International music festival closing concert 26 June

[Robin Orton]

...graced by the presence of the Mayor and Lady Bullock. The St Bartholomew Festival Orchestra under Robert Trory playing better than I've ever heard them before (after only one afternoon's rehearsal, I was told). A special thank-you to the horns who were magnificent throughout, most notably in the Weber Der Freischütz overture and in the Beethoven 5th symphony.

17 year old Lara Melda, the BBC Young Musician 2010, gave a memorable performance of the Mozart D minor piano concerto K466. A wonderful creamy tone, fine technical control and she brought out all the drama of this dark and remarkable piece. The cadenzas in the first and last movement were most impressive - who wrote them, I wonder? Sounded like Liszt or somebody. We were all very admiring of the professional way she recovered from a memory loss which brought the last movement temporarily to a grinding halt.

The composer Thomas Hyde was present to hear a performance of his Sinfonia minuscola of 1999. (It's good to hear something other than the standard classics at these concerts.) Very enjoyable - the beautiful orchestration sounded a bit like Webern, but overall the piece was quite romantic, with a very English-sounding chorale as the second movement and a Mahler -style fragmented march as the last.

Robert Trory turned in what seemed to me a vigorous but nuanced and well-shaped performance of the Beethoven 5th. It rightly brought the house down. My only qualification is that I thought the ghostly recapitulation of the Scherzo sounded a little bit heavy-footed, but this was more than made up for by the skilful way in which the transition to the glorious opening blaze of the finale was moulded.

Everybody come next year, you don't know what you're missing. But you'll have to book early!

[Tim Lund]

Again, Robin, yes to pretty well all of that.

Having focused in writing about the opening concert on Robert Trory, it feels right after this one to join him in paying tribute to the orchestra. I noticed that rather than ask the various sections to stand up at the end for individual applause, he asked them all to stand. Lara Melda's playing was lovely - and her brief memory loss and how Robert handled it made it all seem much more warmly human. In the first movement especially I liked the blending of piano and orchestra.

But the over the whole concert the orchestra stood out, and were clearly enjoying themselves. I don't worry too much about it being the standard classics we hear at these concerts - it is great music, and the musicians wanted to remind us of it - or tell us, if we happened not to know the pieces, as for me with Der Freischütz overture.

And at the end, we had an encore, taken at a hell of a lick, as if the orchestra just wanted to show off. I think I know what it was, but Robin thinks it something else, so it looks as if neither of us are ready to expose ourselves to mockery for getting it wrong

[Robin Orton]

I think it was the overture to The Bartered Bride by Smetana - [youtubes]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTUHPhYF2J8[/youtubes]
Quite happy to be exposed to mockery if I've got it wrong - I'm used it on this forum!

[kennyb2]

Is it not time for a new section....... Pseuds Corner?

I think we should be told.

[Robin Orton]

Yes, Kenny, I've similar comments before - even ruder, actually - when I've posted reviews of concerts on this forum. I agree that it's difficult for an amateur critic to get the tone right without sounding pretentious. One could of course just say,'I liked it' or 'I didn't like it', but I'm trying to give some sort of flavour of why - not easy in the case of music, whose effect, as you know, is very difficult to describe in words. This is partly to give anyone else who was there the chance to agree or disagree (I find it difficult to believe that Tim and I are the only classical music enthusiasts on this forum) and partly to try to communicate my interest and enthusiasm to people who weren't there. I'm sorry if I haven't been successful. I could just stop trying but I'm a bit unwilling to do that. The 'Town Cafe' does actually invite reviews of local events, after all.

[Tim Lund]

And Kenny, given that you say you're tone deaf, how are you to say if this is pseudery or not?

[Robin Orton]

I think it was the overture to The Bartered Bride by Smetana. [...] Quite happy to be exposed to mockery if I've got it wrong

It was in fact the overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla by Glinka, I am now reliably informed. Ah well, 19th century opera overture, by a Slav ... near miss, I submit.