reviews
28th
June 2008
St. James the Greater, Leicester
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.
15th March 2008
Emmanuel Church, Loughborough
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.
1st December 2007
The Parish Church, Loughborough
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.
6th October 2007
Holy Trinity Church, Church Street,
Barrow-upon-Soar
Mendelssohn's 1827 overture A Midsummer Night's Dream was
a bold choice by Nic Fallowfield for the Charnwood Orchestra's
customary start-of-season concert of classically-scaled works
in Barrow Parish Church.
Swift and feathery fairy strings hinted at much preparation
behind this brisk and joyful performance, which didn't skate
over the tender passages either. Sometimes the winds were
too strong, diminishing the magic at the close, but balance
is tricky in this smallish space.
It was a difficult act to follow. After it, Mozart's Six German
Dances from 40 years earlier were an anticlimax, chuntering
along agreeably enough but without much characterisation.
Yet they were followed by a finely judged Bach Violin Concerto
in A minor with Nic Fallowfield taking the solo as well as
leading the orchestral strings. Balance and pace were admirable
and the music was allowed to speak naturally for itself.
Elgar's Chanson de Matin and Chanson de Nuit in the familiar
1901 orchestral versions were coupled on one of my early
78s, and I doubt whether I have heard them together since.
The Charnwood's charming performance of Chanson de Matin
brought back memories of teenage musical discovery, but
the darker Nuit proved more elusive.
Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 in C is a bit of a Cinderella among
his nine, even more so than No.2, not because it is less inspired,
but because it is overshadowed by the mightier dramas of Nos.3
and 5 and the rest. All the same, Beethoven, already 30 in
1800, is flexing his symphonic muscles, though not perhaps
as cautiously as Nic Fallowfield made it seem in the first
two movements.
The Allegro could have taken a bit more brio and the Andante
a bit more con moto, though the latter's middle section
added some deeper character to the charm. But all was transformed
in the scherzo-like Minuet and Trio, and especially in the
Allegro finale as it charged to its ebullient conclusion.
The packed house was well rewarded.
A.F.
June 30th 2007
Charnwood Orchestra at St. James the Greater, Leicester
What a difference six weeks make.
WHAT a difference six weeks and an utterly different venue
made to Nic Fallowfleld's performance of Brahms's Symphony
No. 1 with the Charnwood Orchestra. I
n May they aired it in the dry acoustic of a school hall,
and much of it sounded limp. Preceding it with a demanding
Bartok concerto couldn't have helped.
As the closing work of their annual concert in St James the
Greater, it was thoroughly convincing.
For all its impressive resonance, St James is acoustically
tricky. The sound gets mushier the further back you go. The
front seats are best, and the space around the orchestra ensures
that balance and clarity are not compromised. Strings are
clear and brass never overwhelming.
The work was the culmination of Brahm's famous struggle to
write a symphony to match Beethoven, and struggle informs
the outer movements.
The Charnwood's own battle was now largely resolved, never
losing momentum in the first movement's challenging neither
fast nor slow pace. The tensions and fleeting moods of its
drama unfolded persuasively.
Finely managed Brahms's textures are often complex, but in
only a couple of passages did they briefly become unclear
and fail to make sense. In the finale, the journey from turmoil
to triumph was finely managed.
The two inner movements retained the tenderness and grace
of previous performances, with expert solos.
Earlier the sizeable audience had been rightly enthusiastic
for Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1, with the Charnwood's favourite
soloist, Thomas Bowes. Typically of him, the solo was musically
pure and technically clean, but not indulgent. I am told that
it was excellently projected to more distant parts of the
church, even if the sensitively balanced orchestral score
was muddied back there. The Charnwood's ability to play very
softly was a feature both here and in the Brahms.
The evening had begun with a bright and brisk Fidelio overture.
Beethoven almost at once tested the horns to their limit,
but they redeemed themselves.
So roll on the new season, beginning in Barrow Church on October
6th with a programme from Bach to Elgar.
A.F.
