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 ?

BBC CONCERT ORCHESTRA

BBC CONCERT ORCHESTRA

M&G Concert at the Civic Theatre

20.10.16

Autumn mists outside, but warm Italian sunshine radiating from the Civic stage, packed with the versatile musicians of the BBC Concert Orchestra.

Under the baton of Jessica Cottis, they gave crisp, precise readings of some familiar scores, beginning with the lively Overture to The Italian Girl in Algiers.

Bedfellows in the reference books, and now on the concert platform, child prodigies Rossini and Rota. The latter best remembered for his Fellini film scores, but a fine academic and classical composer, represented here by his Bassoon Concerto, with John McDougall as soloist. An accessible, if episodic, work with a lyrical, melancholy inner movement before the dance Variations which form the finale. Beautifully performed here, with fine work from piano, percussion and oboe in support of the agile soloist

After Beethoven's Romance No.2, with the orchestra's leader Stephen Morris as soloist, another trip to Italy composed by another prodigy: Mendelssohn's Fourth Symphony in the “sunshine key” of A Major. Lashings of local colour, in the solemn procession, and in the fleet-footed Saltarello which brings the work to an exhilarating close.

This opening concert in the new M&G season was recorded for future broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

ORCHESTRA OF THE SWAN

ORCHESTRA OF THE SWAN

M&G Concert at the Civic Theatre

02.04.16

The Swan, as in Avon. This ambitious chamber band is based in Shakespeare's Stratford, and will be playing there on the Bard's Birthday later this month.
For the last of this season's M&G Civic Concerts, they brought with them three pieces from Italy, and three from England. And a superstar soloist, the guitarist Craig Ogden.
Vivaldi's Guitar Concerto in the first half – full of fun and sunshine, with eloquent conversations in the beautiful Largo between Ogden and Nick Stringfellow's agile cello.
After the interval, Malcolm Arnold's Guitar Concerto, first played in 1959 by Arnold's friend Julian Bream, to whom it is dedicated. Witty dialogue between orchestra and soloist, a lovely big tune, and emotional intensity in the extended slow movement, inspired by the legendary Django Rheinhardt.
Superb musicianship from Ogden in both, and one of the best pre-concert talks we've had here, in which he revealed trade secrets with sandpaper and ping-pong balls.
The orchestra rounded the evening off with a brisk Simple Symphony [Britten], and also included a luscious Crisantemi [Puccini] and a Pergolesi Concertino to start, showcasing the Orchestra's rich, burnished string tone.

A bonus Elegy, from Ireland's Downland Suite, which features on the Swan's new CD.

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.

PHILHARMONIA BRASS

PHILHARMONIA BRASS

at the Civic Theatre Chelmsford

06.02.16

Trumpet legend John Wallace brought the Philharmonia Brass to the Civic for a revelatory evening of arrangements.
“You'll never see so many brass players on one stage,” he assures us in his entertaining pre-concert conversation. And I can believe him, since here, sitting alongside the Phil's brass players for Brian Lynn's Fanfare for Essex, are young musicians from the Essex Youth Brass Ensemble. A great idea – and they came back after the interval under their director Steve Drury, playing a cue from the Victorian Kitchen Garden.
Two Eric Crees arrangements from the professionals, with Wallace conducting: Bach's familiar Toccata and Fugue, with a splendid palette of colours as the tune was tossed around. Though maybe a little more reverberation in the acoustic would have blended them better. And sounding like “a pit band on heat” [Wallace], the Suite from West Side Story.
To end, an astonishing arrangement by Elgar Howarth of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Amazing feats of versatility, and otherworldly sounds, from the band ranged in a wide-screen arc across the Civic stage. An off-stage trumpet for Il Vecchio Castello, rumbling drums for the ox-cart, xylophone and some unbelievable trumpet effects for the Unhatched Chicks.

Brilliant playing, from virtuosi at the top of their game. Let's hope they can be persuaded back to Chelmsford soon. When perhaps we could have a better programme booklet – this time £2 bought us two whole pages on the Philharmonia [mother-ship to this ensemble] but nothing at all on Wallace or the pieces played.

