STUDENT CLASSICAL MUSIC REVIEW: Chetham's Symphony Orchestra - The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.

The largest music ensemble (in normal use) is the Symphony Orchestra, and this evening The Bridgewater Hall's massive stage was full. Many of these instrumentalists giving their final performance as Chetham's School students, in a concert that will live in their memories for ever. 

Four substantial works were presented in this concert, which showcased all four sections of the orchestra and their ability to work as an ensemble too, whilst incorporating celeste, harp, and organ - instruments which are not necessarily a part of the standard orchestral line-up; and in the third piece, a large chorus too!

The evening was conducted by Ben Palmer. I truly enjoyed watching his style. Clear and precise are his watchwords, as his conducting is easy to follow, and he is obviously passionate about the music as he truly involves the whole of his being, animatedly coaxing nuances of sound from each of the sections.

The first piece to be performed was not just a world premiere performance, but it was also composed by our conductor, Ben Palmer. Titled, "Urban Fox" and commissioned by Chetham's for this concert, it was a programmatic piece for large orchestra inspired by Palmer watching a fox, which under normal circumstances slinks around the bins at night, walking down the centre of the main road in broad daylight during the first of our covid lockdowns. In between the clashing dissonance, there were passages of calm tonality, and the work finishes with a calm and serene single note played very quietly. Truly contemporary concert music, with interesting dynamics, and once you knew it was about a fox, it was quite easy to picture the scene.

This was followed by Korngold's Violin Concerto. Erich Korngold was born and grew up in a pre-war  Vienna and was something of a child prodigy. His first full length ballet, 'The Snowman' being composed, performed and critically acclaimed when he was just 11 years'old. However, things were not to last sadly as the Nazi movement was growing in power, and so, as a young man he moved over to America and started composing film scores for the Hollywood movie industry. It proved to be a very canny move indeed, and again, his writing was highly praised and his talents much sought after. Korngold then spent the last few years of his life returning to classical concert works, and it in during this time that he wrote his violin concerto. The world had changed now, two world wars later, Europe was no longer the place he remembered from his early life here, and so his composing also took on a much more mature and reactionary thread. His violin concerto teeters between the three worlds of Korngold; at times we feel we can hear the lost Vienna and innocence of his youth; at other times he cleverly interpolates themes from his Hollywood film compositions, and yet over and above both of these is a move to progressive harmonic and melodic structure more associated with composers who were born after him. There is melancholy in his writing, but there is also great artistry and flourish. The first movement finishing on what I believe is an interrupted cadence played fortissimo is just one such example of his moving away from the conventional. 

To play the solo violin this evening was final year and graduating student, Jordan Brooks. What an honour this must have been for him. And how brilliantly he performed. The scoring for this solo is often in the higher registers of the violin, which can become somewhat squeaky if not too careful; but here Brooks kept it light and tuneful at all times. At just 18, his technique was quite masterful, and I feel sure we will be seeing and hearing much more of him in the years to come. 

After the interval and we started with home-grown music once again. This time from the pen of Ralph Vaughan-Williams. I first came across Vaughan-Williams's music when I was just 12 years' old and listened to a recording of his 'Sea Symphony'. I fell in love with the symphony, and he has been one of my favourite composers ever since. The piece chosen for tonight's concert however was not his Sea Symphony, although it did utilise both mixed chorus and large orchestra; it was his cantata, 'Toward The Unknown Region'. The text is by Walt Whitman, and sung by Chetham's Chorus this evening it was clear, sharp, articulate, and utterly dreamy. The waves of lush harmony casaded over the orchestra and down past me in the stalls, and they were delightful. I should also congratulate the student organist who played along with the orchestra with this piece, not an easy piece to play for an organist I believe.

The concert finished with a true tour-de-force of a work of some stature. Not only did it take the ballet world by storm but it took the classical music world by the throat and jumped up and down with it for a while. Stravinsky was something of a renegade, but then again, all geniuses are aren't they?!, and his music for both 'The Firebird' and 'The Rite Of Spring' changed classical music for ever. Both were written for Diaghilev's famous 'Ballet Rouses' in Paris, and both were choreographed originally by Vasilav Nijinsky. Tonight we heard the second of these, 'The Rite Of Spring' (minus the ballet dancers of course!), which was written in 1913, and tells (in a nutshell) the story of Pagan Russia. Stranvinsky's inclusion of Russian folk melodies throughout emphasising the 'Russianness' of the story. The percussion section (especially timpani and bass drum) get a thorough work-out in this piece, but these moments of fever-pitch musical orgies are cleverly juxtaposed with passages of stark quietude and reflection. It is almost impossible however to imagine ballet dancers moving to some of the clashes and rhythms in this piece. An exciting, rousing, and wholly fitting finale to a concert that bade a fond farewell to many of those performing on stage this evening.

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 8.7.22