A new venue for the Solent Symphony Orchestra on Saturday October 11 with a programme to celebrate the music of Shostakovich and Bruch, featuring a superb young soloist, Alexandra Peel.
St Luke’s Church may not have the grandeur of Portsmouth Cathedral, but the acoustics were far more suitable and gave a clarity to the big sound created by the orchestra, which was very much needed for this programme.
The Brass opened the ‘Festive Overture’ in impressive style, before the clarinets took off with the main theme showing great pace and virtuosity. The speed did not let up, it was over before we knew it, a performance full of excitement and joie de vivre, with just a touch of ‘edge of your seat’ tension.
The main Shostakovich work was ‘The Gadfly Suite’ taken from Shostakovich’s film score of the same name. Here we had everything from stern Soviet marches with blaring brass, gentle dances and another mad gallop which was reminiscent of the Overture. However, Shostakovich also wrote beautiful melodies, and the famous ‘Romance’ allowed the strings to shine with a warm resonant sound, no doubt inspired by Leader, Kirstie Robertson’s beautifully poised solo which opened this movement. The large percussion section created some wonderfully atmospheric moments with the rumbling contra bassoon and delicate harp, and it was clear the whole orchestra were thoroughly enjoying playing this music.
However, the evening really belonged to soloist Alexandra Peel, who gave a fine rendition of Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy. From the opening slow movement, which allowed her beautiful sonorous tone to fill the Church, Alexandra had total command of both the technicalities and the emotional intent of the music. The lively second & fourth movements were deftly handled; the virtuoso passages posed no problems and were handled with a sense of fun and enjoyment. But it was the slow movements which really allowed this soloist to come into her own, imparting a deep understanding of the music with beautiful phrasing and control. The large orchestra were at times somewhat overpowering and there were some occasional untidy entries, but nothing to detract from a glorious performance by Alexandra. All credit also to the harpist who played a prominent part, and blended seamlessly with the soloist. Bravo!
A thoroughly enjoyable evening which was much appreciated by a small but very enthusiastic audience.
D Gatie
