Photo credit: © Steve J. Sherman

The Oberlin Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Robert Spano, played to a nearly sold-out audience at Carnegie Hall’s Isaac Stern Auditorium on Friday, January 26, 2007. The revered main space in the hallowed hall seats 2,804. The exhilarating program of Higdon, Bartók, and Mozart, which featured pianist Pedja Muzijevic, wowed the New York critics.

Vivien Schweitzer of the New York Times and Patrick J. Smith, writing for MusicalAmerica.com, wrote reviews so rapturous that anyone who did miss the concert will surely regret it. (Not to worry; a recording on the Oberlin Record Label is in the offing.)

Schweitzer wrote in the January 29th edition of the Times that the orchestra’s reading of Jennifer Higdon’s blue cathedral was “dynamic,” with Spano transmitting his excitement about the piece to the musicians. “They played blue cathedral with skill and understanding, vividly illuminating the Coplandesque swaths of color that build to an intense, optimistic climax.” Their performance of Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, she wrote, was “stellar …. The contrasting moods of the five movements were probingly explored, and there was no weak link in the band. The fiery, polished strings and excellent woodwinds and brass all confidently enjoyed their chance to shine in Bartók’s egalitarian concerto.”

Patrick J. Smith found the evening “enormously refreshing,” noting:

It is always an exhilarating and heartening experience to hear a first-rate student orchestra under a sympathetic and experienced conductor give a concert of music that has been burnished by generations of professional ensembles—and come close to match them for musicality while topping them for sheer youthful élan. This was definitely the case …. The ovation [the Oberlin Conservatory Symphony Orchestra] received at the end of the difficult program was thoroughly deserved … these young men and women had shown conclusively that the so-called ‘death of classical music’ is a very long way from being realized—at least at Oberlin.”

Lest we forget, Maestro Spano led the orchestra and Muzijevic in a free concert in a packed Finney Chapel prior to leaving for New York. The Plain Dealer’s Donald Rosenberg was as enamored as his Manhattan counterparts: “Spano and the orchestra treated [blue cathedral’s] gorgeous sonic rivulets and oceans to a mesmerizing performance.” He wrote that Muzijevic’s “music-making was so vital that it kept all ears glued to the sublime discussions. Spano’s collaboration was alert and balanced, with superb winds placed in fine relief to silken strings.” And of the Bartók, he noted: “The Oberlin ensemble was first-rate in every instrumental section, whether negotiating tricky metrical changes or savoring the music’s extremes of tragedy and wit.”

Also read Robert Spano to Conduct Oberlin Conservatory Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall January 26, 2007.