Wirral
Recorder Orchestra Concert -
11 December 2004
Hamilton
Memorial URC, Claughton Village, Wirral
Conductor
- Colin Martin
There
were nine members absent through illness resulting in a much depleted orchestra
and, consequently, a nerve-wracking pre-concert rehearsal on Saturday afternoon.
Amazingly,
conductor Colin Martin gave us faith to go on in the time honoured words, 'It
will be alright on the night, as long as you keep counting'.
So,
in our smaller grouping, we began with 'The
Suite from Romeo and Juliet',
written by Colin's friend Brian Monroe for a ballet in the States. We were swept
into the dance - first 'strict and quick', then the sad, stately 'Pavan' and
onto the fast 'Basse Dance' which ends in an invigorating Presto. The tenors
decided, without consultation, that the top D should be played by Rodney Allen
alone as he did it so well; other fuzzy attempts would have spoiled the clear
point it was making.
The
Colin Touchin piece ' Prelude, Chorale and
Fugue' had been our bete noir in
rehearsals. In performance it started to show its true potential, paying tribute
to Colin's postgraduate composition. Slow, beautiful passages, with minims held
poignantly; difficult, darting, exciting runs full of accidentals with
contrasting and shifting parts; a low underlying trilling hum - F sharp for the
tenors.
During
the interval, two of the audience gave welcome feedback 'I don't usually like
modern music, but I loved the Touchin!' Another comment about the general 'over
complication of the arrangements' gave a good topic of thought. As players we
like lots of intricacy and the composer has to work through all their thought
processes. As a listener the simple melody, with lots of space around it, can
cut to the heart and be more satisfying.
The
challenge of difficult pieces is what makes being in the orchestra worthwhile -
we are forced to draw more out of ourselves than we believe possible. Form,
dynamics and landscape emerge from initial groans and orchestral cacophony.
Three
Debussy pieces followed - the lovely 'La
Fille Aux Cheveux de Lin', which
we tried to imbue with the calm and sweet expression it demanded; 'Le
Petit Negre' next, with its choppy runs and lazy melody. I've never been
sure how to dance the Cake Walk, but one day we should have a try, after playing
its chirpy rhythms in 'The Golliwogg's
Cake Walk' to finish the first half.
'The Six Russian
Folksongs' by Anatoli Liadov, gave all
the emotional charge that you might expect of that vast continent - poignant 'Chant
religieux', the 'Chant de Noel'
with its repeated staccato notes - high B flats for the tenors - driving a
change in rhythm with alternating 2/4 and 3/4 bars. Was the composer being
ironic when he named one song - 'Comique'?
We had thought it a joke until we did just about master the fast runs; our quiet
high G trill to finish brought the mood down from comic to calm.
The
lullaby - 'Berceuse' with its three
flats had a droning, soporific wave motion - but we were concentrating too hard
to fall asleep.
The
'Ronde' was all staccato - light and
satisfyingly fast.
Vaughan
Williams' 'Rhosymedre' is a Welsh hymn
tune, often told in minims and we aimed for the solemnity it deserved.
And
now we come to our world premiere performance - 'Symphony No. 6 (Classical) by Dennis Bamforth, dedicated to Diane
Barton who formed the Wirral Recorder Orchestra and plays descant in it.
With
such a new work there is a wealth of interpretation to explore. For me it starts
with stirring sounds of battle - trumpet calls to arms; a brief halt for peals
of Christmas bells; the thoughtful relaxation of the aftermath, picking up
glimpses of half- remembered folk songs.
A
phrase repeated and repeated, became familiar - it was a constant to hang my
story on. At those points it reminded me of the appeal of club dance music and a
Maori haka; there was the universal comfort of familiar refrains.
In
contrast to all this music, there were several real comic breaks in our program
- Mavis Johns, more usually playing in the treble section, gave us
laugh-out-aloud spoken renditions of Roald Dahl's poems - 'Porcupine'
and 'Cinderella'.
And
so, we survived, taking new musical brain maps home with us for Christmas. Like
the curate's egg - we had at least been good in parts!!
Judith
Railton - Tenor Section WRO
14th. December 2004
Christmas is over, the decorations are all down but has the magic of the festive season disappeared into the frosty wastes of January? It seems not. Discussing our December concert with my colleagues, during the first rehearsal of the year, we were buoyant and surprisingly pleased to remember our performance of four weeks earlier.
Colin Martin is not noted for his slow treatment of difficult pieces, so we were not surprised to gallop along into the first piece - from the 16th century - 'Lord Zouche's March' by Giles Farnaby, (arranged by Paul Clark). Wonderful carillons of bells peal and run, overlapping joyfully from part to part.
Colin admitted that he was impressed by the skill with which we approached Mozart's Horn Concerto in B flat. Three flats added the extra challenge to the pace and difficult fingering. Dan Coghill, the horn soloist liked a fast tempo too, so pre-concert despair was prevalent. The first tenors met on concert day to simplify a particularly difficult fast section so that we wouldn't make a complete panic- ridden hash of it on the night.
We moved on to Walton's 'Suite for Recorders - selected from "Duets for Children" '. These arrangements are by Denis Bloodworth. Colin often asks us to get into the mood of the music by thinking around the subject as we play. The Walton pieces have fantastic visual ideas - from the 'Pony Trap', where we can imagine bowling along quiet English country lanes, to the atmospheric 'The Silent Lake'. This is only seventeen bars long, but it evokes great depth and stillness leading to the quietly played, but compelling final D Minor chord.
Contrasts are part of the successful expression of any program and 'Ghosts' contains enough screeches, moans, soft running steps and swirling mists to satisfy a full exploration of our worst nightmares. 'Hop Scotch' was fun to play - written in 5/8 time. Its jerky, jumping rhythm is best achieved by repeating 'Rimsky- Korsakov, Rimsky-Korsakov', under our breath as we play. Another of Colin's invaluable tips.
Handel's 'The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba' was a suitably celebratory piece to start the second half. The tempo chosen enabled us to pay full attention to the passages of semi-quavers. The audience particularly liked the contrasts of the solo passages where the principals from each section surrounded us with the full power and purity that just a few instruments can conjure. Goose-bump stuff.
Chopin's 'Etude Op.10 No. 3' is not everyone's cup of tea - audience comments ranged from 'awful' to 'wonderful - I was sent'. It is full of chromatic runs. I liked it - it's good to play music that seeks to express rarely discussed moods. 'Etude' doesn't speak of depression, but an acceptable ennui.
And for ennui - the ideal antidote is 'Chinatown' by Schwartz. Playing this is like lingering outside a Chinese café with rhythms of oriental instruments wafting out on the night air. It's a great piece to play and has a jolly upbeat mood that lifts the audience.
We moved on through Franz Strauss's 'Nocturne' ( Daniel Coghill's horn solo), to Grieg's 'Ave Maria Stella' and Bach's 'Sheep May Safely Graze'.
As our concert took place on the 11th day before Christmas, it was suitably appropriate and festive to finish with 'Twelve Days of Christmas', another arrangement by Paul Clark. The tune interweaves and echoes and is good as a players' piece yet its familiar repetitions almost had the audience joining in.
The Wirral Recorder Orchestra has around 46 players who travel for monthly rehearsals and twice-a-year performances from Lancashire, Manchester, Wales, Birmingham, Cheshire and Wirral.