By Nancy Plum

Westminster Community Orchestra celebrated the city of Vienna this past weekend with music of Franz Schubert, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Johann Strauss Jr. and featured guest piano and vocal soloists. Conducted by Ruth Ochs, the community-based ensemble presented a piano concerto of Beethoven and symphonic and vocal works of Schubert, topped off with popular waltzes by Strauss Jr. The overflowing audience at Hillman Hall on the campus of Westminster Conservatory showed the popularity of this Orchestra and its focus on informality and a family atmosphere.

Schubert’s 1822 Symphony No. 8 in B minor, widely known as the “Unfinished Symphony,” is recognizable by its familiar first movement melody. It was this movement that the Community Orchestra offered as an opening to Saturday night’s concert. The orchestral sound was immediately present in the hall but was never overwhelming in a space in which the audience and performers were close together. The Orchestra began Schubert’s Symphony with light playing from the strings, as an oboe solo from Helen Ackley was cleanly answered by horns. Ochs maintained a graceful flow as the memorable tune emerged from the cello section. Phrases always had direction, and wind solos from Ackley and clarinetist Russell Labe added to the Viennese feel.

Schubert left behind at least 600 songs upon his premature death, and the two-verse “And die Musik” is one of the best known. With lyrics recognizing music’s ability to transport the listener into a “better world,” this song shows Schubert’s melodic writing at its best. Soprano Danielle Sinclair, head of the voice department at Westminster Conservatory, joined the Community Orchestra for this piece, singing cleanly and communicating well with the listeners. Sinclair was elegantly accompanied by a small group of strings and solo winds.

If the Schubert pieces were the appetizers on the menu, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in Bb Major was clearly the main course. In such an intimate space as Hillman Hall, the audience can learn a great deal by watching the musicians close up. This extra benefit was very evident in the Orchestra’s performance, with piano soloist Esma Pasic-Filipovic giving listeners plenty from which to learn.

Beethoven’s three-movement second piano concerto dates from as early as 1793, possibly when he was studying with Franz Josef Haydn. The work was premiered in 1795 with Beethoven as piano soloist, likely showing off his extraordinary improvisational skills by making up the first-movement cadenza on the spot. Despite its lyrical passages and uncomplicated harmonies, this work would be a challenge for any orchestra. The players of the Community Orchestra began the opening “Allegro” with light strings and the horns providing a solid foundation. Pasic-Filipovic played gracefully, with well-executed ornaments and strong extended trills. Pasic-Filipovic approached the first movement cadenza dramatically, but also brought out a tuneful middle section.

The second movement “Adagio” began reverently, with the Orchestra always remaining subtle with Pasic-Filipovic’s solo lines. Both Orchestra and pianist presented the closing “Rondo” with energy and playfulness, always returning to the refrain in a new and imaginative way. Pasic-Filipovic especially emphasized the syncopated rhythms, foreshadowing the fire of later Beethoven works.

One cannot pay musical tribute to Vienna without including “The Waltz King.” Johann Strauss, the Younger, composed more than 150 waltzes, with the “Blue Danube” tune one of the most recognizable in the repertory. Strauss’ 1889 Kaiser-Waltzer, or Emperor Waltz, was composed for a toast between Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I and German Emperor Wilhelm II, and contrasts fanfare and march passages with gentle melodies. Westminster Community Orchestra played the opening waltz as if it were a chipper walk through the Alps, with well-blended brass and winds. Cellist Barbara Brown provided two short but elegant solo passages as conductor Ochs and the Orchestra closed the evening in high-spirited fashion, sending the audience into the night feeling as if they had been to a Viennese summer concert.