12:59pm Thursday 9th July 2009
JULY 4 needed, and got, the right treatment for Independence Day.
Sometimes for Great Britain, it is hard to feel that this is a day of celebration, but we’ve moved on from the happenings of 1776, haven’t we?
This concert had the right flavour for us to join our allies in their festivities. On a very hot evening, the audience was as stalwart as the players in this demanding and largelyunknown programme of music.
New treasures were discovered and some excellent performances achieved, especially in the clarinet concerto by Aaron Copland, in which soloist Vicky Sheehan- Dare excelled. She played with grace and amazing facility, especially in the very fast second movement.
The first of two works by Charles Ives was The Unanswered Question and I’m sorry to say that, for me, it still is. I found the work difficult to listen to, though parts of it were very beautiful and the soloists showed great sensitivity in bringing it alive.
The other work by Ives was based on the wonderful short poem by Wordsworth, The Rainbow. The piece is less than two minutes long and this time I was left wishing it was longer.
The final work in the concert was Symphony no 60 by Joseph Haydn.
The conductor discovered that the work was first performed in 1776 and had found no other major work composed that year, so included it in the concert.
I found the string playing in this work really superb and of world-class quality, only interrupted by the notable dissonance in the final Presto, when the irrepressible Haydn introduces his joke of the violins needing to retune their instruments before proceeding.
Moira Smith
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