An absolute treat: new repertoire, a fine soloist and an orchestra of a professional standard
The orchestra’s choice of music for the concert on March 7 was enterprising and bold but at the same time it was a risky venture in that only one item on the programme, Schumann’s Cello Concerto, was a well-known piece. Sadly, perhaps for this reason, the concert drew a disappointingly small audience but we were rewarded with some fine playing and an introduction to a composer whose music is little known in this country: Louise Farrenc’s Third Symphony proved to be a powerful work and deserves to be better known.
Richard Strauss’ Overture and Dance Scene from his opera Ariadne auf Naxos had a lovely Viennese feel. There was warmth to the string sound in the Overture and the woodwind section captured all the playfulness of the Dance Scene so well.
Cello soloist, Rachel Siu, gave a masterly account of Schumann’s Cello Concerto. Her impeccable technique carried her through all the difficult passage work and her playing had warmth and power. Her vigour and energy was immediately obvious, but in the slow movement of the Concerto she revealed another side to her playing, her ability to sustain a lovely legato line with tonal richness. One of the high points in this section of the work occurs when the soloist is joined by the orchestra’s principal cellist in a duet passage. This was very well done. In a cello concerto, it is very easy for the cello to be overwhelmed by an orchestral accompaniment; but conductor, Philip Ellis, made sure that in this performance this did not happen; the orchestra gave the necessary support to the soloist without drowning out the solo part.
Arenski’s charming Intermezzo, Op.13, brought the first half the concert to a very successful close; the strings were impressive in their openingprestoand the woodwind section in the more lyrical sections of the piece.
After the interval came Louise Farrenc’s Third Symphony, a major work in her output and marking her out as being an outstanding composer of her time. Although perhaps lacking the distinctiveness of some of the symphonies by her contemporaries, the symphony is soundly constructed, well orchestrated and full of interesting melodic and harmonic material. Again the players excelled themselves, giving a confident account of this very approachable work. Those regular supporters of the Lakeland Sinfonia who absented themselves from this concert missed an absolute treat: new repertoire, a fine soloist and an orchestra of a professional standard.
Clive Walkley
