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Easterbrook Hall, The Crichton
Dumfries
15 November 2009
Conductor - Geoff Keating
Violin - Leland Chen
Programme :
Wagner :
Overture - The Mastersingers of Nuremberg
Glazunov :
Violin Concerto
César Franck :
Symphony in D minor
Crit published in the Dumfries Standard, Wednesday, 18 November 2009
MUSIC MATTERS
Solway Sinfonia - Easterbrook Hall
The comfortable seats, low lighting and spacious elegance of Easterbrook Hall provided a pleasant venue for Sunday night's Solway Sinfonia concert. The 60 plus strong orchestra looked quietly confident as it took the stage.
This was amply justified by the richly sonorous and disciplined account of Wagner's overture, The Master Singers of Nuremberg, with which they opened. Both the music's constantly unfolding melodic lines and its contrapuntal structure were well conveyed, with precise woodwind and brass articulation in the more chordal passages. The tempo was steady and well controlled - broadening towards the end to bring the overture to a suitably grand conclusion.
The Glazunov Violin Concerto which followed is by turns heartfelt, mercurial, and contemplative - but always richy lyrical. It also has a solo part which is extremely challenging technically. Leland Chen - no stranger to this venue - gave a fluent, seemingly effortless performance, capturing moments both of repose and of soaring lyricism. He has a relaxed and affable presence on stage that lets the music speak for itself. This is a concerto in which the orchestra both accompanies and interweaves with the soloist, and there was much evidence of musical sensitivity and acute listening on their part. The concerto came to a scintillating close with the soloist elaborating on its Russian dance-like theme and the orchestra rising to the challenge of the music's brilliance and speed.
The second half of the concert consisted of César Franck's three movement Symphony in D minor. From the outset of its darkly brooding first movement I found myslef wholly involved in the slowly unfolding drama of the music. That I was not aware of its length is testimony to the complete focus on, and commitment to, the music by conductor and orchestra. There were many delights in the Allegretto which followed, not least the opening, with pizzicatto strings ushering in and then underpinning the lovely cor anglais theme, while the last movement moved towards its affirmative and joyous conclusion with confidence and emotional commitment.
This was a richly rewarding evening of music, with the Sinfonia on top form, both in terms of ensemble and of solo contributuons. It was also an example of interesting and imaginitive programming. I suspect that the appause could have gone on even longer.
JD