Chromatica Orchestra are dedicated to supporting early-career musicians and conductors, but they also place educational work at the centre of their activities. They work closely with the Newham’s Bobby Moore Academy, and tonight young players joined Chromatica at Battersea Arts Centre for a lively performance of Bernstein’s Mambo. Conducted with energy by Jonathan Gibson from Music in Secondary Schools Trust, they rose to the occasion. Rhythms were tight, intonation solid and ensemble strong, and they were at the programme’s centre, rather than tucked away in pre-concert event.
Ingunn Korsgård Hagen took the helm for the rest of the evening, with Copland’s Quiet City opening, showcasing soloists Ewan Millar (cor anglais), and Nick Walker (trumpet). Originally incidental music for a 1939 play, Copland reworked the score into a concert piece. In the play, a man who has abandoed his Jewish faith and poetic aspirations to become a New York businessman questions his choices. The trumpet carries the questioning solo line, with the cor anglais a kind of echoing reminder, and this came across well in Walker’s assured yet nervy entries, and Millar’s mournful, mellow tones. The broad pentatonic strings, very Copland, were balanced well against the soloists, yet building to rich fullness at the central climax.
Canadian pianist Ryan Wang joined for Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in its 1926 pit orchestra scoring. Wang certainly took its improvisatory nature to heart, with cadenza passages taken in a new direction, quotes including Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto (with which Wang won the BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2024), and even the Nokia ringtone making an appearance. He also gave a turn on the melodica, accompanying himself on the piano – not the first to do this, but impressive nonetheless. Of course there was the danger that with all of this trickery, Gershwin would lose out – just because you can do something, should you? However, the spirit of the performance and the clear enjoyment of the Chromatica players held it all together, with sprightly tempi set by Wang and Korsgård Hagen. Clarinettist Méline Le Calvez nailed the opening, and only once did over-enthusiasm let the trumpet get momentarily out of time with the piano. Wang returned for a bravura jazzed-up encore of Mozart’s Rondo alla turca.
After Mambo, things took a darker turn with Ives’ Central Park in the Dark. Eerie, shimmering strings set the mysterious mood, if a little tentative initially. Woodwind interjections, as if in another time zone, were confident and clear, with Korsgård Hagen delivering a solid beat throughout. Then suddenly the pianos entered with a swing from the back, becoming ever more insistent as they battled each other, dragging the full orchestra up to a shattering climax. All then dropped away, leaving the strings with their ghostly meanderings to finish, leaving us with that typically Ives-ian disorientation.
Bernstein’s ballet suite Fancy Free (forerunner of the musical and film On the Town) ended the evening on a much livelier note. It’s a wild score, full of typically energetic and complex rhythms, all of which Korsgård Hagen traversed with tight control, and to which Chromatica responded with precision. With drunken waltzes, jazzy piano moments and cheeky swagger (with sailor hats) from the drummer and pianist, they had great fun, whilst negotiating those complex rhythms with ease. It was good to see constant communication between the players, particularly notable in the clear enjoyment of the viola and cello in their sexy duet moment. They all had a ball, and that communicated to the audience, bringing their programme full of energetic rhythm and bombast but also atmospheric nuance to a joyful close.
