Marie Vassiliou, her beautiful soprano so impressive in Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs, and her person hardly less so, was only the second singer to be engaged for a Charnwood Orchestra concert, as far as I can remember.

But however communicative any instrumental soloist may be, there is nothing quite like a singer for human contact with the audience. There is an extensive repertoire to be explored too.

For most listeners, Strauss is the composer of orchestral tone poems (or merely the famous bit in 2001: a Space Odyssey), although in the early 1900s his operas Salome and Elektra made him an outright modernist. But he backed off, and in his last years returned to an unrepentant late-Romantic style.

The Four Last Songs of 1948 are loved for their deep nostalgia and beauty by people who might not otherwise be drawn to orchestral songs. The voice moves freely over a rich instrumental foundation in a profound response to the poems - Spring, September, Going to sleep, At sunset. Strauss died the following year.

The audience in St James the Greater was surely fortunate to have heard Vassiliou's sincere and controlled performance, even without the printed words. Nic Fallowfield directed the orchestra in a balanced and sympathetic accompaniment. Exposed passages were in keeping with the whole, with wonderfully quiet playing at the last.

Two other romantic works enclosed the Strauss. Schumann, like many another, was in thrall to Byron, and composed incidental music to spoken words from Manfred. Only the orchestral Overture is often played. Here, although Fallowfield and the orchestra conveyed the hero's uneasy struggles, the principal themes often did not assert themselves, a matter of balance in the church's rich acoustic, perhaps.

The same was often true of Elgar's monumental Symphony No. 1, now in its centenary year. The wonderful opening melody was beautifully laid out, preparing the ground for it's many later echoes. Likewise the opening of the finale, but in complex passages in all four movements, memorable themes were not brought out as my memory told me they should. It made for hard listening to a great British symphony.

A.F.

Like two halves of different concerts

The press release stressed that Stravinsky's Firebird Suite was the piece to look out for in the Charnwood Orchestra's Emmanuel Church concert under Nic Fallowfield.

I wondered where that left the opening work, Brahms' Piano Concerto No.2, a four-movement high-romantic work 50 minutes long. It is one of the great concertos and equally unlikely fare for a local orchestra.

In the event, things did go the publicist's way, despite the greater musical heft of the Brahms. The soloist in the concerto was to have been Katya Apekisheva, heard here previously in Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, but instead we had a young Canadian from the Royal College of Music, Andrew Aarons.

The concerto was better savoured in retrospect. The first movement did not flow well, and I confirmed on good authority that Aarons had an unfortunate lapse. But he launched into the scherzo with refreshed confidence, and thereafter things flowed smoothly. All the same, the ambitious scope of Brahms's warm-
hearted outpouring was constrained by the players' caution. They should give it another outing.

They were not helped by having to start from cold, with nothing by way of overture. The shortest piece in the programme, Ravel's Pavane pour une Infante Defunte, serenely opened the second half instead. Then we were into the Stravinsky, with percussion duly augmented.

Nic Fallowfield is good with this kind of repertory and Stravinsky's first masterpiece did not disappoint. The suite he made in 1919 from The Firebird full-length ballet score is wonderfully conceived. The magical introduction and skittering firebird's dance, the barbaric dance of the evil king, and the finale's monumental
rejoicing, are interleaved with two hauntingly beautiful slow movements. Harmonies set the scalp tingling and the brazen blast brought the full house down.

So ended an odd programme, like two halves of different concerts, united only by the demands on the principal horn, from the opening of the Brahms to the close of the Stravinsky. But the Charnwood's reputation for stretching their repertoire into the early modern era continues. We have how had Bartok, Berg, and Stravinsky's Firebird and Petrushka. Would they even contemplate The Rite of Spring?

A.F.

Orchestra provides a Russian flavour

RACHMANINOV'S mighty Symphony No.2 in its centenary year was the meat of the Charnwood Orchestra's all-Russian programme in All Saints' Parish Church.
Some might call it mushy rather than mighty, but most listeners happily wallow in its gorgeousness.

Until the 1973 Previn recording, it was often cut down to around 40 minutes. NIC Fallowfield's performance ran for close on the original hour, but although the large audience was finally enthusiastic, some without cushions on those pews may have had their patience tried by the first movement. Several passages were opaque to the point of making poor thematic sense.

Even here there were compensations of course. And especially from the scherzo onwards - heroic horns!- the acoustics allowed a balanced sound for Rachmaninov's rich textures. In an evening of heaven-sent melody, it was vital that the strings were able to sweep those themes along.

Among some fine individual playing, the long clarinet solo in the wonderful Adagio was beautifully played by, I guess, Suzanne Thompson. Fallowfield's skill in keeping the music flowing then ensured that the finale never flagged.

Although Liadov's Eight Russian Folksongs are not an obvious opener, they worked well as a gentle entree to the bigger works. Varied and brief, and lucidly scored as befits a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov, they seemed instantly familiar.

Northern climes have inspired marvellous folk tunes and these delicate arrangements were a delight. One or two of the tunes appear elsewhere in Russian music, and the Cradle Song setting reminded me of Grieg.

But it is concertos and the like that metaphorically bring audiences to their feet. Tchaikovsky's eloquent 1876 Variations on a Rococo Theme with cello solo belong to a Mozart-inspired strand of his music. The Serenade for Strings is the prime example, of course.

Tim Gill, principal cellist with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta, brought incisive articulation to a solo that doesn't necessarily need romantic indulgence. The transparent scoring exposed what seemed like loose
woodwind ensemble, although there were admirable solos. Maybe the acoustics of the church didn't help here.

By the way, Liadov Is famous for failing to write The Firebird, which the orchestra will play in Emmanuel Church on March 15.
A.F.