When someone improves, you may wonder why.

Listening to Scarborough Philharmonic’s “French Meditations” concert Saturday night I wondered: is it the leadership, is it the players, is it their choice of music? whatever factors came into play, this was the best I have ever heard them sounding.

I do not know whether the personnel are the same. Maybe Artistic Director Ron Royer has recruited new players, maybe he is helping them to improve. Ron used to be a music teacher, and I have to think he’s the reason they’re sounding better, with his guidance.

It could also be the ambitious programming, to foreground the strengths of the ensemble:

To begin, Rhapsodie Espagnole by Maurice Ravel, four movements featuring sparkling wind solos & rhythms requiring terrific percussion, and they met the challenge admirably. Ron took a moment before to introduce the soloists, which may have given them added encouragement, as they played their solos flawlessly, with confidence.

Then for a contrast, Meditation from Jules Massenet’s opera Thaïs featuring Concertmaster Alex Toskov’s beautiful violin solo.

And then another wild piece, Danse Bacchanale from Camille Saint-Saëns’ opera Samson et Delilah, featuring Gillian Howard, oboe in a solo to begin. While the piece begins and ends with energetic rhythms to suggest orgiastic revelry including lots of colourful winds, the middle section switching to the major key features a gorgeous melody in the strings. We heard the best playing I’ve ever heard from the SPO strings, a luscious sensuous passage including everyone, balanced, subtle, inspired.

–intermission–

After the interval we heard Charles Gounod: Messe solennelle en l’honneur de Sainte-Cécile featuring the many voices of Toronto Choral Society, and soloists Michael Robert-Broder, Alexander Cappellazzo and Lauren Estey Jovanovic.

The piece was conducted by Geoffrey Butler, who is Toronto Choral Society’s artistic director.

The biggest feat of all was somehow fitting the huge choir onto the front of the stage. I see on their website that they have 150 members, who stood on the floor or front steps of the stage (it’s a church space, as the cross suggests), such that we could no longer see the orchestra. Geoffrey stood on a platform to conduct the choir, orchestra & soloists, the latter trio tucked in at the side (you can see soprano Lauren Estey Jovanovic in the photo, the two men are further to our left, beyond the photo)

Yet it sounded quite amazing, one of the best things I’ve heard this year, and for me without question the best playing I have yet heard from the SPO.

The Scarborough Philharmonic will be back at Salvation Army Scarborough Citadel on Saturday May 2nd for “The Romantics”, a program featuring two world premieres plus Weber’s clarinet concerto #1 (featuring Toronto Symphony principal clarinet Eric Abramowitz) and Beethoven’s Symphony #7.