McBride, Walton, Prokofiev, and Mendelssohn: Huw Edwards, cond., Britta Johnston, violin, Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra, First United Methodist Church, Portland, Oregon, 16.2.2007 (BJ)

 

Though not Portland’s best-known orchestra, the Portland Columbia Symphony, now in its 25th-anniversary season, demonstrated its quality to excellent purpose in a concert that might easily not have happened. Just a few days earlier, the orchestra’s principal second violinist and principal violist were killed in a car accident that also landed the principal oboist in hospital; the performance of two string pieces from Walton’s music for Henry V was dedicated to the memory of Kjersten Oquist and Angela Svendsen.

In the circumstances, the orchestra, and music director Huw Edwards, deserve great credit for having nevertheless managed to produce an evening of substantial musical rewards. Compounding the problems was the fact that Britta Johnston, returning from her studies with Jaime Laredo at Indiana University to be the soloist in Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto, was suffering from a recurring arm problem that led to the omission of the work’s third movement. She still managed to produce impressive tone, and must be presumed to be a considerable artist when she is at her best.

Born in Wales, Huw Edwards was formerly the conductor of the Seattle Youth Symphony and now directs the Olympia Symphony in Washington State as well as this Portland ensemble. For this occasion, he had commissioned a short piece from local composer Robert McBride, and the evening opened with its premiere. Waltzology is a pleasant enough five-minute orchestral essay, competently scored. There was not enough substance in it to give much idea of its composer’s musical personality, though the idea of supporting local creative activity by such commissions is certainly to be applauded.

Here, and in the works by Walton and Prokofiev, Edwards demonstrated a highly effective baton technique, but it was after intermission, in Mendelssohn’s Fifth Symphony, the Reformation, that his interpretative powers came most prominently into play. Too rarely heard, this is unconventional music that sets chorale elements in an inventive orchestral frame. It can sound pompous, but on this occasion the pomp was offset by a genuine sense of drama and exultation. The acoustics of the First United Methodist Church sounded a little constricted in the biggest tuttis. Nevertheless, despite the sadness that must have been lurking in the musicians’ minds, the performance as a whole, highlighted by some splendid playing from the heavy brass, emerged as a positive and often thrilling experience. Mr. Edwards is evidently a conductor to look out for.

 

Bernard Jacobson