An evening of unfailing interest that flagged up the wonders of both David Owen Norris and Lawrence Power in variable performances of classic scores by Vaughan Williams.
A delectable programme from Barry Wordsworth and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with pieces by Elgar and Vaughan Williams and a rare chance to hear John Ireland’s eclectic Piano Concerto.
Music from Vaughan Williams is contrasted with two pieces from Dobrinka Tabakova in The Scottish Ensemble’s candlelit concert, Ascent. Senior NYOS strings swell the ranks to produce a reflective evening of richness and warmth.
The Gallipoli landings are etched indelibly into the Australian psyche. The Australian Chamber Orchestra offers an exploration of the campaigns which is enthralling and frustrating by turns.
Just occasionally a regular concert-goer experiences a performance that is truly special. When he is not anticipating this it can be an overwhelming experience. The BBC Philharmonic’s concert at the Bridgewater Hall, also broadcast on BBC Radio 3, proved to be such an experience.
This concert seemed to be an object lesson as to why Vaughan Williams is a great composer. It contained three contrasting pieces, each one demonstrating the composer’s ability to create atmosphere and capture the attention of audiences by the scruff of neck.
I have come to look forward to the variety of repertoire often presented by Mark Eager and the Welsh Sinfonia, often mixing more familiar works with other, less-prominent compositions. This evening’s short and simple concert offered a programme in this very vein: four 20th- and 21st-century composers with somewhat different yet complementary styles.
When the nights get longer and the temperatures begin to drop, one of the best ways to cozy up is with a good concert of chamber music. I Musici de Montréal and conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni presented “The Night Transfigured”, a program of works inspired by night to warm audiences at Bourgie Hall on Friday evening.
The Camerata Salzburg’s evening of Mozart, Enescu and Vaughan Williams at Berlin’s Konzerthaus was a crisp and bubbling performance that stimulated the intellect as well as the emotions. Beginning the evening with George Enescu’s Two Intermezzi for String Orchestra, the Camerata swept audience members away into a world gone, but too lovely to be forgotten.
The Last Night of the Proms provided a welcome tying-up of the various strands that have permeated this year’s season: British light music, the 60th anniversary of the Coronation, a host of premières and new BBC commissions, and the significant anniversaries of a number of composers (including the big-hitters of the season, Wagner and Britten).
David Curtis displayed his usual deceptively effortless ease on the podium. Perhaps this felt like a handy warm-up for the marathon that he would run, hard on the heels of this concert, in Stratford-upon-Avon, the Orchestra of the Swan’s home territory.
Leeds is so lucky to have virtuoso violinist David Greed still within reach, ready and available to perform as a soloist at concerts like this with the excellent orchestra of which he was the youngest leader in the country when it was formed in 1978. It was really thrilling to experience The Lark Ascending live, and to see him standing there just a few feet in front of the audience.
Like a puzzle where you have to get from one word to a completely different one by changing single letters, Friday evening’s concert from Northern Sinfonia travelled from the sparse simplicity of Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel, to the richness of a Brahms symphony in three utterly logical musical steps.
The history of British music reads rather like the old joke about buses: there was no composer of note in the two hundred years after Purcell, and then three came along at once. Whilst Elgar and Vaughan Williams have become household names, the third composer who came along at the end of the nineteenth century has been relegated to the dusty shelves of musical history.
