Jonathan Dodd shares his review of the latest Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra (IWSO) concert. Images with kind permission of Allan Marsh. Ed
I arrived with much expectation at the Medina Theatre Last Saturday, 18th January, for the second concert of the Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra’s 2024-2025 season. It was a bitterly cold night, but the theatre was warmed up considerably by a completely full house. I was delighted when I looked around and couldn’t see an empty seat.
Like all fanatical fans, I want the object of my admiration to be loved by as many people as possible, and that night the love was all around me. The looks on all their faces mirrored my own. We were in for a wonderful evening.
Scottish Norwegian Dutch German
After warming up and settling down, the members of the orchestra and the audience welcomed the guest conductor, James Thomas, as he strode up to the lectern and turned his gaze on the musicians before him, and the concert began with the first stirring notes of the Overture ‘The Flying Dutchman’, by Richard Wagner.
The Flying Dutchman was originally a Scottish story about a legendary ghost ship, with a ghostly crew, which would be spotted sometimes glowing eerily at sea.
Wagner was crossing from Riga to London in particularly stormy weather, and was inspired to write an opera. The plot concerns untimely death, unrequited love, and a cursed captain, haunting the waves, especially in bad weather. The overture reflects all of this, with much stormy-swirling and hopeful tunes and stirring themes, setting the scene admirably for the opera to follow.
The orchestra attacked the mood swings and tempestuous changes in tome and tempo beautifully, warming themselves and the audience for the evening to come.
Legendary cello
The orchestra rearranged themselves, the soloist Finn Mannion took his place, and the audience held their collected breaths for the start of the glorious Elgar Cello Concerto. Written in 1919, after the First World War, Elgar chose a slow and contemplative mood, different from his previous work.
This was a difficult time for him, after surgery, with his wife becoming ill, and his music going out of fashion, being seen as old-fashioned. This was made worse at the premiere, which suffered from not enough rehearsal, and the concerto was not fully appreciated for 40 years, when Jacqueline Dupré’s recording became a sensation. I can echo that, because that was when I first fell in love with it.
From its first notes, solo from the cello, and the introduction of the orchestra via the clarinet, then the rising notes, followed by the rollicking theme played by the strings, I was totally hooked. Elgar manages to pack so much emotion into the deceptively calm but defiant music.
I have heard several versions, many of which turn up the emotional content, but I was enchanted by Mr Mannion’s decision to almost underplay this aspect, and opt for the quiet and thoughtful elements. It felt like an inner conversation, an attempt to come to terms with all that had happened, and decide to celebrate with dignity.
The first movement feels like setting the scene for the conversation to come, and the second movement feels like a series of agitated questions, which are followed in the third movement by a gloriously soft and yearning tune, followed by what feels like acceptance and understanding and the determination to go on.
I have no idea whether this corresponds to Elgar’s original intentions, but the way the soloist and orchestra played, so beautifully and so seamlessly, made me fall in love with it all over again. I know everyone played wonderfully, and I cannot single anyone out, because it was all so much of a complete performance for me. I was wrapped up in the glorious music from the start, and all I wanted to do at the end was just start again. I was profoundly moved. Thank you all.
Rebellious serenade
Richard Strauss had a somewhat overbearing and controlling father, the horn player Franz Strauss. Entering Munich University in 1882 to study Philosophy and Art History seems like an act of rebellion, but he did start composing his own music, including this delightful Serenade for 13 wind instruments.
It was surprising to return to my seat to find only 13 musicians in a group, with the conductor, and a joy to listen to them playing this simple and tuneful piece performed with such obvious delight as an ensemble. I was quite enthralled, and I hope the IWSO continues to produce similar surprises in the future.
Symphonic dances
After the Serenade, the rest of the orchestra returned to the stage, and we heard them playing Sergei Rachmaninoff’s ‘Symphonic Dances’. I confess I had never heard of these, so I was curious to find out what they would be like. Rachmaninoff had a strange and turbulent life. Born into a Russian aristocratic family that was beginning to fall on hard times, he was brilliant at piano, but failed to study, and had to be taken in hand.
Once he started to perform and write, however, he became extremely successful, and composed successful Symphonies and Piano Concertos, and moved to the USA in 1917, at the time of the Russian Revolution. He became a star pianist, travelling and performing extensively, but wrote little. The Symphonic Dances were his last composition, and the only one written entirely in America, completed in 1941, two years before he died.
Written in three parts, it is a long piece composed of many dance tunes, slow and fast, and seems to reflect his influences and the stages in his life, with references to many of his own works. Perhaps a sort of elegy to himself and his life. By no means mournful, it is full of movement and intertwined with complex rhythms and tunes and moods.
As I sat and listened, it felt like the kind of reverie it is easy to fall into when watching the movement of water in a swirling river, and I was swept away on the tumbling currents. It featured all the instruments of the orchestra, including a harp and piano. Everyone, from the percussion to the conductor, performed heroically and enjoyed themselves enormously. It was a pleasure to listen to. I’m going to need to listen to this piece several times. There’s so much in there to unpack, and I think it will be worth it. It could become a favourite.
Next concert
I’m looking forward now to the next IWSO concert, at the Medina Theatre as always, on Saturday 15th March 2025 at 7:15pm.
There will be the London Overture by John Ireland, then Mathilde Milwidsky will perform two pieces on the violin, Courtnay’s Concertante, and Chausson’s Poeme, and after that will be the 4th Symphony by Pyotr Tchaikovsky.
So buy tickets now, if you haven’t already done so, and I’ll see you there. It promises to be another great night. I’m really looking forward to it, as always.
