Student orchestra flashes professionalism in Family Concert Series opener

From left, oboist Jesús Ramos Morales and conductor Roselín Pabón (Peggy Ann Bliss)

By PEGGY ANN BLISS

Special to The STAR

There’s something breathtaking about a beefed-up symphony orchestra conquering an 80-minute Gustav Mahler symphony, never resting on its laurels after 66 years of slow but steady maturation.

The Austrian composer’s “Sixth,” which opened the current classical season at Luis A. Ferré Performing Arts Center recently, was the vehicle for just that. Bravissimo to Maestro Maximiano Valdés in his last of 18 seasons with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra (PRSO)!

But there is also something magical about a perfect Sunday afternoon listening to a 60-plus student orchestra stitched together in four weeks. The Puerto Rico Conservatory demonstrated this latter phenomenon last Sunday under the baton of Roselín Pabón. The Mayagüez native and Peabody Conservatory alumnus, who has graced local (and international) podiums for half a century, showed the grit and musicianship he still gives unstintingly to whatever task he is assigned. Let us also not forget his memorable Nativity concerts, which have done so much to preserve the island’s rich jíbaro culture.

Three geniuses of 18th-and 19th-century Europe -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jacques Offenbach and Antonin Dvorak -- should be rising in ovation from their celestial thrones at the homage the students gave them last weekend.

“You work with the instruments you’ve got,” said Pabón, who is also emeritus musical director of the PRSO. “Only one faculty member [on trombone] had to be drafted to complement the section. We only had a month to pull it all together [the ensemble and the repertoire].”

The PRSO, founded by eminent cellist Pablo Casals and now into its 66th year, will take the stage again this Saturday, welcoming Swiss guest conductor François López Ferrer in a program featuring a Russian repertoire and showcasing young American violinist Nancy Zhou.

The very nature of an orchestra in a conservatory -- where members come and go every four years -- should, by definition, limit the resonance and cohesion of the ensemble. That and most likely the difficulty and variety of the repertoire. Surprisingly, such was not the case at last Sunday’s event. Ushering in the institution’s popular Family Concert Series, the fledgling orchestra presented a full-throttle professional format, sparkling with verve and polish: an overture (for openers), followed by a de rigueur concerto, featuring the oboe, a seldom- heard solo instrument, and (after a restroom reprieve) a spectacular and seldom heard symphony.

As part of their grooming as professional musicians, the 66 members observed every symphonic convention.

Sporting demure black dresses and pristine black suits, spruced up refreshingly with red ties, they polished off the tuning ritual, initiated by the oboe and taken up by the violin, represented by cool and capable concert mistress Adriana Sánchez Álvarez.

Getting the afternoon off to a rousing start was Jacques Offenbach’s once shocking “Overture” to the operetta “Orpheus in the Underworld.” Buoyed by the lesser known opening sections, listeners figuratively clacked their heels during the cherished “Can Can” finale. The sprightly burlesque tune, synonymous with Moulin Rouge since its opening almost a decade after Offenbach’s death, was a lively antidote to the political war mongering off our shores. Sunday’s rapt audience could almost hear the skirts swishing.

A definite change of pace ensued with the showcasing of Jesús Ramos Morales, a Conservatory professor and member of the PRSO, interpreting Mozart’s “Oboe Concerto in C Major.”

The composer was a mere 21 when he created his only concerto written for this ìnstrument. After its initial debut, the score was lost, only to reappear about 75 years ago. It is still a rarely heard but much appreciated concert work, especially when one considers that Mozart wrote 27 concerti for piano and five for violin! The oboe concerto was his 314th composition.

After the bravura of Offenbach and the elegance of Mozart came the “Eighth Symphony in G Major” by Czech composer Antonin Dvorak, eternally bonded to “The New World Symphony,” his ninth and last. Who has not heard “New World,” inspired by his two years in the United States as director of the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York City.

One of the world’s great symphonies, “The New World Symphony” has four movements, all but one designated allegro, or happy. Much of this happiness could be attributed to the merry Czech and Middle European influences the superbly versatile Dvorak infused into many of his works. With a confirmed nationalism regarding his own small country, he had a unique affinity among Old World composers for the Native (North) American and African American influences on mainstream music in the States and employed it in many of his own compositions. Although his views were controversial, he undoubtedly had an influence on American composer George Gershwin, among others.

The “Eighth,” written in 1888, was full of pastoral and folk themes, which characterized his music and led him into more innovative work after getting to know the United States. But the vision of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow of the Native (North) American and the unique rhythms of the until recently enslaved African American people’s hymns gave him fertile soil to build on.

The third movement is a mellifluous waltz, followed by a triumphant and radiant final movement, leading the listener to believe that Bohemia, Dvorak’s natal region, is a paradise buried under an avalanche of Germanic and other influences.