May 20th 2007
Charnwood Orchestra at Derby grammar school for boys, Derby
The Charnwood Orchestra's Sunday afternoon concert under Nic
Fallowfield in Derby Grammar School was welcome not least
because they and Thomas Bowes were repeating Bartok's Violin
Concerto No. 2 which they gave in Emmanuel Church recently.
Local orchestras often play their pieces only once, and this
formidable work needs repetition. This concert looked better
balanced too, with Brahms' Symphony No.l after the break rather
than the Unfinished and some Hungarian Dances. But even bearing
in mind the ambience of the school hall, the results were
mixed.
Thomas Bowes makes no claims to have been a natural prodigy.
Sheer hard graft and belief in the music propel him. You could
see it in his face, making the concerto extraordinarily compelling.
The acoustics and our nearness to him allowed his every note
to be heard, with never a sour one. The orchestral playing,
if not always tidy, was otherwise well judged. The performance
made the all-important variation element remarkably lucid,
and helped to convince me that this lengthy work hangs together
better than I had thought.
Liszt's Les Preludes, the opener, was slow to warm up. String
themes at first did not sing out in the dry acoustic, but
the piece built up impressively. Whether or not we are bothered
by its message of life as preludes to the eternal, it remains
imposing as pure music, and a reminder of Liszt's huge contribution
to the romantic style.
After this, the Brahms First seemed strangely subdued and
relaxed, from the opening drum beats through to the great
tune of the final allegro. From that point it developed into
the imposing culmination that we expect, with fine horn-playing.
Still, there were delights to be had on the way. The andante
especially was a nicely paced pastorale with lovely solos,
and the grace of the allegretto fitted the spirit of the whole.
But it was the underpowered and tension-free first movement
that really disappointed.
On 30th June they will play it again in St James the Greater
(and Thomas Bowes will be doing the Bruch No.1). How will
those drum beats pound out then?
A.F.
March 17th 2007
Charnwood Orchestra in Charnwood Orchestra in Emmanuel Church,
Loughborough
The Charnwood Orchestra's remarkable recent ventures with
Nic Fallowfield into the early modernist repertoire has continued,
this time with Thomas Bowes as soloist in Bartok's Violin
Concerto No. 2 from 1938 as the big work in their March concert.
Years ago, in the heyday of the Leicestershire Schools Orchestra,
the distinguished violinist Kyung-Wha Chung played it in what
is now the Cope Auditorium. I wrote then that it was like
being led by the hand through a strange landscape. It is not
an easy piece for listeners to grasp, let alone for the musicians
to play.
For a start it is forty-odd minutes long, and to my mind suffers
from compromises between the set of variations that Bartok
wanted and the conventional concerto that the original soloist
Szekely preferred. The effect is not exactly start-stop, but
rather of episodes which often promise to flower into something
grand but instead collapse into a new piece of discourse.
That said, the Magyar-flavoured themes are memorable, and
the Charnwood band, aided by Bartok's scoring, always let
the soloist be heard, even allowing for Thomas Bowes' closeness
to the audience in Emmanuel Church. In any case, his splendidly
positive playing did not miss a trick, from the formidably
impressive cadenzas to the hushed tenderness of the slow movement.
The enthusiastic applause seemed to recognise something of
the heroic.
The Hungarian connection had begun with an old war-horse,
Liszt's Les Preludes, given a sturdy if inflexibly-paced performance,
and concluded with six of Brahms's Hungarian Dances. But these
sounded like six encores of variable quality, and Fallowfield's
idiomatic changes of pace sometimes eluded the orchestra.
Schubert's Unfinished was deeply satisfying in a finely paced
and shaped performance of this mysteriously beautiful torso
of a symphony, a musical Venus de Milo that cannot be other
than it is. The orchestra produced some wonderfully quiet
playing, and the work's scoring ensured that it was free from
the brassy harshness the acoustics had thrown up elsewhere.
All the same, Emmanuel always seems like the Charnwood's home
ground.
A.F.
