Sunday 28 October 2018

REVIEW: Northern Chamber Orchestra with Julian Bliss - The Stoller Hall, Manchester.




The Northern Chamber Orchestra continued their current concert season with a collection of pieces that are not often performed for one reason or another. The opening Sinfonietta No. 1 by Malcolm Arnold was originally composed for an English baroque revival string orchestra – the Boyd Neel Orchestra. Its three short movements displayed a variety of stylistic elements from the first part of the 20th century, the orchestra director, and founder, Nicolas Ward, was right to comment that parts of it were similar to Shostakovich’s compositional style. While the Sinfonietta is distinctly not baroque in its harmonic or melodic content, it was in structure and mood. Arnold really exploits the sonority of the string orchestra, along with with oboe and horns, and the NCO were able to maximise all of these colours to great effect. At times, though, the rhythmical challenges of this piece were not met – particularly in the oboes and horns, with a few small flourishes slightly off the mark. This type of music must be difficult to perform without a conductor, but certainly not impossible and the NCO for the most part delivered a wonderfully expressive and playful performance.

It must have been truly exciting to witness the first performance of Carl Maria Von Weber’s clarinet work. He was tasked with writing three pieces on the reinvention of the clarinet in the early 19th century. This was a period in music history when many instruments went through a massive upgrade – in the clarinet’s case, this meant that it could play many more notes with an improved chromatic ability. It also improved the overall timbre of the instrument. His second clarinet concerto is a real showstopper and Julian Bliss gave the audience at the Stoller Hall a masterclass in clarinet performance. While a piece like this is demanding in regards to accuracy – and not a note was missed by Bliss – often virtuosity can be at the cost of emotional value. Passages with many, many notes were presented to us with emotional value by Bliss, and those passages that were more lyrical, such as the second movement, were truly sung out from the heart. Bliss looked at ease with the orchestra around him and clearly was connected to the music when he wasn’t playing. Again, the NCO seemed to be having a lot of fun with this piece and that is truly infectious. Watching this orchestra perform is a real treat – you get a strong feeling that there is great team spirit and true enjoyment in making music. Apart from this, of course, they are a truly wonderful orchestra to hear both in it’s interpretation of stylistic approaches, and also in its musical capabilities. The third movement finale was truly magical and exciting and it is no wonder that this piece is still a staple exhibition of clarinet technique that any aspiring clarinettist aims to master.

As an encore, Bliss performed the premiere of a fiery arrangement of the Hungarian folk dance Czardas. While he did not name the arranger, you could presume that it was written specifically for Bliss in more ways than one. While typically performed on violin, it translated to clarinet very well and again a sound timbral variety was displayed. This was a real crowd-pleaser and a good choice to pair with the preceding clarinet concerto. Goodness knows where Bliss got the energy to perform both of these back to back, but he did not miss a note nor a beat.

Moving back to the 20th century, the NCO performed a short piece by the composer Suk, a son-in-law of Dvorak. Originally composed on the outbreak of world war one, this piece was a prayer of hope for the future of Suk’s homeland – Czechia. In the classical period, much music was created with no real meaning behind it. Pure music, as it is called, was music for music’s sake. As time went on, meaning began to creep in – the programme music of the romantic period often explored emotional aspects with great imagination. In the 20th century, perhaps because of the terrible violence of each of the world wars, emotional context was sometimes placed on the things that occurred in daily life – this seemed to be the case with Suk’s Meditation. While it certainly is a prayer for the future, its music really seemed to portray the emotions of what people were experiencing at that time. It is like an emotional photograph of that time. The NCO wanted to mark the anniversaries around the centenary of the end of world war one with this performance, and it was a performance that really touched the audience. Again, the NCO, as a string orchestra for this piece, were able to show off their fantastic talent colouring this piece with great warmth and expression. There were many moments in this performance which were sheer bliss, with the strings giving a deep pathos and delicate expression.

Haydn’s symphony 102 in B flat major is not performed often, but is a perfect example of his latter style. Haydn at this time was commissioned to write pieces for a very eager London audience. Most of his life he had been composing for the royal court at Esterhazy, in Hungary, and freedom to compose as and for whom he wished certainly pleased Haydn, who as the most famous musician of his time, was increasingly concerned with his musical legacy as he got older. This symphony displays the many structural and compositional techniques he developed over the years but it also has a unique character through a variety of solo parts – sometimes only for a moment. You can easily imagine the audience mesmerised by the orchestra and enjoying these cameos. The NCO certainly excels  in music from this period – indeed most classical period music was originally performed without a conductor and lends itself to conductor-less performance today. This was a very enjoyable performance and the various soloists relished the chance to shine out in an already shining orchestra!

It was great to listen to a repertoire of less familiar music by the NCO, they are really a pleasure to listen to and the Stoller Hall, with whom the NCO has a residential collaboration, is a fantastically welcoming venue. Introductions and notes from the orchestra director, Nicolas Ward, also add to the welcoming feel and give an insight into the music we are about to hear.

Reviewer - Aaron Loughrey
on - 27/10/18

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