Summer Concert Review
Considering we were competing with the Queens 90th birthday celebrations and England’s first Euro 2016 game, we had an impressive turnout for our Summer Concert last Saturday.
The weather was temperamental, to say the least, which only served to enhance the first piece of music on the evening’s programme, Felix Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture.
The overture is a wonderful piece, with the mix of instruments working well to suggest the power and stunning beauty of Fingal’s Cave on the island of Staffa, which inspired this composition. The string and woodwind sections created that sense of loneliness of the island, with the clarinet, flutes, trumpets and timpani depicting movement, leaving clear impressions of hearing waves breaking on these Scottish shores.
As the music came to an almost haunting close, the rain stopped outside and that moment of quiet was broken by more sounds of waves – this time from the audience showing their great appreciation for this incredibly powerful piece of music.
Next we welcomed Hector Scott and Philip Dukes who were taking on the violin and viola solo parts in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante. The piece, which is lightly scored for two oboes, two horns and strings, allowed the soloists to shine and was filled with tension, pace and pure enchantment. Our thanks goes to Hector and Philip for putting on such a wonderful and effortless interpretation of Mozart’s Sinfonia.
Soloists: Hector Scott and Philip Dukes
After a short interval, everyone re-took their seats for the final part of the programme, Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 in E Minor Op. 95, “From the New World”.
The first of the four movements has three main tunes – a bold opening by the horns, a folksy tune on flutes and clarinets, and a happy melody from the solo flute. In the next movement, the pace slows to a more solemn tone to almost heart-breaking poignancy – think of the Hovis commercial if you’re unfamiliar with the celebrated Largo movement!
The mood lifted with the scherzo movement, a vigorous dance style of music that got fingers and feet in the audience tapping and bringing them back from their emotional reflections. Then followed the fourth movement, the triumphant and powerful conclusion to this symphony.
A big thank-you goes to musical director and conductor Alex Arkwright, whose attention to detail and enthusiasm and passion for the music and the orchestra are key to making our concerts such a success.
Thank you also to all the musicians, St. Andrew’s Church for providing such a wonderful venue, the friends who help promote NWO, and of course the audience for attending and supporting your local symphony orchestra.
If you were at the concert, please let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you missed it, we’d love you to join us at our next concert on Saturday 26 November. It will be our 50th anniversary concert, featuring a bit of Brahms, Finzi and Shostakovich. We are also extremely pleased and proud that the renowned clarinettist Robert Plane will be our soloist for Finzi’s wonderful clarinet concerto. We hope to see you all there!