December 2nd 2006
Charnwood Orchestra in the Parish Church, Loughborough
Fevered imaginations lurked behind the remarkable programme
of the Charnwood Orchestra's concert under Nic Fallowfield,
given in a well-filled All Saints' Church rather than their
usual Emmanuel.
In the 19th century, Berlioz, Wagner and Mahler were controversial
modernists. Abandoning pure music, they were inspired by literature,
heroics and personal drama, with Goethe's Faust a potent source
for all three.
Wagner's A Faust Overture was originally to be a Faust symphony
(Liszt achieved that), but although it is now a rarity, it
is worth reviving. But it proved too expansive for a concert
opener. There was drama certainly, but it needed tightening
up. Maybe that was Wagner's fault.
Mahler's innocently titled Songs of a Wayfarer replaced the
usual concerto. This short cycle of four songs is no serenade
to the beauties of the countryside, however, but the composer's
lament for a lost love, with nothing showy about it.
The noted tenor Thomas Guthrie delivered the music beautifully
but was singularly reserved. Perhaps standing so close to
the front pews was inhibiting, but a little animation might
have helped newcomers to the piece. The scoring is not heavy,
but occasionally it threatened to overcome him. Doubtless
we are too used to a recorded balance.
The very title of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique invited
outrage in 1830, not to mention the titles of it's movements,
what with a march to the scaffold and a witches' sabbath.
Beethoven's Pastoral foreshadowed it, but at the time it must
have seemed on the edge of battiness.
This 50-minute journey through the composer's psyche works
because it is melodically brilliant and coherent. The orchestra
delivered a compelling performance. Nic Fallowfield judged
tempi, dynamics and phrasing so that Daydreams and Passions
unfolded naturally and the Scene in the country never flagged.
Ensemble, noticeably so in A Ball, came a bit loose, but
still the waltz flowed splendidly. Nobody shouted 'bravo'
at the climactic finish but they deserved it.
A.F.
July 1st 2006
Charnwood Orchestra in St James the Greater, Leicester
The end of the concert season is signalled for me by The Charnwood
Orchestra's appearance in St James the Greater. This isn't
a fluffy "music for a summer evening" affair either, but a
full symphony concert with an eye on making the most of the
church's rolling acoustics.
No work is better for that than Sibelius's Symphony No.2 of
1902, or at least its finale, where brass and percussion work
up a ringing blaze of triumph. If you barely know the piece,
that's what you are waiting for, but subtlety lies elsewhere,
in the first movement above all, which can seem all hints
and fragments.
The genius of the composer and the skill of the conductor
lie in developing these into a convincing whole, like a forest
growing from scattered seedlings.
The Charnwood's conductor Nic Fallowfield knows that his best
chance is to keep the music moving, and so it proved. The
orchestra's individual sections and soloists delivered those
themes and snippets with their usual skill, and the performance
as a whole did achieve a sense of unity.
Though familiarity may have helped listeners, the seeds of
the magnificent ending could be sensed in the beginning.
Brahms's Double Concerto from 1887 is always a wonderful surprise.
It is just as memorable as his violin concerto, but is obviously
rarer because it needs two outstanding soloists.
Happily the orchestra could call on the 'cellist Tim Gill
as well as violinist Thomas Bowes, who has played with them
previously.
From a seat five rows back in the tricky acoustic of this
long church, the orchestral balance with the soloists was
admirable. Gill's warm-toned cello playing struck me as the
more commanding of the two, but Bowes's steely violin was
not overshadowed. Fallowfield and the orchestra had no obvious
difficulty with Brahms's writing, and despite the distance
from the soloists to the brass, coordination was sound enough.
Berlioz's Royal Hunt and Storm, with its echoes of Beethoven's
Pastoral, was a neat choice of opener, giving the horns a
well-taken chance to echo through the building. But if finally
the Sibelius thrilled the audience, it could not banish memories
of the Brahms.
A.F.
18th March 2006
Charnwood Orchestra at Emmanuel Church
Stravinsky's ballet score Petrushka, first staged in Paris
in 1911, was the second he wrote for Diaghilev's Les Ballets
Russes. In 1950 it was included in the very first batch
of long-playing records issued in this country, and a couple
of years later I made it my first LP.
