As this school year draws to a close, there are many showcases and concerts from all over celebrating the achievements and talents of their school and their subject. And for Chetham's Music School in Manchester, this is no exception. This evening two of the school's many and varied ensembles took to the stage for their final appearances this school year.
The first of these, The Violetta Strings, is a string ensemble of violins, violas, cellos and basses, lead by their conductor and mentor (who also plays first violin throughout) Owen Cox. It has been a little while since I last saw a Chetham's ensemble perform and I had forgotten just exactly how young these musicians are. The school admits pupils from age 10, and some of the children in both this evening's ensembles must have been at this tender age.. so tiny, and yet so mature and talented. It is quite mindblowing!
The Violeta Strings entertained with music very much appropriate to a summer concert, starting with the final movement of Britten's Simple Symphony "A Frolicsome Finale", then a lovely and plaintive arrangement of Gerschwin's 'Summerime' from 'Porgy And Bess' before finishing with Calvin Custer's arrangement of film music by John Williams. Hearing such famous melodies played only on strings did at first seem rather strange, but it was played so well that you could actually forget the original and enjoy this for what it was in its own right.
Cox made for a highly enagaging and enthusiastic figure who obviously has masses of enegry with which he inspires his young charges, and despite the faces locked in concentration, the youngsters' playing was alive and together, and I truly enjoyed listening to this ensemble.
After a short hiatus whilst waiting for the stage to be reconfigured to accommodate the larger ensemble as well as grand piano, we welcomed Chetham's Sinfonia with mostly teenage students onto the stage. The first piece they had chosen to play was Gerschwin's own Variations on his oroginal theme, 'I Got Rhythm' for piano and orchestra. It has been a long time since I heard this piece played, and so this was a lovely reintroduction to the music for me. I had forgotten just exactly how jazz-infused and how tongue-in-cheek this music is, a mock piano concerto, a true 'scherzo' of a piece of music. To play the piano solo this evening was 13 year old Chetham's student Jamie Brown, and what he, quite understandably, lacked in experience and feeling for the piece, things which come from maturity and worldliness, he made up for in technical ablility and knowledge. He might not have been able to fully emote with the music, but he certainly understood the technical demands of the piece and gave a highly proficient and note-perfect rendition of this rather tricky score. And at 13 that is, in itself, quite a remarkable achievement.
The next piece was one movement from one of my all-time favourite pieces of music; the movement being 'The Sea And Sinbad's Ship' and the entire piece being Rimsky-Korsakov's "Sheherazade". It's romantic, tragic, pompous, vainglorious, tragic, melodic, lyrical, dark, passionate and sinister all rolled into one. A lovely idea allowing different members of the ensemble to take the small solo passages rather than the section leader taking them every time. And the young girl leader who played the first violin solo played it with such emotion and passion, her connectivity with the instrument was actually quite astounding!
Both this and the Gerschwin were conducted by Nicholas Jones. However for the Sinfonia's final piece and the last piece of the concert, the conductor changed to David Chatterton. There was a palpable lift and an audible lightness of touch for his conducting as the Sinfonia seemed to respond more readily to Chatterton. I am wondering if this is maybe that Chatterton is their regular conductor and Jones was 'guesting' perhaps? or was it simply that they were to play their final piece and both the concert and school were almost over?!
There is some comic irony to be gained from the programming of this concert as it started with a 'finale' and indeed ended with an overture! A bravura concert overture, Shostakovich's rather militray and patriotic flavoured 'Festive Overture'. It was indeed a bright and jolly festive tone upon which to finish and finish they did, absolutely spot on!
What a lovely concert, and I came away light-headed and elated, having just watched some amazing and very young, highly talented musicans play a superb selection of "easy-listening" classical music with seeming ease and maturity. I was smiling all the way home humming the Rimsky-Korsakov melody to myself on the bus and receiving some very strange glances from fellow passengers! Wonderful!
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 1/7/19
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