What an incredible concert this was, and if you weren't there, you truly missed out on a treat!
Chetham's Symphony Orchestra comprises by and large, students in their final year at the school, and as such they have had many years of training already before they make the leap into either the big bad world or into further training. But to be honest, for the most part, the quality and musicianship of these students is already at professional concert performance standard. Their cummulative sound is simply astounding, and under the conducting this evening of Timothy Redmond - a conductor who was both animated and controlling - they responded beautifully.
The opening piece in the concert was a new-to-me work by female composer Dani Howard called 'Coalescence', which was inspired by the changes happening to our planet environmentally. It is her ode to the beauty of nature, and her questioning our empowerment and destruction of it. The piece, although highly contemporary, was surprisingly lyrical and tonal, with a couple of melodious passages hidden within. It has a vibrant and chaotic opening followed by a much slower, quieter section, which is reflective and soothing - until the jarring interjecting passing notes from the brass section. This gradually throughout the piece then grows in both momentum and volume - not forgetting a nice jazzy central section - to eventually 'coalesce' into the perscussion-heavy denouement with loud brass chords and strident strings, culminating into an almost orgiastic final few bars and cadence.
Going back in time now to the 20th century for the second piece!, and a Russian composer whose political views of his country were so passionate (and so opposite to the 'party line') that he poured all his feelings and emotions into his music; and even then, being constantly investigated and condemned by the regime. Fortunately for all of us however, his music thrived, as did his popularity (or perhaps notoriety), and is now a staple of most concert halls worldwide. This evening we were to hear his cello concerto, and to play the solo cello, Chetham's student, Hairu Wang.
In Tom Redmond's opening remarks this evening, he described this concerto as Shostakovich "putting two fingers up at Stalin", and I simply cannot find a better way of expressing this. The concerto is full of anger, anguish, disappointment, regret, but mostly anger. The strident and pervasive 4-note motif which is the backbone of this piece is just that...
Masterfully playing the cello, Wang's control and ability was incredible. The cadenza, traditionally reserved for the soloist to show off their virtuosity prior to the denouement of the piece, was, in this case, much more than just that. It was Shostakovich himself speaking through the cello, and Wang absolutely understood this. Chords, plucking, striking, differing tempos and volumes.... he threw everything into this cademza, and Wang made her cello speak as well as sing. Amazing.
The final piece in this concert stayed within the same musical time-frame, but moved from Russia to Oldham! William Walton was a prolific composer, but much of his work has gone somewhat under the radar due to it being incidental music, film scores, or music which doesn't normally fit into a classical concert programme. This particular work - which I was listening to live for the first time - is a prime example, his incidental music to the 1944 film of Shakespeare's Henry V. Several attempts at making a concert suite from this music have been made over the years, but this one, a 1988 arrangement by Christopher Palmer utilises most of the music from the film, which requires a chorus in some of it, whilst punctuating the music - in order to give context and gravitas - with a narrator who speaks the relevant passages from the Shakespeare text.
Walton's music is, of course, ebullient, theatrical, dramatic, and always fitting; his use of classical and baroque ideas in his score, as well as regal fanfares etc, make the work sound much older than it is, and give the music a royal and majestic underlay, whilst his genius of composition lies on top of that, as the music is undeniably 20th century.. bold, confident, and lyrical. It is such a shame though that such a large, and obviously talented chorus - again composed entirely of Chetham's students (with a few very young singers in amongst their throng!) - were not used more than they were. The beginning and end of this 60 minute suite were almost the same, using a wordless chorus of "ahs", and for the vast majority of the suite they were silent. I wanted to hear more.
In this performance actor Kieran Smith was our Shakespearan narrator.
I thoroughly enjoyed Timothy Redmond's conducting; secure, passionate, and very clear, and as I have already mentioned, the orchestra responded to him superbly. The music was wonderful, and the playing of it, sublime. I heard one punter on the way out remark, "My, they make a loud noise beautifully don't they!"
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 21.10.22
on - 21.10.22
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