Nic Fallowfield chose Petrushka as the finale of Charnwood
Orchestra's concert in Emmanuel Church and directed a performance
that was remarkably faithful to this extraordinary Tom-and-Jerry
score. Bar-by-bar the music reflects the stage action, but
its vivid evocations of a Russian Shrovetide fair, the all-too-human
drama of the puppet characters, and the dance tunes that
time and again emerge from the teeming detail, ensure that
it works amazingly well in the concert hall.
The augmented orchestra met the demands of its complex
textures and many solos with great confidence. Marguerite
Beatson's piano, David Thomas's flute alongside all the
woodwind, the brilliant trumpet of Alan Cramp, indeed the
whole orchestra, produced playing that was a tribute to
the weeks of preparation with Nic Fallowfield. With first
Berg and now Stravinsky behind them, perhaps other 20th
century modernist masterpieces will be forthcoming.
The audience actually overflowed the church into the reception
area. The great draw was Rachmaninov's 1902 Piano Concerto
No. 2, which remains hugely popular despite its sentimental
cinematic associations, or should I say because of them,
though there is far more to it than that.
On her previous appearance, the soloist Katya Apekisheva,
a graduate of the peerless Russian school of piano-playing,
had dominated Tchaikovsky's No.l, but this time the partnership
was more equal. Despite our proximity to the Steinway, orchestra
and soloist were nicely balanced. Her lyrical interpretation
flowed naturally, with no romantic indulgences that might
have caught out the Charnwood band. The strings especially
made the most of the gorgeous melodies.
The opening piece was a brilliant Night on the Bare Mountain,
in the familiar version that Rimsky-Korsakov made in 1908
of Mussorgsky's 1867 original. But if the Rachmaninov was
the crowd-pleaser in this tremendous Russian evening, the
Stravinsky was the great achievement.
A.F.
26th November 2005
Charnwood Orchestra at Emmanuel Church
The Charnwood Orchestra has never been more ambitious than
in their latest concert under Nic Fallowfield, playing Alban
Berg's Violin Concerto of 1935 with James Clark in the solo.
Berg is extraordinary among early modernists. His Wozzeck
is the only atonal opera that is established in the opera
house and this concerto the only atonal piece with a secure
place in the concert hall, and for the same reason. Both deal
with human tragedy in powerfully expressionist musical language,
and both incorporate tonal melody and harmony to great effect.
Thus the finale of the concerto uses the Bach chorale 'Es
ist genug', Christ's last words from the cross, 'It is enough'.
In other words. Berg allowed his heart to override twelve-tone
principles, and explicitly so in the subtitle, 'To the memory
of an angel'. The 'angel', Manon Gropius, the 18 year-old
daughter of Mahler's widow and the architect Walter Gropius,
had died of polio.
In Emmanuel Church, James Clark, who is concertmaster of the
Philharmonia Orchestra, projected the solo well amid the sometimes
tumultuous orchestral scoring, though it made it difficult
to judge the depth of feeling in his playing. The notes had
to speak for themselves. As for the orchestra, the subtle
shifts and balances of the first two movements, portraying
Manon's life, were less successful than the death-and-consolation
of the second half. For instance, it was difficult to pick
up the little folk-tune (I listened to one of my recordings
first). But once into the bolder outlines of the anguished
allegro, it was clear that they had mastered the notes well,
and in the heartfelt Bach-inspired adagio the delicate scoring
was beautifully done.
Alongside all this angst, Brahm's Academic Festival Overture
and Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony were old friends to seek
comfort with. The overture quickly settled down after a roughish
start, and the symphony proceeded expertly on its genial course
in untroubled fashion. Against Berg's mortal outbursts, Beethoven's
thunder and lightning seemed a harmless diversion. 'Happy
and thankful feelings after the storm' indeed, but the concert
was a remarkable achievement all the same.
A.F.
|