Our thanks to Jonathan Dodd for his latest review of the Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra (IWSO). Ed
The Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra decided to hold the last concert of this season on the Fourth of July, with a celebration of American music. The fact that it took place on the Third of July just added to the occasion.
Last Friday the Medina Theatre was packed to the rafters, and the weather was sweltering. The orchestra was swathed in Stars and Stripes flags, and the gentlemen musicians were wearing very fetching bow-ties and no jackets. There was an expectant buzz in the audience, and everyone had a feeling that something special was about to happen.
We were not disappointed. The IWSO provided us with an evening full of delights and surprises, and I for one will never forget several unforgettable moments. We were provided with music played with a backdrop of film, communal singing, flag-waving, a rousing song about ducks, silly hats and waistcoats, and even some Yee-Hars from a most unexpected source.
Wearing a very fetching waistcoat
We suspected that things were going to be a lot of fun when the conductor Jonathan Butcher walked to his podium wearing a very fetching waistcoat instead of his usual dapper jacket and tails. Straight away the orchestra launched into a rendition of Leonard Bernstein’s Overture to Candide.
Bernstein is most famous for West Side Story, and like that music, this overture is full of energy, fast-flowing tunes, lots of percussion, and a terrific beat. The orchestra were obviously raring to go, and they sprang into action with gusto and precision. I’m always most amazed when I hear tunes being started by one musician or group, then taken up by others so the effect is of a melody that moves seamlessly round the orchestra so fast and smoothly that the transition is sometimes hard to follow. I was entranced as much by the performance as the music itself.
An awful lot of wonderful rhythm
This was followed by a piece by George Gershwin, his Variations on ‘I Got Rhythm’. Any impression that this would be a concert like the previous ones this season was dispelled immediately. The guest pianist Viv McLean took the stage, and the strains of the familiar tune started, followed by many widely-varied versions both by the piano and orchestra. There was an awful lot of wonderful rhythm too. I loved it.
Being somewhat untutored in classical music, I have listened to various Variations in my time, and I have enjoyed some of them, but sometimes I have felt hindered in my understanding or appreciation because I haven’t known the original tune that’s being varied. Indeed sometimes the composer seems to delight in hiding it entirely. This time, however, I was familiar with ‘I Got Rhythm’, so I was able to listen to the ways that Gershwin mixed and muddied it up in so many ways, and I loved it. I was particularly impressed with the piano-playing, at times more like using a finger as a hammer or even playing with hands crossed, the left hand playing the tune and the right hand accompanying.
Majestic views of the Grand Canyon
After that, Jonathan Butcher told us a story about watching a film with music at school, about the Grand Canyon, and the effect it had on his young mind. Amazingly, he had managed to track down a copy of the film, and a screen descended, the lights went down, and we were treated to Ferde Grofé’s Grand Canyon Suite, while watching majestic views of the Grand Canyon and its wildlife and cataclysmic weather.
I can honestly say that I was moved to tears, and felt that I was privileged to have witnessed something I might never come across in my life again. The orchestra played so beautifully, and the music and images combined in such a way that it took my breath away. They even managed to complete each piece of music very close to the end of each segment of the film. It felt like an enormous and quite risky undertaking, and I cannot thank the IWSO enough for putting on such an extraordinary treat.
The international histories and cultural influences of a young nation
After the Interval, Three Dance Episodes from Rodeo, by Aaron Copland, was played. This was another piece I knew already from listening on CD. I was particularly struck by the huge difference between listening to a familiar piece at home and actually witnessing it being played. These pieces are full of tunes and rhythms from folk music and many other sources, they evoke the huge open spaces and the international histories and cultural influences of a young nation. Above all this is dance music.
The third piece is the Hoe Down, a rip-roaring charge of a dance tune, played very loud and fast, making you want to leap up and dance around at the same time as wondering how anyone could keep the pace up. There were lots of sudden stops and changes of pace in it, and brilliant playing by all the sections of the orchestra, accomplishing short but complex phrases at full speed with sharp timing. And I shall never forget the conductor turning round and producing perfect Yee Hars with his own impeccable timing. It was spine-tingling.
Gorgeously warm and bright and energetic and optimistic
Rhapsody in Blue came next. From the clarinet’s initial climb into the heavens to the final notes it was thrilling and grand and sweeping. It flowed like the ocean and it was gorgeously warm and bright and energetic and optimistic. Viv McLean was majestic, and the interplay between the piano and orchestra was impeccable.
This was followed by the most familiar piece of all, the Theme from Jurassic Park, by John Williams. I know this so well already, but once again, I was surprised and uplifted to hear and see it actually played by a full orchestra in front of me. I had the opportunity of listening properly to the music itself, and to appreciate just how beautifully structured it is, and how grand are its themes.
We all sang and waved our flags and made the right duck noises
As if that wasn’t enough, the final item was the March ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’, by John Philip Sousa, in true honour of the USA, its Independence Day celebrations, and its glorious musical accomplishments and heritage. What none of us knew was that the composer himself experimented with various lyrics, and we found ourselves being patiently instructed on the words we should sing and gestures we should make at the appropriate times. Perhaps to soften the moment, the lyrics we were to sing were about honouring ducks.
I shan’t go into detail, except to say that you had to be there to appreciate it fully. The orchestra played the march beautifully. It really is stirring music. We all sang and waved our flags and made the right duck noises, and it was a lot of stirring fun. Even Viv McLean was dragged on to join in at the piano.
The final Hoe Down
The last surprise of the evening was a wholly unexpected and never-before-known encore. We were even invited to choose between a repeat of the Stars and Stripes or the Hoe Down. By this time everyone was practically dying of heat exhaustion, but the orchestra rallied themselves to play the Hoe Down at least as well the second time as the first, and it was a fitting end to an unforgettable concert.
Thank you to all the musicians of the IWSO for putting on such a thrilling evening, thank you to the soloist, and thank you to Mr. Butcher, for being the heart and face of the evening. Long may you all continue to entertain and thrill us with your dedication and supreme musicianship.
I can’t wait for the next season.
Image: © With kind permission of Allan Marsh
