Windsor Symphony’s fitting farewell.
Her first Barber concerto, WSO’S last at Chrysler
The audience at the Windsor Symphony concert Saturday night heard the first and the last.
It was the first time violinist Lara St. John performed the Samuel Barber Violin Concerto in public, and it was the last WSO performance at the Chrysler Theatre.
The orchestra closed out 51 years of bringing the world’s great music to Windsor audiences at the Chrysler and its predecessor, Cleary Auditorium.
The final two orchestral concerts of 2011-12 will be held at other venues, and next fall WSO moves into its new home, the Capitol Theatre.
Music director John Morris Russell stated it was the end of an era — WSO moved into the former Cleary in 1960, three years after it was built, along with Windsor Light Opera Association.
But the orchestra’s fractured relationship with the theatre’s new owner, St. Clair College, closed the book on that history.
Windsor Light continues to stage its fall and spring shows at the Chrysler.
Saturday’s concert was a fitting farewell, full of virtuoso playing and great music that spanned 250 years.
Lara St. John returned after an absence of several seasons to play the Barber concerto. It was her public première, but it sounded like she’s been playing it for years.
Her 18th- century Italian violin has a lovely, rich, warm tone, and she used it to capture the subtleties of the opening and second movements.
The concerto dates from the middle of the past century, but it has the qualities of the big Romantic concertos of the 19th century.
St. John was particularly expressive in the Andante second movement. But her technical command and even bravado came to the fore in the final movement, a swift-paced four minutes of dazzling effects and virtuosity.
St. John was nearly dancing a jig as she played, and at one point emphatically stomped her foot.
The audience responded with a standing ovation and three curtain calls.
The other two works were charming compositions from opposite ends of classicism.
The opener was Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1, Classical, a succinct 14-minute study of classical styles. Russell took a slightly slower pace with the work, and its subtleties were able to shine through.
The last work on the program, and the one that will echo through the years as the orchestra’s swansong at the Chrysler, was Mozart’s Symphony No. 39.
WSO has proved itself a winning ensemble when it comes to Mozart, and this was no exception.