DEVIL'S VIOLIN

DEVIL'S VIOLIN

M&G Concert at the Civic Theatre

20.01.17

The City of London Sinfonia, launching their “Devil's Violin” mini-tour in Chelmsford, played a brilliant programme of folk and classical, exploring the similarities and the differences, the influences and the arrangements.
Led by violinist Alexandra Wood, they began with a toe-tapping, virtuoso La Folia sequence from Vivaldi, before introducing Dan Walsh [banjo] and Henry Webster [folk fiddle]. They played reels before we heard what Grainger did with them in Molly on the Shore; they played Bonaparte's Retreat, from the Appalachian tradition, before Copland's Hoe Down and his quirky Ukulele Serenade. An insightful and entertaining juxtaposition.
The devil headlined in Piazzolla's Romance del Diablo and Locatelli's Trillo del Diavolo, both featuring stunning violin solos from Alexandra Wood, and in the upbeat encore, The Devil Went Down To Georgia, with the folkies joining the band in a fun-filled fusion.
Millions of us heard the CLS this Christmas in the soundtrack to We're Going On A Bear Hunt – Ms Wood a featured artist – now available on Sony Classical. Would it be too much to hope for a crossover CD of The Devil's Violin ?

NORTHERN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

NORTHERN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

M&G Concert at the Civic Theatre

20.03.16

A handful of orchestral favourites, played with style and enthusiasm by this excellent chamber band, directed from the leader's desk by Nicholas Ward.
After an exquisite egg-timer [Mozart's Marriage of Figaro Overture], full of light and shade, an atmospheric Cuckoo from Delius, with the clarinet evoking the mournful bird.
Martin Roscoe was the soloist in Beethoven's Emperor Concerto. He gave an assertive account of this monumental work, his massive grand piano dwarfing the orchestra, who gave a compelling account of the score, the delicate strings in the introduction to the Adagio particularly fine.
More Mozart to finish – a fresh, meticulously crafted Haffner, ending with an impressively fleet-footed Presto finale.

Before that, some early Shostakovich: an orchestral version of the Octet Prelude and Scherzo, penned long before the dead hand of Joseph Stalin stifled creativity and the avant-garde. Performed with energetic zest by the 13 strings of this splendid Manchester-based ensemble.

THE PHILHARMONIA

THE PHILHARMONIA

M&G Concert at the Civic Theatre

29.03.15

First time at the Civic for the Philharmonia, in a wonderful programme which introduced Chelmsford music-lovers to the amazing Zsolt-Tihamer Visontay, the Phil's dynamic young concert-master.

He brought with him two helpings of Mozart. The Divertimento for Strings, with the solemn Andante shifted to middle movement, framed by the energetic, expressive Allegros. And, with the addition of one or two winds, the 17^th Symphony, written when the young Amadeus was just sixteen. A lively tempo, and a great rhythmic pulse in the Andante.

JS Bach's Violin Concerto, with Visontay as the soloist, was a revelation. A performance of warmth and charm, seeming to share the joy of discovery with the audience, bringing a real freshness to these familiar notes.

Strauss's Metamorphosen - “a Study for 23 Solo Strings” - was superbly interpreted. The theatre's dry acoustic meant that each of the threads in this rich tapestry of sound was distinctly audible, but able to blend into the flowing harmonic shifts and poignant melodies. And a beautifully controlled dying breath at the end. A truly memorable half hour of glorious music, with Visontay leading by example in superb ensemble playing.

Here, for interest, is the very different septet version, from the Hampstead Festival in 2013, with Visontay leading, and on cello, Guy Johnston, who will be playing the Haydn Concerto in the last M&G of this season, on May 3.

CITY OF LONDON SINFONIA

CITY OF LONDON SINFONIA

M&G Civic Concert

20.11.11

For their second visit this year, the CLS chose four accessible works from the chamber ensemble repertoire. This time they brought with them two great names in British music – pianist Peter Donohue, who first appeared at the Civic some thirty years ago, and clarinettist Michael Collins, who also conducted the Sinfonia in Rossini and Tchaikovsy, as well as directing Weber from the clarinet.

This was the Quintet, arranged for string orchestra, and played here with great delicacy, especially in the pianissimo passages in the Fantasia. After an agile, playful Menuetto, he took the Finale at a canter, to the delight of players and audience alike.

Donohue was the soloist in Shostakovich's First Piano Concerto, performed with a manic sense of fun, but managing, in the second movement, a more sombre mood, silky melancholic strings building to something more monumentally tragic. The trumpet, giving a wry commentary from the opposite side of the stage, drowsily muted in that Lento, was Nicholas Betts. In the bravura closing Allegro, the soloist really looked as if he were enjoying the ride, like an enthusiast behind the wheel of a vintage Bugatti.

Rossini's Sonata for Strings was blithely tuneful, with a lovely lightness of touch, and a passionate operatic Andantino. Tchaikovsky's Souvenirs de Florence, a late work, had a rich sheen in the string tone, some beautiful dialogue between cello and violin, and an emotional finale, bathed in the same Mediterranean sunshine as the Rossini.

BRITTEN SINFONIA

THE BRITTEN SINFONIA

M&G Concert at the Civic Theatre

16.10.11

Opening the new M&G concert season, a welcome return for the Britten Sinfonia, regular visitors here over their nineteen year history. They brought us a programme less interesting than the one they chose to open their subscription series this month in Cambridge, Norwich and London, but nonetheless varied and satisfying. Performed with the usual passion and flair.

“All our chamber music suffers in the concert hall from the inappropriateness of the space,” Gustav Mahler told a journalist. So he re-worked some of his favourite quartets for full orchestra. One such arrangement, of Schubert's Death and the Maiden, was only recently unearthed, and it formed the centrepiece of Sunday's concert.

An intense reading, with the inexorable elemental forces well suggested in the finale, and the emphatic sonorities of the Andante showing Mahler's hand most clearly.

A definite chamber music feel to the rest of the programme, too. A sparkling, tightly focused Mozart Divertimento to start, and Vivaldi's Four Seasons coming up fresh, under Thomas Gould's inspirational direction. His interpretation of the solo violin part had an exciting freedom of expression, encouraging his virtuoso colleagues to live their roles, sweltering or shivering in the Italian countryside.

This is programme music par excellence, and it would have been nice to have enough light to read the helpful notes. And though we appreciate our interval drink, the sounds of their preparation and disposal can easily ruin a pianissimo passage ...