Concert Reviews

On Friday the English Symphony Orchestra gave a memorial concert for Vernon Handley, the great conductor with a particular passion for native composers, whom the orchestra had been fortunate enough to secure as its music director.

Sadly, the relationship lasted only two years before Handley's death last September, but his legacy lives on, not least in the person of Laura Jellicoe.

Normally a flautist in the ESO, this long-time conducting protegee of the great man took the baton for this concert, and hearteningly displayed how the economical yet effective stick-technique Handley had passed on to her after his own studies with Sir Adrian Boult can galvanise an orchestra without any histrionics.

Calm, unflappable, and totally authoritative, Jellicoe presided over a programme which, after Walton's Spitfire Prelude from Ian Tracey on Worcester Cathedral's new choir organ so magnificently fitted to this building, continued with a Bliss Fanfare, and moved on to Elgar's Cockaigne Overture.

Sturdy brass gave appropriate accounts of the composer's "stout and steaky" elements, but there were also passages of great tenderness, strings articulating with revealing delicacy.

A strings-only orchestra accompanied baritone Michael George in a beautifully-delivered account of Gerald Finzi's Let us Garlands Bring, his diction in these five Shakespeare settings cutting through the vast acoustic, his mature wisdom conveyed in magnificently supported tones.

'Tod' Handley had a particular fondness for Vaughan Williams, whose Job -- A Masque for Danciing concluded the evening. Though this is music which provokes strong reactions for and against, the quality of its performance here was undeniable. The famous saxophone contributions were suavely, teasingly done. And there was a treasurable programme-book of memories.

ESO Winds, from the English Symphony Orchestra, was conducted by Derek Smith in a substantial programme of music for eight, nine or ten winds plus doublebass. The programme consisted of golden oldies such as the Gounod Petite Symphonie with its plangent solo flute (the admirable Laura Jellicoe) and new music including a delightful Smith arrangement of a Haydn Notturno which sounded at one and the same time both original and idiomatic.

Perhaps most arresting was Smith's own composition Bachorales which was a cunning collage of Bach organ pieces orchestrated and arranged as the elements of a sonata-rondo journey from the key of A flat to E flat. Described by the composer as a "concerto" for winds, the music was both demanding and rewarding in helping Bach's jewels to scintillate in a novel setting. At this the second performance, following a premiere at Ledbury in February, ESO Winds more than rose to the occasion showing what an accomplished body of players they are. This new piece came over as not just clever but also cogently argued and throughly enjoyable.

Still it is no discourtesy to award the palm for the evening's performances to Mozart's Serenade in C minor KV388, arguably the supreme masterpiece of the wind repertoire. Smith secured outstanding playing in a well-paced performance which concentrated on long-line phrasing, particularly in the tumultuous first movement. Following a lyrical Andante with scrupulous attention to dynamics, the Menuetto and Trio, both in canon, came off particularly well as voices deferred to one another rather than competing strenuously for attention. Paul Arden-Taylor's stylish oboe solo heralded the variations of the Finale which were perfectly contrasted and given proper room to breathe.

St Mary's has almost perfect acoustics for this sort of concert and a happy audience expressed its approbation in an ovation, earning itself more sprightly Haydn by way of encore. Altogether a splendid evening and well worth the rather fraught journey west out of London late on a Friday!

The ESO began the new 2008 Season with its first concert in partnership with Malvern St. James in a blend of interesting easy-on-the-ear music.

Michael Bochmann was Concertmaster and he led the musicians first with Fiocco’s cheerful L’Anglaise followed by a well-defined, expressive interpretation of Divertimento in D by Mozart.

Peter Adams was the eloquent soloist in Boccherini’s Cello Concerto in B flat which included virtuoso cadenzas in the two outer movements and a beautiful lyrical threnody through the second.

Chaconne by Purcell was given a sedate reading of contrasts, and in Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Greensleeves, a harp added courtesy of David Watkins, we heard that well known melody for the first time during the evening, but later it emerged again as it was tossed around the different strings in Holst’s St. Paul’s Suite.

In conclusion, two pieces composed by Walton for the film of Henry V, and arrangements of Irish tunes Molly on the Shore, and Carrickfergus, each containing lovely solos and jigging rhythms.

This was a most enjoyable concert, the strings blended well in the acoustic of York Hall, which was an ideal venue, warm and comfortably welcoming - the easy parking a distinct advantage also!