Academy Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Julian Wachner,
with Yu Xiong, concertmaster; Sara Mueske, harpsichord; Paul
Merkelo, Brandon Eubank, and Christopher Coletti, trumpets. At Our
Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, Saturday, August 5.
Reviewed by Gerald Carpenter
Here was an event as extraordinary as the annual rebirth of the
Festival Orchestra, and without precedent. There was no Academy
Chamber Orchestra last year, and here it was, a contender, inviting
favorable comparison with the greatest ensembles of its size in the
world. Whose idea it was, I don’t know, but as soon as they thought
of it, it must have seemed inevitable. After all, these gifted
young instrumentalists, poised on brink of their professional
careers, are at least as likely to find themselves playing in just
such an ensemble as in a full-sized symphony orchestra.
No doubt a good deal of the credit for the group’s amazing
polish must go to the brilliant and enthusiastic Julian Wachner,
and the rest of it to the remarkable young musicians.
The program was exquisitely balanced and guaranteed to please.
They opened with Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto for Strings in G Major,
RV 151, “Alla Rustica,” and the Venetian’s powerful enchantment
transfixed us for the entire evening. The great disciplined volume
of sound belied the number of musicians playing.
Few modern works would have fit into this program as neatly as
that which came second, Igor Stravinsky’s Concerto in E-flat Major,
“Dumbarton Oaks.” Although it didn’t get the biggest hand of the
evening, I found it the most impressive performance, an homage to
the baroque for 15 virtuosos, all of whom played as if they were
channeling Stravinsky’s subtlest intentions. Vivaldi’s Concerto in
C Major for Two Trumpets, which turned the sanctuary into a
Venetian cathedral, brought the first half to a glorious
finish.
After the intermission, the mood shifted gears to lush
romanticism, with Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s famous and beloved Serenade
for Strings in C Major, Opus 48: lovely, but somewhat
superficial — one might say maudlin — after the inspiring first
half.