matt Jones (Clarinet), Conrad Spencer (Bassoon), Jack Reilley (Horn) and George Blundell (Trombone), all of whom delivered solos on the evening, deserve particular praise. With the exceptions of the fourth movement critiques I have already raised, Natalia Luis-Bassa was excellent at the helm: a constant and reassuring presence on the podium amongst music, particularly the Mahler, that demands a lot of the conductor. Overall, it was a superb concert, testament to the brilliance of OUO, and to the extraordinarily high standards of Oxford’s music scene as a whole. I am sincerely hoping I’ll be free for the next one.
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