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On October 7th, 2023 I was excited to drive into Town to see the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra for the first time. The concert featured an oboe concerto by Vaughan Williams, a short Sibelius piece, and a full second set of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, but I didn’t really care what they were playing. After spending half a lifetime seeing Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra on the reg I was curious to hear what my new home’s provincial component had to offer.
Plus the tickets were free*! The Newfoundland Public Library had recently started a program called Connect Pass, which allowed one to use their library card to book free tickets to local museums and galleries, sporting events, Provincial Park passes…all kinds of things. I’d already used it lots of times for provincial park stays and a few museum visits but I had to add the NLPL site to my daily internet loop before I finally scored NSO tickets (I still check regularly hoping for a pair of very elusive Growlers hockey tickets).
But score them I did, and shortly before the 8pm start-time m’lady and I took our seats in the D. F. Cook Recital Hall. I believe this was the first time I had set foot on the Memorial University (MUN) campus; it was certainly my first time visiting the School of Music. I had gotten us lost trying to get into the parking lot and lost again once we entered the building, but after inadvertently leading m’lady directly through the backstage area and past the busy dressing rooms I managed to get us to our seats, like I said, shortly before the 8pm start time.
The theatre was rather small but certainly modern. I suspect it may occasionally double as a lecture hall, but it was definitely a proper theatre, with a large stage, a significant lighting tier, and adjustable sound baffles built into the walls on all sides.
The orchestra itself was also rather small. When they emerged from the wings and took their seats I don’t believe the entire group took up more than eighteen or twenty chairs. And you know what, the audience was pretty small too, but I don’t think any of these small numbers diminished anyone’s enthusiasm, onstage or off. When the conductor was introduced it was to resounding applause, and when he dropped his baton on Sibelius’Valse Triste the musicians dug into the Finnish composer with gusto.
Next up was the oboe concerto, upon which R. Vaughan Williams had bestowed the robustly enigmatic title, Concerto for Oboe. I mean, c’mon man…that’s soooo Bach and Beethoven; get with the 20th Century! The concerto had been written in the 1940’s…it’s not like song titles hadn’t been invented yet. But I guess old Ralphie must have expended all of his creativity into getting all those little black dots arranged on all those lined pages because when title time came around he clearly had nothin’. Just a description.
Ah, but I digress. On this night the concerto starred the NSO’s new Principal Oboist Annie Corrigan who also happens to be the oboe instructor in MUN’s school of music. And no wonder, she was great.
Though our upcoming hour+ dark and moosey drive home tempted us to leave at the intermission we ultimately decided that Mozart was worth sticking around for. Especially for a piece with such a catchy title! Seriously though, everybody knows Symphony No. 40 even if they can’t peg it from the name. You know, it’s the one with the violin part that goes “de-da-dah de-da-dah de-da-dah-dah/de-da-dah de-da-dah de-dah dah…” A full thirty-five minutes of public-domain glory, punctuated with a final burst of enthusiastic applause from we in the audience.
Of course the show didn’t have quite the oomph that I am accustomed to hearing from Canada’s national orchestra, but that has to be expected from a smaller orchestra with a smaller budget playing in a smaller venue. But really, any comparison between the two would be unfair and I shan’t make any more here.
To which I say: the end.
*To be fair, it was extremely rare for me to pay for NACO tickets either.
Todd Man Out 