THINGS TO COME - CHELMSFORD THEATRES

THINGS TO COME - CHELMSFORD THEATRES

Civic and Cramphorn Theatres' Spring Season 2016

A busy season this spring for our Chelmsford theatres.
Drama highlights include Pinter's black comedy The Birthday Party (8-9 March), Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black’s West End and Broadway hit musical Tell Me On A Sunday (6 March), starring Jodie Prenger. Both classic pieces too rarely revived.
Smaller tours too, with the long-awaited return of Jubilant Productions with Romancing Miss Bliss (13 February), a wry look at the secret lives of those who write Romantic Fiction. Wilde Without The Boy (27 February) is a dramatisation of De Profundis, Oscar Wilde’s searing letter to his lover Bosie, John Godber is back with The Debt Collectors (19 April) and The Best Thing (29 April), is a swinging 60s story of unconditional love from the Vamos Theatre company – full mask and wordless.
Music of all kinds – Dillie Keane, Maddy Prior, Blake and the ever-popular D'Ukes. Not to mention those touring tributes, to, amongst other, Billy Fury, Elvis, ELO and Simon and Garfunkel. And the enterprising M&G Concert series continues with the Philarmonia Symphonic Brass, the Northern Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Swan, with guitarist Craig Ogden.

To find out about all the shows on at Chelmsford City Theatres and to book tickets visit www.chelmsford.gov.uk/theatres or call the Box Office on 01245 606505.

BBC CONCERT ORCHESTRA

BBC CONCERT ORCHESTRA

M&G Civic Concert

15.11.15

The BBC Concert Orchestra packed the Civic stage for a tea-time trio of great romantic works.

None more romantic than Wagner's Siegfried Idyll, famously written for his wife and performed as a birthday surprise on the stairs to her bedroom. A lusher, more robust sound from this much bigger band, with brilliant woodwind blossoms emerging from the luxuriant foliage of the strings.

Richard Strauss's Oboe Concerto is a later work, though it inhabits a similar romantic landscape. Soloist Gareth Hulse, the BBCCO's principal oboe, gave an eloquent account of this reflective, autumnal work, with a lively, nimble Allegro opening, and a mellow tone for the serene Andante.

To close, Dvorak's Eighth Symphony, in an excitingly exuberant reading. Conductor Michael Collins managed the mood swings skilfully: majestic, tranquil, turbulent, lilting, culminating in thrillingly white-knuckle final bars.

A first visit to the Civic from this most versatile of the BBC bands – let's hope it will be the first of many.

EUROPEAN UNION CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

THE EUROPEAN UNION CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

M&G Concert at the Civic Theatre

03.05.15

The last M&G of this season, and a chance to hear the remarkable young cellist Guy Johnston in the Haydn Concert.

Elegant and exciting, his playing had plenty of heart; the subtly lyrical cantabile of the central Adagio was particularly impressive. His 1714 cello, by Rome maker David Tecchler, also acknowledged the warm applause.

After the interval, he played Bridge of Sighs, by Tim Watts – an atmospheric evocation of the restless canal beneath, with a nod to Monteverdi, premièred by this orchestra in 2013.

The concert began with sweeping string sounds of Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances, and ended with the unfailingly popular Fortieth Symphony of Mozart; after the subdued palette of the Watts, an athletic, extrovert rendering by this excellent chamber orchestra, directed from the violin by Eva Stegeman.

Another superb season of Civic Concerts, made possible by the fruitful collaboration between Orchestras Live and M&G Investments.

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.

THE BAROQUE TRUMPET

THE BAROQUE TRUMPET

The Academy of Ancient Music at the Civic Theatre

01.03.15

This tribute to the virtuoso performers of the 17^th and 18^th centuries began with a bright fanfare, the work of Bach's own trumpeter, Gottfried Reiche. The notes are immortalised in a portrait of the musician, clutching his spiral instrument and a clearly legible scrap of manuscript paper.

The AAM have put together a clever programme of works both familiar and obscure. The Bach Double violin concerto, delicately phrased, with a real energy of expression in the closing Allegro. Biber's dramatic Battle, with tipsy soldiers, cannon, fife and drum.

