Each year, the Stuart B. Mindlin Memorial Concerts at Princeton University have brought together the University Orchestra with other ensembles and guest soloists. This year, conductor Michael Pratt and the orchestra chose to go it alone, presenting two major symphonic works which not only showed off the ensemble’s collective sound, but also gave many of the student musicians the chance to play elegant solos. 

Richard Strauss and Dmitri Shostakovich were two powerhouse composers of the late 19th and 20th centuries, and their symphonic works made full use of every instrumental resource in the orchestras of the times. Strauss’s 1889 tone poem Tod und Verklärung, Op. 24 fit right into the symphonic trend toward the end of the 19th century of bigger is better. The University Orchestra warm-up to last Thursday night’s performance (the concert was repeated Saturday night) was a sign of top volume to come, yet the ensemble’s performance was surprisingly restrained and delicate when necessary as Strauss’s love story unfolded.

Mr. Pratt began the work with care as Emily DeJong’s graceful bassoon solo complemented instrumental “heartbeats” in the strings. Mr. Pratt kept the lid on orchestral volume in the opening Largo section, and the audience could hear the instruments coming to life. Ms. DeJong was joined in solo lines by concertmaster Jessie Chen, flutist Queenie Luo, and English hornist Ethan Petno. The lower strings came to the forefront in the second movement, accompanied by clean brass in which one could hear the struggle within Strauss’s programmatic tone poem. Mr. Pratt kept his conducting gestures clean, controlling the mood well and creating an impression in the final movement of the sun rising.

Mr. Pratt paired the Strauss work with a towering work with a strong musical political statement from the 20th century. Dmitri Shostakovich was under continual watch by repressive arts officials of the Russian regime, and his 1937 Symphony No. 5 in D minor was a subtle compositional response to criticism that his music did not fit the accepted mold. The symphony began darkly in the lower strings, accompanied by solos from oboist Tiffany Huang, flutist Nicole Odzowski, and clarinetist Paul Chang. This background, with a simple melody in the violins, seemed to reflect the turbulence of the times in which the piece was written. The orchestra emphasized well a pulsating rhythm in the celli and double basses under a lush sectional viola melody.

The military nature of the piece could be well heard, and the music could easily have turned chaotic, but did not. An especially sweet section was heard with flutist Ms. Odzowski and hornist Nivanthi Karunaratne, accompanied by chords from the harp. The second movement Allegretto was light and airy, but with a feeling that something was not quite right in what Shostakovich was trying to convey — as if all seemed well, but insiders knew otherwise.

Throughout the concert, unusual effects were apparent in the seating of musicians playing at any given time; for instance, the third movement opened with seven back-chair violins playing against lower strings, with the reverent sound slowly moving forward to the front-chair strings. The texture was icy, with an almost imperceptible oboe solo topping the sound. The closing movement was the most military, with a rich horn solo from Ms. Karunaratne and a sectional violin melody full of pathos and mourning. Despite the circumstances under which the symphony was composed, the work does end in joy, and the piece was well received at its premiere by both public and officials. It was a triumph then, and as a closing performance of the University Orchestra’s 2015-16 season, it was equally as triumphant and a celebration of the young musicians within the orchestra.