Our thanks to Jonathan Dodd for his latest review of the Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra (IWSO). Ed
Going to a concert by the Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra is always a different experience. There are many things that remain the same – the excellent playing, Jonathan Butcher’s supreme professionalism, the excellence of the soloists, and the availability of the finest ice creams in the interval.
These things are always there, and they provide constant satisfaction. The unknowable thing, though, is the music itself. I’ve never been an expert on Classical music, but I’ve always been surprised at the IWSO’s determination to play pieces that I don’t know, often by composers I’ve never even heard of.
Never even heard of it
So imagine my surprise to find out that the first piece of music in last Saturday’s concert was one that hardly any of the orchestra members had even heard of, and Jonathan Butcher confessed in his opening address that he had never heard of it either.
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The piece in question was the work of a Czech composer called Josef Suk, and it was called Scherzo Fantastique. I didn’t know what scherzo means, and I’m afraid that Wikipedia wasn’t able to explain it in a way that I could understand either. But I believe it’s meant to be music you can dance to.
A silly smile on my face
From the opening notes, I realised that I had found a future favourite. There’s a lovely tune that repeats, slow and beautiful, played lower and higher, that turns into a more energetic tune as if in a conversation, and then there’s a louder piece the intervenes, before the whole thing starts again.
I listened to it with a silly smile on my face for fifteen glorious minutes, and the opening melody has become completely stuck in my brain. I liked it so much that I found it on Amazon and downloaded it as soon as I could. So thank you to the orchestra member who suggested it, and thank you to the IWSO for introducing me to it in the best possible way. I think they enjoyed playing it too, and they were superb.
A lot of Strausses
The next piece couldn’t have been more different, to my mind, but not in a bad way. It was the Four Last songs, by Richard Strauss. There seem to be a lot of Strausses, and Richard wasn’t the one who composed all those waltzes, and he’s mainly known for his operettas.
These four songs were composed at the end of his life, shortly after the end of the Second World War, and he seems to be mourning the loss of so much, including the destruction of Munich, his home town, during that conflict. The songs aren’t happy, but they’re not entirely gloomy either. They’re elegiac and melancholy.
The music was lush and heavy with emotion, and the songs were sung beautifully by the guest soloist Jane Streeton. As I listened to it I was struck by how much concentration was needed to sing it because of the need to put the maximum expression into the often-long and complex language and musical phrasing. Ms Streeton sang with complete mastery, and was complemented beautifully by the orchestra.
Completely Russian to me
Finally, after the interval, we were treated to another large work, Rachmaninoff’s Third Symphony. I hadn’t known that Rachmaninoff left Russia for America mid-career, because every piece of his music that I have heard before always sounded completely Russian to me. I have to confess that I hadn’t heard this symphony before. The orchestra performed it beautifully and with passion and great skill, and I listened to it with great enjoyment.
I shall have to download this work as well, because I felt as if I was swimming in a choppy sea, out of sight of land. This was not an unpleasant experience, because I appreciate and recognise that an IWSO concert isn’t just a chance to settle back into the comfort of the familiar. It’s also a chance to hear and learn new things, some of which need more listening. I’m going to listen to this symphony again so I can appreciate better the music as much as the playing.
Full of beautiful sounds and experiences
Once again it was an excellent evening, full of beautiful sounds and experiences, and I’m looking forward to the next concert, which promises to be wonderful. It’ll be on Saturday 21st May (see event details), and it’ll feature some excellent English composers.
There’ll be a piece by Holst – Beni More, an Oriental Suite, the I’ve never heard before, then Ireland’s Piano Concerto in E, played by the brilliant Viv McClean, followed by some Vaughan Williams – Job, a Masque for Dancing. It’s going to be lovely.
I can’t wait. See you there.
Image: © With kind permission of Allan Marsh
