Ontario Pops Orchestra: Breaking Barriers
Ontario Pops Orchestra

In the spirit of a youth orchestra, the Toronto-based Ontario Pops Orchestra (OPO) provides up-and-coming musicians with experiences to last a lifetime. And like the typical youth orchestra, the OPO, founded in 2014 by its conductor and music director Carlos Bastidas, elevates its performances with youthful energy and zest. One thing that sets it apart from others, however, is its concerted commitment to diversity: under Bastidas's leadership, the ensemble supports female and BIPOC composers and instrumentalists in its programming and orchestra membership. While the set-list of its debut double-CD set Breaking Barriers hews to the conservative in featuring works by Vivaldi, Mozart, Holst, and Bach, the three young Black women highlighted as soloists, violinists Tanya Charles Iveniuk and Yanet Campbell Secades and bassoonist Marlene Ngalissamy, are emblematic of the forward-thinking sensibility promoted by the OPO.

All four of the principal personnel bring rich backgrounds to the project. Bastidas was born in Colombia but studied bassoon, composition, conducting, and chamber music at the University of Ottawa. A native of Camagüey, Cuba, Secades earned her Master of Music at Newfoundland's Memorial University and is currently studying at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Hamilton-born Iveniuk is a University of Toronto graduate, educator, and in-demand string adjudicator and clinician. Ngalissamy studied at the Montreal Conservatory of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music and has participated in workshops and programs around the globe.

One of only two symphonies Mozart wrote in a minor key, his Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550 (1788) provides an enticing entry-point when its opening “Molto allegro” is delivered by the OPO with vigour, conviction, and attention to detail. While the work is often discussed in terms of Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress), the mood in this initial stage is anything but lugubrious or angst-ridden, though there's definitely agitation. Whereas the gentle lyricism of the “Andante” offers a soothing contrast to the opening part's urgency, the “Menuetto. Allegretto - Trio” balances lightness and darkness, the former in its nimble rhythms and the latter in its brooding melodic tone. The “Allegro assai” finale puts the OPO's technical abilities to the test, but it meets the challenge handsomely with an accomplished performance. “Summer” from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, RV 315 follows, the material initiated with a sombre intro before the movement leaps to attention. In the effervescent “Allegro non molto” and rampaging “Presto” movements, Iveniuk leads the charge with authority; in the slow central movement, the artfulness of her delivery impresses as much. Capping the release's first half is St. Paul's Suite in C major, Op. 29, No. 2, which Holst wrote for string orchestra in 1913. A joyful tone is established, naturally, by the lively “Jig,” which leads into the swirling churn of the “Ostinato” and the arresting harmonic gestures and infectious dance rhythms of the “Intermezzo” and “Finale (The Dargason),” respectively.

Breaking Barriers inaugurates its second half with a lively treatment of Mozart's 1787 Serenade in G Major, K. 525 “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” (“A Little Night Music”), clearly the best known of his thirteen serenades. The OPO's rendition advances from a credible run-through of the exuberant “Allegro” to a lyrical “Romanze,” breezy “Menuetto,” and brisk “Finale.” The release's other featured violin soloist, Secades steps into the role for J. S. Bach's three-part Violin Concerto in A minor, No. 1, BWV 1041. The “Allegro moderato” poses no small number of technical challenges, but Secades navigates her way through them admirably. She invests the elegiac “Andante” with an attractive sweetness and executes the acrobatic figures of “Allegro assai” with assurance. As strong as she is in the concerto, she impresses even more in an unaccompanied rendering of the “Adagio” from Bach's Violin Sonata No. 3, BWV 1005. Ngalissamy's time to shine comes at album's end with the arrival of Vivaldi's Bassoon Concerto in E minor, RV 484, one of thirty-nine he composed for the reed instrument between 1728 and 1737. With rapid fingerings called upon, the “Allegro poco” gives the bassoonist a solid workout, the “Andante” casts the bassoon in a seldom heard lyrical light, and the concluding “Allegro” again demands the soloist survive high-velocity challenges.

April 2023