Review – Chromatica Orchestra with Oliver Cope & Sarang Seohyun Kim

Oliver Cope opened his first concert as Chromatica Orchestra’s new principal conductor with a programme of Herrmann, Korngold and Shostakovich. The venue – a theatrically lit Battersea Arts Centre with its bleached brickwork – promised a hungry sound. The mood was dramatic, even if the sometimes underpowered forces didn’t quite meet expectations. Tension was lacking in the opening Psycho suite, where the ensemble met requirements in the fortissimos with some muscular articulation, but an unsettling mix of hesitation and anticipation suggested some players were unsure at crucial moments. Cope would have been better conducting with a baton for the suite – the score’s angular pokes and swipes would have benefited from a sharper point to stab with.

The Korngold Violin Concerto saw the ensemble playing more tightly, helped by a baton which made clear Cope’s distinct, well-drawn beat. The stakes were higher too. Sarang Seohyun Kim, celebrating her 18th birthday on the day, is a self-assured soloist and didn’t shy away here; she has a solid, fulsome tone, and a consistent expressive voices that sounds mature. Her instinctive handling of Korngold’s many rubatos is a joy to experience up close.

Cope, Cambridge graduate and a Mahler Conducting Competition prize winner, conducts clearly. His lines are smooth, and the shapes well drawn. The intent is evident but the impact less so at times, especially where thinned upper strings fall short of what he wants in the Korngold. His manner when not conducting is as telling as when he is. He’s a likeable speaker, quick to build rapport with a well-executed introduction – a less-TV version of Nicholas Collon, and all the better for it. The gratitude he shows to his players is reflected in the deference he draws on in his conducting: he could insist more. His collegiality is a likely inevitable consequence of him working with a freelance orchestra. He has permission to dig in with more gravitas and more demands.

Shostakovich 9 is a tough ask for a group like this – it punishes anything that misses the exacting detail the composer etched onto the page. There were notable moments. The second movement mixed atmosphere with jeopardy, heard in the taut, shrill woodwind cues and in the horn pickup into the string countermelody, where the thin upper strings worked in Cope’s favour. The wind ensemble was thrilling in the third movement, though the solos in the second took time to find their feet. Elsewhere, in the high line of the first violins, say, one wrong note was exposed far more than it would be in a larger section. The strings also lacked power beneath the sardonic trumpet solo. The bassoon’s solo lines across the join into the finale were secure, but speeds that pulled back further than expected turned the last movement into a series of waypoints, not an unrelenting build. The final march was flat, and the preparation for the closing allegro left things rocky and mildly unhinged.

It’s a tough gig for Cope. A freelance orchestra is only as good as the players the fixer can get for the day, and how well they know the repertoire. The brass brought the most professional experience, audible in the rousing cues of the Korngold’s second movement and the last movement’s coda, though its cues in the Shostakovich fourth were less secure. The winds were strong in ensemble, articulation and colour, in the concerto and the symphony alike. The strings were the weaker point. A handful more upper strings, a little more rehearsal and more canny programming will serve Cope better at this stage of his career. Chromatica has the budget to reach further, and should.