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Review of Concert: 05/07/04 |
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One of the strengths of Frome’s Festival is that it draws on its local community for so many of its successes. Frome Symphony’s programme for its annual Festival Concert was, arguably, its most demanding to date. Stephen Marquiss had chosen two British pieces and two substantial German works from the classic/romantic period, ensuring another full house. It was refreshing to hear Kenneth Leighton’s Festive Overture, a spirited piece, chosen partly because it was written specifically for amateur orchestral players. Leighton’s music is very rhythmic, in a harmonic idiom which thirty or forty years back might have been considered rather challenging for the listener. The audience received it warmly and the orchestra responded well to their conductor’s demands for taut ensemble in a piece which was an inspired choice to begin the programme. Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony showed off the orchestra as a well-balanced ensemble. It is hard to imagine a composer with a stronger sense of melody and the players responded to produce lyrical playing with a particularly good string sound. The two movements are extensive but the players’ musicianship kept the audience with them, even if they were, at times, a little unwilling to move on the pace. Peter Warlock’s Capriol Suite is often performed in a version for strings. The full orchestral version is less common but it was given a spirited and stylish performance, providing all sections of the orchestra with opportunities to show their true colours. In both the sustained and more extravagant passages the orchestra was wholly convincing in conveying the various moods of the music. The final work was Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto, with Stephen Marquiss directing the performance from the keyboard. Here it was definitely the case that, more and more, the Frome Symphony ensemble comes across as homogenous orchestral sound. However, his own contribution as a pianist was in a class of its own. This was exceptional playing of the highest order, with beautifully executed scale passages, feather-light sensitivity and exquisite charm. It is a mark of his highly intelligent musicianship that, as always, Stephen was the medium through which we heard exactly the music Beethoven wrote and, I believe, wanted us to hear. The ovation which he received at the end was richly deserved. His playing, together with his selfless commitment to Frome Symphony, week by week, which is bearing fruit of increasing quality as each harvest passes, is an inspiration to us all. Alan Burgess |