Springfield Symphony Orchestra
Peter Stafford Wilson, conductor
Sarah Chang, violin
Kuss Auditorium
Clark State Performing Arts Center
Springfield, OH
January 27, 2024

Martinů: Overture for Orchestra, H345
Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26
Schubert: Symphony No. 4 in C minor, D417, Tragic

Saturday evening’s Springfield Symphony performance was highlighted by a concerto appearance from star violinist Sarah Chang. Before Chang took to the stage, the SSO offered a rather less-familiar score in Bohuslav Martinů’s Overture for Orchestra. An ebullient and effective opener, its festive nature was conceived in celebration of the Mannes College of Music where the composer had taught some years prior. Martinů favored chamber-like subsets of the full orchestra, invoking the Baroque concerto grosso. Concertmaster Sujean Kim offered some fine solo passages, and a serene central section contrasted the overture’s outward ebullience.

Chang came to Springfield armed with Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1, a work which she notably recorded with the great Kurt Masur. She opened with a melodic line articulate and emotive, and one was taken by the supreme purity of her tone, utterly controlled. A long-breathed melody marked the central slow movement, richly resonant and almost without break for the soloist, save for a swelling orchestral interlude; here and elsewhere the SSO generally supported their distinguished colleague with fine accompaniment.

The jocular acrobatics of the finale were exciting to watch but never just for show, and with the music being all but second-nature to Chang, it flowed organically from her bow. In a fascinating tidbit, music director Peter Stafford Wilson mentioned that Isaac Stern once played this same concerto with the SSO – and likely on the very same instrument heard Saturday, now in Chang’s possession.

The program concluded with Schubert’s Fourth Symphony. Its thunderous opening gave way to a measured introduction, and movement’s main theme was given with crisp articulation – though one wanted perhaps a bit more tension and cleaner intonation. The Andante served as a lyrical moment of repose, elegantly played, before the sprightly minuet and energetic finale – ending, like Beethoven’s C minor symphony before him, triumphantly in the major.