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Richard Bratby

~ Classical music writer, critic and consultant

Richard Bratby

Monthly Archives: June 2015

Resurrection

02 Tuesday Jun 2015

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Mahler, Manchester, Richard Howarth, Wrexham Symphony Orchestra

1 Bridgewater 2

No reviews this weekend – here’s what I was doing instead. I’ve been playing  on and off with the Wrexham Symphony Orchestra since 1997. I love them not just because they’re a friendly bunch but because they have such a thirst to explore the repertoire – to “have a go”. They play music that excites them, and there are no finance managers, critics or jaded pros there to tell them that amateur orchestras can’t play Mahler 3, Nielsen 1, Prokofiev 7 or Bruckner 5; or Paul Creston, Bernard Herrmann, Lars Erik Larsson, Alun Hoddinott or Jean Francaix. So they just play it, and I’ve had some of the best musical experiences of my adult life at the William Aston Hall. I’m always frustrated when work or travel (it’s a bit of a trek from Lichfield to Wrexham) causes me to miss a show.

1 wrexham

But there was one concert that I was determined not to miss – the Resurrection Symphony, the highlight so far of the Orchestra’s 10-year Mahler cycle. For the occasion, the orchestra had hired the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester – the biggest and most high-profile venue it’s ever played in – and teamed up with no fewer than four Cheshire and North Wales choral societies. Richard Howarth – formerly of the Manchester Camerata – conducted.

1 Bridgewater

So there I was, at the back of the cello section, as astonished as anyone in the orchestra by the transformation that the Bridgewater Hall acoustic wrought on our sound and quietly relieved that after a week of rehearsal, my creaky fingers were finally starting to produce something resembling Mahler’s cello part. It was a welcome reminder, too, of the unique perspective that you get on a piece of music once you’re on the inside, as it were – actually playing it.

It’s incredible how clearly the form of the piece simply lays itself out in front of you as you play – and the details you notice. I was shocked at just how lazy my listening had become. When, in listening to the first movement, had I ever genuinely noticed the passage where Mahler semi-quotes (or at any rate, evokes in unmistakable terms) first Die Walkure, and then Tristan? And later, a huge subito piano tutti clearly cribbed from the end of Gotterdammerung? There they all were, jumping off the page at me as, with one eye on the baton, another on the semiquavers on the next line, I struggled not to run out of bow.

As for the performance itself – it’s hardly my place to say. But I can say that the two soloists, Rebecca Afonwy-Jones and April Fredrick both sent little tingles running down my back, that I’ve never heard an amateur choral society with so many, and so sonorous, male voices…and that backstage, post-show, we were already talking about “when” we do Mahler 8…

Review: Raphael Wallfisch & Orchestra of the Swan

01 Monday Jun 2015

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The Birmingham Post isn’t always able to post online everything that I’ve written for its print edition, so – after a suitable time lag (you should really go out and buy the paper!) – I’ll be posting my recent reviews here. As per the print edition, they’re all fairly concise – just 250 words. This is of a performance at Birmingham Town Hall on 13 May 2015.


“Revelatory” is how the Orchestra of the Swan describe the reduced version of Dvorak’s Cello Concerto that they performed with Raphael Wallfisch in this final concert of their 14-15 Town Hall series. Hopefully they won’t take it as a criticism if we don’t go quite so far. This was no Schoenberg-style re-imagination; simply the standard version with the timpanist doubling on triangle and the brass section slightly pruned, the better to balance a chamber-orchestra string section.

On its own terms, it worked pretty well: for much of the piece, you’d have been hard-pressed to spot the difference. There was a noticeable increase in transparency; conductor David Curtis went for no-nonsense tempi and crisp articulation. Whether that’s the best way to find the heart of this most romantic of all cello concertos is a matter of personal taste; but it certainly brought some wonderful moments. It’s hard to imagine a full orchestra allowing Wallfisch to sing his first statement of Dvorak’s glorious horn theme (surely the greatest single melody he ever wrote) quite so exquisitely dolce.

And if anything was revelatory about this concert, it was the sheer beauty of Wallfisch’s playing – dignified but gentle, eloquent without ever sounding forced; lit by an inner glow. He played the opening melody of Dvorak’s Silent Woods in one breathless phrase, and in Dvorak’s Rondo Op.94 his tone seemed to float over the bustling orchestra. These were wonderful foils to the exuberant, explosive account of Mozart’s Prague symphony with which Curtis, in an inspired choice, had opened the concert. Wallfisch’s playing placed these two neglected miniatures on a comparable plane of inspiration.

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