Troubled dreams from David Le Page and the Orchestra of the Swan

The Orchestra of the Swan and David Curtis are on a mission to rescue the reputation of Mozart's alleged rival and tormentor.

Being the resident band in Stratford-upon-Avon, the Orchestra of the Swan is having a busy time of it right now, in the lead-up to Shakespeare400. 

Two individually strong musical components met in this Czech field trip, but will they connect to form something new?

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.

After weeks of foul weather, this was more like it. Proper sunshine for a summer festival. Around Hereford Cathedral, watched over by a statue of Elgar draped in a fresh laurel wreath, Three Choirs Festival-goers enjoyed the warmth before venturing inside for equally sunny music. Even the yellow flowers framing the stage carried through the theme, setting off the golden centre-stage harp.

Viktoria Mullova is a superb soloist in Brahms' Violin Concerto, while an orchestra full of soloists play Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra with Kahchun Wong presiding.