Review: Solent Chamber Orchestra – Music for a summer’s afternoon

27 July, Petersfield

St Peter’s Church in Petersfield provided a wonderful setting for a delightful afternoon concert with the Solent Chamber Orchestra on Sunday July 27th.

The concert opened with Elgar’s Serenade for Strings which was expertly directed by the leader of the orchestra, Kirstie Robertson. After some slight tuning issues at the very opening, this was a fine performance, especially the beautiful sustained melody of the second movement and the lively finale, which showed a real sense of communication within the ensemble who displayed a beautiful, rich sound throughout. It was a pleasure to see the players standing for this performance which added greatly to the audience’s enjoyment.

Conductor Steve Tanner then guided the orchestra through Crusell’s little known, but great fun, Sinfonia Concertante, which featured Rob Blanken on Clarinet, Rob Eckett Holmes on Bassoon and John Peskett on French Horn. Each of the soloists were on fine form, displaying excellent individual skills and a very effective communication between the three of them and the orchestra. Overall, in addition to the impressive virtuoso displays from each of the soloists, this performance exuded a sense of joyous commitment which was well communicated to the audience and was recognised by the cheering at the end of this performance.

The afternoon concluded with Beethoven’s 1st Symphony. Here the orchestra played with tremendous energy with some very effective dynamic contrasts and a real sense of unity. There were some occasional lapses of intonation between the sections, but overall it was a performance full of passion, skill and genuine enthusiasm from both the orchestra and conductor. A highly enjoyable concert, which was reflected by the enthusiastic applause from the large and appreciative audience…. this was much deserved.

Tom Borne