And Vivaldi's Concerto for two trumpets, full of character and virtuosic charm.

Telemann's Concerto for Trumpet, Violin and Cello stood out even in this exalted company: David Blackadder, Rebecca Livermore and Sarah McMahon on excellent form, the eloquent aria for violin in the central Adagio was exquisitely done.

A trio of Bach Sinfonias to start, and a trio of trumpets – Blackadder joined by Philip Bainbridge and Robert Vanryne – in a triumphant Telemann Concerto to finish this glittering showcase of Baroque brilliance from the courts of Europe.

The programme booklet gave some information about the pieces played and the history of the orchestra. But only three performers were named, one of them Tine Thing Helseth, who withdrew from this tour for health reasons. Which makes four soloists uncredited, not to mention the rest of this excellent period instrument band ...

LONDON MOZART PLAYERS

LONDON MOZART PLAYERS

M&G Concert at the Civic Theatre

26.10.2014

The first of this season's Civic Concerts featured two works inspired by the seasons.

First, Piazzolla's Cuatro Estanciones Porteñas – four contrasting Tango-flavoured movements depicting the seasons in Buenos Aires. Originally a piano work, this version, by Leonid Desyatnikov, brings it closer to Vivaldi, in a virtuosic violin concert. Brilliantly played by the LMP and Tasmin Little, with a lovely cantabile cello theme for Autumn from Sebastian Comberti.

Roxanna Panufnik's World Seasons borrows ideas and idioms from various musical cultures, without ever imitating. Autumn in Albania is a punchy, rhythmic dance movement, with a poignant love song following the cadenza. Tibetan Winter, complete with singing bowl [Comberti again], is hauntingly ethereal, and Indian Summer is sultry, smoky with a blazingly intense finale, redolent of the Holi Festival of Colours.

These two alternative almanachs were bookended by familiar favourites for string orchestra: Tchaikowsky's lively, lilting Serenade, directed from the leader's chair by Tasmin Little, relishing the rich sonorities of the writing, and Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, with leader Simon Blendis directing. Hard to bring anything fresh to the Mozart, you might think, but this was an enjoyably crisp, brisk reading, enhanced by the clear acoustic of the Civic Theatre.

THE ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC

ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC

M&G Concert at the Civic Theatre

02.03.14

One of the best baroque bands around, the AAM brought their new programme to the Civic for this very enjoyable evening's music-making.

It's based around the Dresden Court of Augustus the Strong. Vivaldi's Venetian style was very popular there, apparently, especially when brass and wind were added to the mix. So the concert began and ended with concertos featuring lavish wind parts as well as virtuoso writing for the violin – the two horns, in particular, vied with Rodolfo Richter's fiddle [whose history goes back further than the music he played] to spectacular effect.

William Carter, whose lute is a mere ten years old, was the soloist in Fasch's Concerto, with its sensuous slow movement.

In a generous programme, we also heard a colourful Overture by Veracini, and two works by JS Bach, a lively Third Brandenburg, and the Concerto for Three Violins, with its scintillating finale.

The last Civic Concert for this season, at the end of the month, will feature the Orchestra of the Swan in Mozart and Britten.

THE NORTHERN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

THE NORTHERN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

M&G Civic Concert at the Civic Theatre Chelmsford

09.02.14

This eagerly-awaited first visit from the Northern Chamber Orchestra, directed from the violin by Nicholas Ward, opened with a richly romantic pairing of Mendelssohn and Bruch, before Haydn's Hen and the September Threnody of David Ellis, former Artistic Director of the NCO.

Given its world première a year ago [in celebration of the composer's 80^th birthday] the Threnody is bracketed by a string trio. The rich string sound, the striking harmonies, and the delicate grazioso movement make it a moving, meditative work.

The concert began with a charming, very classical, Mendelssohn String Symphony, with a clever alternating pizzicato in lower and upper strings, written when young Felix was only twelve.

