"The Soul of the Orchestra": Newton's New Philharmonia

The New Philharmonia

By their very nature, community orchestras are welcoming places where musicians of all levels can come together to play a wide range of repertoire. But the New Philharmonia has maintained a tradition of presenting concerts that consistently meet professional standards.

Celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary this season, the Newton-based orchestra balances high caliber performances with community engagement by continuing to build upon its founding principle—it is, first and foremost, a musicians’ ensemble.

“It was the musicians who started the orchestra, and it is the musicians who are actually the soul, the core, of the orchestra,” said conductor Francisco Noya in a recent phone conversation from Argentina. “It’s a very special thing.”

Those musicians—many of whom hold degrees in music from prestigious institutions—strive to make every performance gleam with polish and precision. Such a vision stemmed from the orchestra’s first director, Ronald Knudsen, who initiated an exacting standard that continues today.

At 75 members strong, the New Philharmonia has tackled some of the heftiest works in the repertoire. Past seasons have featured them in Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, a work the orchestra, under Noya’s direction, revisits in concerts this weekend.

“Mahler 5 is a stretch for any orchestra,” Noya said. “But we come to it with a desire to play at the highest possible caliber.”

“I think the orchestra is rising to the occasion,” added the orchestra’s executive director Adrienne Hartzell. “It’s a little different kind of challenge these days, but I think people are really excited about it and they have high hopes that it will be a successful weekend.”

Francisco Noya

Though much of its programming has revolved around orchestral favorites, the New Philharmonia has delved into little-heard works. In the 2011-2012 season, the orchestra performed Edward MacDowell’s Piano Concerto No. 2, which featured Frederick Moyer as soloist. Nearly a decade prior the ensemble offered a real curio in Ernö Dohnányi’s Variations on a Nursery School Song, which spotlighted pianist Jonathan Bass.

The New Philharmonia has also ventured into new music, and this spring it offers the world premiere of a work by England-based composer Tom Vignieri.

“The thing with this group is that . . . you’re not just playing Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker and the choral repertoire,” said Hartzell, who performs as the orchestra’s principal cellist. “You actually play the real legitimate orchestral pieces. For me, that’s been great.”

The New Philharmonia also continues to offer programs aimed at families and children—one of Knudsen’s original initiatives—in an effort to build and maintain audiences. The annual family concerts involve performances by members of the Boston Ballet School and feature student groups from around the area. Members of the orchestra even venture into the public schools to coach young performers. “Definitely for a community orchestra, that’s a pretty bold thing to do,” Hartzell said.

Like Hartzell, some members of the orchestra have performed professionally before moving onto other careers. Bruce Falby, the orchestra’s principal flutist who will be the featured soloist in Mozart’s Flute Concerto No. 1 this weekend, performed in South America before switching to law. He is now one of the most successful litigators in Massachusetts.

And in Noya, the orchestra has found a conductor with a similarly vast professional experience. “One of Ron’s concerns in his last days was that the New Phil have a replacement conductor who had experience conducting professional groups because he didn’t want the level to drop dramatically,” Hartzell said. “Francisco has taken over that same kind of attitude [that Ron shared].”

Local critics have noticed the level of musicianship that the New Philharmonia brings to its performances. This past March, Jonathan Blumhofer wrote in the Boston Classical Review that, “The NPO is a community orchestra, but it’s an uncommonly good one. The ensemble possesses many of the hallmarks of a professional group: a rich blend of voices, strong principal players, stable intonation, and – not least – the collective stamina that seems to build over the course of a work.”

“Trying to impose those professional standards on a community group has been sometimes a real challenge,” Hartzell said. “But generally people roll with the punches.”

"We had orchestra association meetings here in New England for a few years, and people asked, “what kind of attendance do you get?” In those days we would get ninety percent attendance at every rehearsal. And they were like, “how do you do this?” But people really wanted to be there,” she said.

That commitment has enabled the orchestra to perform at a level uncommon for many community groups. “I don’t want to hear people walk out of here saying it was a pretty good concert for an amateur orchestra,” Noya added. “I want people to walk out of here saying it was an amazing concert—period.”

Francisco Noya will lead the New Philharmonia in music by Mozart and Mahler 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at the First Baptist Church in Newton Centre. newphil.org