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SUMMARY:Family Matinee: Mysteries and Dances
DESCRIPTION:\nGrieg, Four Norwegian Dances\nRimsky-Korsakov, ‘The Snow Maiden Suite’\nSaint-Saëns, Danse Macabre\nElgar, Enigma Variations\nConductor, Hitoshi Suzuki\nOrchestra Leader: Marianne Sutton\nNarrator: Neil Howiantz\n\nThe Strode car park was full on a rose-skied afternoon. A constant movement of patrons streamed through the doors, many children among them. Taking our seats we were struck by the size of the orchestra, some new faces, and players wearing colourful jumpers instead of formal black. While we live in an age when music can literally be plucked from the ether, the packed house was testament to the magical aura of music played for us by excellent musicians.\nFor Grieg’s charming Norwegian Dances the MSO was quickly on song with the ‘halling’, the Norwegian folkdance. With a superb new First Violin in the hands of Marianne Sutton the strings seemed infused with new dedication and rich colour, as though they had themselves joined the dance. The more familiar second dance, melodic and again beautifully performed, highlighted the reedy oboe of Simon Naylor; then the talented woodwinds starred in the peppy third dance, joined by the brass but with strings sighing sweetly in the interlude. The fourth dance glided, and then fizzed, with strings and the hypnotic oboe again, counterpointed throughout with first class group playing and the delicacy of a flute solo! The orchestra seemed mischievously alive, error free, and already enjoying themselves.\nTo prelude the Rimsky-Korsakov fairy tale, a genial “host” appeared. Narrator Neil Howiantz advised us to discern – in the ‘Snow Maiden Suite’ – Nature interacting with mythical characters. Cool woodwind colours of Frost, for instance, contrast with the strings’ depiction of a mellow Spring; icicles are painted through piccolo and violins, while horns partner cellos to convey warmth. The ‘Dance of the Birds’ dazzled us, as he promised they would with chirping woodwinds and twittering strings, animated bassoon and clarinets.  The dramatic ‘Cortege’ evoked The Snow Maiden who, having fallen in love, must melt in a ray of sunshine: but in so doing, ends a long winter. Cue the marvellous percussion, booming into prominence, as the ‘Dance of the Tumblers’ celebrate and vivify the orchestra, thrilling listeners with their energy and joy.\nOur last “European” stop was in Saint-Saëns’ France, though we might have been anywhere at this Hallowe’en time of year. In the “Dance of the Dead” the harp struck twelve to signal midnight, calling skeletons from their graves to dance for the Devil. And how brilliantly this was performed!! Even children in the audience recognised the eerie tune, as the newly confirmed Leader of the Orchestra tuned her violin down a half tone to achieve the unsettling sound of the diabolic instrument. Equally enjoyable was the xylophone imitating the skeletons’ bones as they danced, and the Judgement Day of the brass and wind instruments cautioning that death comes to paupers and princes alike. At length the oboe mimicked the cock’s crow, the arrival of dawn, the end of the revel.\nI thought this might have been the slickest and finest ensemble playing I’ve heard from the MSO, though I hadn’t yet been treated to the excellence of the Elgar Enigma Variations, which concluded the concert.\nOur narrator prefaced the puzzle. What might the “enigmatic” theme of this work have been? The enigma, Elgar once teasingly said, was the “nothingness” from which it came, which his wife had been so affected by. Toying with that opening refrain he gave us some of the most beautiful English orchestral work ever written. The MSO presented it back to us in like-beauty.\nThe exquisite opening theme indebted to his wife’s encouragement, the musical phrases which caught his friends’ moods and personalities in sketches, the memory of thunderstorms and sounds of a bulldog rambling down a river bank and shaking himself, were richly laid out for us by the MSO playing at the pinnacle of their craft. You could have heard that proverbial pin drop when Nimrod appeared. But something wondrous came with him. There was freshness, a professionalism, confidence and precision, in the MSO’s playing for this concert.  Patrons can truly look forward to Mozart in February.\nTania Hardie\n 
URL:https://midsomersetorchestra.co.uk/events/nov24/
ORGANIZER;CN=The Mid-Somerset Orchestra:MAILTO:publicity@midsomersetorchestra.co.uk
CATEGORIES:Reviews
LOCATION:Church Road, Street, Somerset, BA16 0AB
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