Go to home page

Westmorland Orchestra Concert

Westmorland Hall, Saturday 19th March 2011

(published in the Westmorland Gazette March 24th 2011)

The Westmorland Orchestra, under their conductor Richard Howarth, opened this year’s Mary Wakefield Festival in fine style with an attractive programme which drew a large audience.

Wagner’s overture to his opera Die Meistersinger was an excellent choice for a festive occasion. The piece is full of good tunes and sonorous climaxes; from the players’ point of view, there is something for everybody. Sadly, this performance sounded rather pedestrian, missing something of the inherent grandeur of Wagner’s musical intention; the climaxes when they arrived lacked the dramatic build up which would have given the performance more tension; occasionally there were problems with balance, and some untidy ensemble playing.

Brahms’ ‘Double’ Concerto for Violin and Cello is a demanding work for the two soloists. Hardly has the work begun when they are plunged into technically demanding cadenzas. But these held no terrors for the two outstanding prize-winning young soloists, Jiafeng Chen, violin, and Mikhail Nemtsov, cello; both players had immaculate techniques and played with authority, precision and passion. The cellist had a more flamboyant style than his partner, whose playing seemed more introverted, but the partnership worked well.

A surprise item after the interval was a composition, by Daniel Crompton, a sixth-form student from Queen Katherine School. Daniel is clearly, a very talented musician. His short programmatic piece, Three Musicians, was inspired by a cubist painting by Picasso and aspects of the painting were drawn upon to determine the musical structure. The piece is written in a contemporary idiom and Daniel’s thematic ideas were full of character; his handling of a large orchestra was very impressive.

After the interval, the orchestra rose magnificently to the challenge of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, in Ravel’s colourful orchestration. This well-known piece, a series of musical interpretations of visual art works, is a showcase for an orchestra. Big demands are made of individual sections (including percussion), sectional principals as well as the orchestra as a whole, and there were many impressive moments: the frequent brass fanfares, all played with such rhythmic precision; the verve of the lower strings in the ‘Gnome’; the playing of the Westmorland’s excellent woodwind ensemble, and, of course, the percussion section who figure so prominently in this work.

Well done to orchestra and conductor for enabling us to hear a live performance of this attractive score!

Clive Walkley