Centennial Hall

Oct 17

*** ½ / 4

[David Jalbert, piano Juno-nominated pianist]

I almost didn’t write this review. Last Saturday, Orchestra London gave a performance that was, well, pretty good. During the entire show, I struggled with my journalistic sensibilities because I wasn’t sure I had the critical cajones to judge the musicians or their Brahms and Schumann.

But then again, most kids my age don’t. And that’s the story.

After intermission, maestro Timothy Vernon climbed on his conductor’s platform — or soapbox, if you will — and gave a long, passionate soliloquy about the state of Orchestra London. He called for insiders to spread the word about how magical the orchestra can be. He derided journalists like me who claim classical music has become irrelevant to mainstream audiences and write about the Orchestra’s various financial troubles.

Surrounded by an audience with an average age of over 65 inside a half-full Centennial Hall, I suddenly felt like an outsider. Since the only other 20-something within eyesight was my date, I spent most of the second half considering why Orchestra London doesn’t get the attention it may well deserve from London’s young people.

Then I realized why I couldn’t write a normal review. Young people don’t go because, like me, most don’t understand classical music.

To me, the first and second movements in Schumann’s Symphony No. 3 were violin-heavy, melancholy pieces that swelled to a nice resolution. The musicianship was remarkable, but as any genre outsider will tell you, if you’re not steeped in the intricacies of a particular style, everything can sound the same.

Brahms pieces in the second half were slightly more erratic — what a modern hipster might call “a bit experimental” — and benefitted from guest pianist David Jalbert’s emotive work on the keys. In fact, the second movement, “Allegro appassionato,” was the night’s show-stealer. (I liked it so much, I wanted to applaud and holler after it ended. But here’s a note to first-timers: You never clap until the whole thing is over. Then you clap for at least three ovations.)

Desperate for guidance, I turned to the kind lady beside me and asked if she liked the performance. She said it was lovely, but when I asked why, she didn’t quite have an answer. When it comes down to it, she said, she just likes how it sounds.

And maybe that’s the solution. While young people like myself are no longer armed with the background or experience to properly evaluate classical music, we can still appreciate it for its surface appeal. It is, after all, classical, and like any art, the classics always need to be enjoyed.

Under this perspective, Orchestra London’s financial troubles become irrelevant. Classical music’s absence from popular culture becomes an afterthought. By the end of Brahms’ final movement, I was satisfied by a performance that was, by all my faculties, pretty good.

And isn’t that what it’s all about?

Stuart Thompson is a fourth-year media studies student at the University of Western Ontario. He is an editor at Western's campus newspaper and a directing member of the Open House Arts Collective.