The soloist in the much-loved Bruch Violin Concerto was Jennifer Pike, propelled to fame at that same early age by BBC Young Musician in 2002. A reduced orchestration [just six woodwind] cut through the romantic miasma, and matched Pike's robust, impassioned approach.

After Haydn's Hen – great fun in a meticulous, often muscular performance – it was back to the Romantics for a lovely bonus, the Minuet from Schubert's Fifth Symphony.

The next M&G Concert, on Sunday 2 March, features the Academy of Ancient Music in a programme of Vivaldi and Bach.

CITY OF LONDON SINFONIA

CITY OF LONDON SINFONIA

M&G Concert at the Civic Theatre

03.11.13

The first of this season's Civic Concerts welcomed back the City of London Sinfonia, in a timely celebration of British music, with a special focus on Benjamin Britten, whose centenary we celebrate this month.

Their principal conductor, Michael Collins, premièred Britten's Clarinet Concerto [realised by Colin Matthews] some sixteen years ago, and it was a real privilege to hear him play the mysterious elegiac slow movement in a new arrangement for small string orchestra by Joseph Phibbs.

The evening began with Britten's arrangement of a Purcell Chacony, and ended with a dramatic interpretation of the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings from the Scots tenor Thomas Walker and horn player Stephen Stirling.

Collins played the piece with which he won the BBC Young Musician Competition back in '78, the Finzi Concerto: a lyrical reading of the clarinet part, contrasted with some forceful string playing.

The Sinfonia, led by David Juritz, were on sparkling form – I don't think I've ever heard the Holst St Paul's Suite played with such verve and evident enjoyment, from the muscular jig to the folk fiddle freedom of the Dargason finale.

EUROPEAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

EUROPEAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

M&G Civic Concert at the Civic Theatre

14.04.13

A sell-out end to the season; no surprise, since two very big names are involved, performing some of the best-loved repertoire.

As Lesley Garrett remarked: something for everyone. Though perhaps not for her crossover fans, for here she was very much in touch with her classical side – two Mozart arias, generously phrased and always dramatic, including Susannah's Act Four Deh vieni from Le Nozze di Figaro, and two from Handel, including the familiar Lascia ch'io pianga, and Let the Bright Seraphim, spectacularly performed with trumpeter Crispian Steele-Perkins, with a high-five at the end.

Steele-Perkins, who gave a brilliantly entertaining pre-concert talk, taking in King Tut, The Antiques Roadshow and a length of garden hose, also brought his own arrangement of more Handel trumpet tunes, a welcome bonus from this fine player.

The orchestra was the European Union Chamber Orchestra, directed by Hans-Peter Hofmann. They began with Elgar – a light [just 15 players] limpid Serenade for Strings, with a slow movement that was respectful, but really needed more power. No such quibbles about the Barber Adagio, in a version not too far from its quartet roots. Or about the Haydn Symphony, La Passione, which ended the evening. A most convincing performance, full of light and shade, incident and imagination.

A superb climax to this season of Civic Concerts, the twenty-fifth sponsored by M&G, who assure us that they intend to continue their invaluable support into the next quarter-century.

DOCKLANDS SINFONIA

DOCKLANDS SINFONIA

M&G Concert at the Civic Theatre

19.02.12

The Docklands Sinfonia is one of the UK's youngest orchestras: founded less than three years ago, it has players with an average age of 24.

Last Sunday they came to the Civic for the first time, bringing a very accessible programme of British music from the last century.

At the dramatic heart of the evening, Jeffery Wilson's Timpani Concerto of 1978. Virtuosic, melodic, even choreographic, it was given an animated performance by Scott Wilson and the Sinfonia, under the zestful direction of Spencer Down.

We began just upstream from the Sinfonia's Limehouse home, in the London painted by Eric Coates: Covent Garden, Westminster, and Knightsbridge, played very much as I imagine Coates the conductor would have liked it – brisk and broad-brushed.

Before the interval, Delius's romantic stroll to the pub, and after it, Elgar's Enigma Variations. A more generous acoustic would have lent a bloom to the strings, but it was good to hear the detail in, for instance, the skittering violins and the timpani, the energetic Fifth Variation, and the mighty Ninth. And the final Variation [the composer himself] was given a superbly judged closing chord.

