Despite the celebrations continuing today both live and televised of our Queen's Jubilee, an afternoon concert was given in Manchester's Stoller Hall by members of The Orchestra For The Earth. Perhaps the reason too why there were less than 100 audience members. That was a shame.
No programmes of any description were available, and so we sat through the first half of the concert without knowing what we were listening to, since no-one made any announcements from the stage until the start of the second half. The announcer was (I subsequently found out from their website), John Warner, both our pianist this afternoon and the Director of the Orchestra. Sadly he did not use a microphone and it was impossible to make out most of what he said. Between the two pieces in the second half, he also introduced a lady from a charity that the orchestra works closely with. Once again, I have little or no idea about this, since she stood to one side of the auditorium, unlit and unmic'd. It all seemed very ad hoc and slightly under-rehearsed / planned. The same could also be said of the video images projected onto a screen above the players. A low battery sign appeared half way through, and the timing of the video did not fit with the music being played. Moreover the vast majority of it was in monochrome, despite it being video footage, since the drone that captured the images was flying either at dawn or dusk. Again, after finding the orchestra's website, and reading the concert programme notes which thankfully were available on there, understood much more about the drone footage than I did whilst listening to the concert. Such a shame that neither programmes nor advance announcements were forthcoming.
No programmes of any description were available, and so we sat through the first half of the concert without knowing what we were listening to, since no-one made any announcements from the stage until the start of the second half. The announcer was (I subsequently found out from their website), John Warner, both our pianist this afternoon and the Director of the Orchestra. Sadly he did not use a microphone and it was impossible to make out most of what he said. Between the two pieces in the second half, he also introduced a lady from a charity that the orchestra works closely with. Once again, I have little or no idea about this, since she stood to one side of the auditorium, unlit and unmic'd. It all seemed very ad hoc and slightly under-rehearsed / planned. The same could also be said of the video images projected onto a screen above the players. A low battery sign appeared half way through, and the timing of the video did not fit with the music being played. Moreover the vast majority of it was in monochrome, despite it being video footage, since the drone that captured the images was flying either at dawn or dusk. Again, after finding the orchestra's website, and reading the concert programme notes which thankfully were available on there, understood much more about the drone footage than I did whilst listening to the concert. Such a shame that neither programmes nor advance announcements were forthcoming.
The first piece of music we heard was in fact, Brahm's Clarinet Quintet. A piece I was unfamiliar with. To be absolutely honest, I found the music rather uninteresting, and lacking in any real dynamic change throughout the four movements. Since I do not know the music, I cannot say whether or not this was due to the composer or the instrumentalists, but the five orchestra members this afternoon were certainly accomplished and proficient. The video was projecting drone footage of Lake Worth (Wörthersee) and the peninsula village of Maria Wörth, as well as the area surrounding this south Austrian beauty spot. The reason being that all three composers in this afternoon's concert had a love of and connection with this area of Austria.
After the interval, and it was the turn of Gustav Mahler to take the spotlight. [and in the drone footage they show his isolated hut in the middle of the forest to which he used to retreat to clear his mind and compose]. The quintet was joined by pianist and flautist; and they played a transcription of the first movement of his second symphony. Hearing the symphony pared down to its bare bones so to speak was very interesting indeed; all the themes and classic Mahler lyric and tonal progressions were evidenced, and yet, without the huge and lush orchestrations that normally accompany such a piece, it hardly sounded like Mahler at all.
The final piece of the concert was again a transcription from a full orchestral work, and again, sounded so very different in this version for just seven instruments. This was Richard Strauss's epic tone poem, Don Juan, sounding far less epic in this scoring, but again, the Strauss trademarks were still noticable. For this though the drone footage showed scapes of rural England. I have no idea why.
If the website had not informed me differently, then I would have said that these were fledgling professional musicians all in their early 20s, and although they worked well together, seemed rather unaccomstomed to giving public concerts... as I said before it seemed a little ad hoc and disorganised.
If the website had not informed me differently, then I would have said that these were fledgling professional musicians all in their early 20s, and although they worked well together, seemed rather unaccomstomed to giving public concerts... as I said before it seemed a little ad hoc and disorganised.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 5.6.22
on - 5.6.22
The Orchestra consists of the finest professional musicians in the country. I think ‘unaccustomed to giving public concerts’ is incredibly unfair. Having worked with most of the musicians before I can tell you that they are top class soloists and work with most of the main London orchestras. A shame you didn’t enjoy!
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