Jonathan Dodd shares his review of the latest Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra (IWSO) concert. Images with kind permission of Allan Marsh. Ed
The Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra’s 2022-2023 season began earlier this month at the Medina Theatre in grand style. The room was packed full of people looking forward to a varied and exciting menu of music. They all seemed ready for entertainment after the break, and they weren’t to be disappointed.
I noticed immediately as the orchestra filed in and made ready that they weren’t wearing the traditional dinner suits, but instead looked good in black shirts. I always imagined the suits might become rather uncomfortable over time and in difficult conditions, so I was pleased to see all the male players looking far more relaxed and more animated.
I don’t know whether this was an experiment, or a permanent change, but I think it’s a good idea. I also rather enjoyed the lone horn player who stood out in full suited attire.
Festival Overture
As befitting a new season, the first piece was the Festive Overture, by Dimitri Shostakovich. I’d never heard this before, but I’m familiar with his Jazz Suite, and I guessed it would be energetic and quite loud and filled with vigour and lovely sounds. I wasn’t wrong.
Back in the bad old days, in 1954, when Russia was a bit of a problem, Stalin had died and things were a bit chaotic. The Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, no less, found that it had no new work to celebrate the 37th anniversary of the October Revolution.
Its conductor, Vasili Nebol’sin, visited Shostakovich with a desperate request to write one in less than three days. The Festival Overture is the result, and it’s an astonishing triumph. It throws everything in and runs at a terrific pace. It’s exuberant and vigorous and triumphant and simply exciting to listen to.
From its initial fanfare to its sudden conclusion we had hardly a moment to breathe. To my untrained mind, it felt like he was in such a rush to get it finished that he didn’t have the time to refine or polish it, and, far from suffering in consequence, it retained a joyous abandon, which was present in the orchestra’s buoyant excitement in the playing. I loved it.
Cello Concerto
I do like a good concerto, and Elgar’s Cello Concerto is an obvious favourite of mine. I know Dvorak’s Cello Concerto, written in 1894, less well, and I was having trouble recalling it before the concert. But as soon as the orchestra took up the beginning, and the lone horn theme came in with its intense longing tones, I realised I knew it better than I thought.
The soloist, Richard Harwood, crouched over his instrument on the podium, was a model of concentration, as he expressed the powerful musical themes of the piece.
The first movement feels like a conversation between two tunes, both asserting their ideas and answering the other, until a sort of agreement is reached, with a triumphant ending, or a decision has been reached. It was beautiful, filled with longing and deep feelings and strong emotions.
The second movement
is quieter and more pensive, with occasional dramatic moments, and it
may have been influenced by the death of his sister-in-law whilst he
was writing it. It contains strong tunes, expressing challenging and
difficult thoughts and emotions. It comes to a calm and peaceful
conclusion that feels like a reconciliation of sorts.
The third movement is lively, filled with melodies and sounds, opening in a triumphant mood, and going on as a celebration of life itself, whilst remembering and returning to the more sombre feelings and memories.It contains some of the sense of his great ninth Symphony, ‘From the New World’.
Throughout, Mr Harwood and the members of the orchestra played immaculately, every part of the orchestra having its moments to excel, and it was a wonderful thing to experience. It’s now firmly in my favourite list. Thank you.
London Symphony
Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote his London Symphony No. 2, in 1914. It’s a large symphony, attempting to give his impressions of the city he lived in at that time, and it’s very much of his era. Rather than a direct attempt to draw musical pictures of the urban scenes he loved, it seemed to be evoking his feelings and impressions of the London he knew at the start of the 29th century.
He added occasional sound references, as in the Westminster chimes, played on the harp, and it was infused with a quiet affection for this home, as well as an element of sadness, as if he could feel the sense of an ending.
Many reviewers draw conclusions about this piece being an elegy for the era before the First World War, but I don’t know whether that was his intention. He certainly dedicated it to his friend George Butterworth, who died in that war.
I couldn’t escape my own feelings about all the changes since that pivotal moment while I was listening to it, and I kept wondering how much of the London we know would feel familiar to Vaughan Williams today.
The first movement starts in Westminster, with those Big Ben chimes, and moves to his impressions of Hampstead Heath on an August Bank Holiday, with a lot of lively activity and a feeling of the wind in the open air.
The second movement refers to Bloomsbury Square in November, a much quieter and more sombre area. The third movement is set on the Westminster Embankment during the night, and evokes the sounds that could be heard from the Strand. The last movement is less specific and more formal and reflective, and the Westminster chimes return as it comes to a lovely and quiet ending.
The Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra evoked all this beautifully and sensitively, playing with clarity and precision, bringing the impressions to the fore and bathing the whole theatre in wonderful sounds.
They received rapturous applause at the end, and they obviously so enjoyed playing such a gorgeous symphony, so full of emotions and impressionistic scene-setting that it was a further joy to see their faces at the end. And they gave their all. Well done. I felt privileged to have been able to watch and listen.
Next Concert
The IWSO returns on Saturday 21st January 2023 at 7.15pm at the Medina Theatre, with the Overture to Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck, which I don’t remember ever hearing. But maybe I will rediscover it as I did this time with the Dvorak. I’m looking forward to that.
This will be followed by Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto, played by Thomas Luke. That promises to be an event. Then the orchestra will be able to get their teeth into the Symphony No. 23 by Jean Sibelius. Marvellous.
I can’t wait.
Book now to avoid disappointment
I’m sure there’ll be a full house again, so get your tickets as soon as you can, or better still go for a season ticket. It’ll be worth it.
See you there! And
have a great Christmas in-between!