We even had time for a very British lollipop – Fritz Spiegel's Radio Four Theme.

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.

CITY OF LONDON SINFONIA

M&G Concert at the Civic Theatre

20.03.11

Directed by guest leader Thomas Gould [who was here with the Britten Sinfonia last October], the City of London Sinfonia brought an unusual sequence of works for the last of this season's M&G Civic Concerts.

Two symphonies to start. An ebullient Allegro Assai led us into a nuanced performance of Haydn's 'Lamentatione', a reflective Adagio followed by a perky Minuet.

A much rarer treat from two centuries later: Philip Glass's Third Symphony, a chamber work for strings alone, and not without classical influence. Its mesmeric, subtly developed sequences were intelligently interpreted by the CLS, Gould's positive tempi bringing out what he referred to in the pre-concert talk as a suggestion of salsa … Movement Three was especially enthralling, with the lower strings setting up a pattern over which violin solos wove a marvellous melodic line.

A similar juxtaposition after the break: Barber's much more familiar Adagio for Strings, played with haunting intensity, preceding Mozart's Third Violin Concerto, given a performance of style and substance by Matthew Trusler, who achieved an easy rapport with the orchestral players. The spirit of Mozart was mostly clearly felt, perhaps, in the lilting Adagio, eloquently phrased by both soloist and Sinfonia. A dying fall at the end of the Rondeau concluded another hugely successful M&G series. Though it did make me long – vain hope, I know - for a proper concert hall in the county town, without the intrusive air conditioning or the annoying clink of cups and glasses from the bar after the interval.

SINFONIA VIVA

M&G Concert at the Civic Theatre

13.02.11

A predominantly sunny Pastoral Symphony from Sinfonia ViVA and their youthful maestro André de Ridder. Beethoven's familiar sound pictures came up fresh as paint in this very enjoyable performance, starting with a light-footed Allegro, then leading through the gentle, easy rhythms of the brook and an athletic country dance to the sudden storm and the shepherd's song.

Written just a generation later, and clearly influenced by Beethoven, Schumann's early, incomplete Zwickau Symphony had a welcome airing to start the evening. A clean string sound , with crisp brass behind. I liked the energy at the end of the first movement, and the good-humoured Scherzo. I did feel, though, that this young man's symphony merited a lighter touch at times.

Between these two German masters, an amusingly astringent sorbet: Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite, from the ballet he wrote for Diaghilev just after the Great War [stage designs by Pablo Picasso!]. Soloists and sections are often give their own voice, as in the Serenata [violin – leader Benedict Holland - and oboe] and the showy Toccata. The Vivo just before the Finale was great fun, with the lower voices to the fore – double bass and trombone.

The last of this very successful M&G Concert Series is on March 29, with the City of London Sinfonia.

ENGLISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

M&G Concert at the Civic Theatre

16.01.11

The second concert of this M&G season saw cellist Paul Watkins, elevated on a central dais, directing the ECO in Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations, and, naturally, playing the demanding solo part. It's a lot to ask – much tougher than directing from the violin or the harpsichord – but after a slightly shaky start, we heard a performance of integrity, wit and charm, with eloquent solo playing in the third and sixth variations especially, and engaging social chatter in the scampering Allegro Vivo Finale.

The strings [leader Stephanie Gonley] were on splendid form in the Butterworth, too, but the real meat of the evening was the two pieces of early Beethoven bookending the programme.

With his energetic showmanship, Watkins got the First Symphony off to an impressive start, and there was an intriguing edge to the Menuetto, before the sparkling Finale sent us home with a spring in our step.

The Prometheus Overture is well known – its dramatic opening chords particularly striking here – the Ballet Music less often heard. A shame we could not have had it all, or at least a few more movements; I would happily have sacrificed the token Englishman to make room for more Beethoven. The orchestra's playing had a lightness of touch combined with a steely strength, and there was fine work from Helen Tunstall's harp – rare in Beethoven – and the cello [Susan Monks] representing Apollo in the myth.