FEW orchestras can match the ESO under William Boughton's direction, when it comes to interpretation and performance of our native composers.
In Michael Tippett's Fantasia Concertante on a theme of Corelli the soloists, drawn from the ESO were Michael Bochmann and Janet Masters (violin), and Peter Adams (cello). Against baroque origins, Tippett has impregnated his music with a shimmering extra- terrestrial quality. Slow variation, with intensely beautiful cello theme, ebbed and flowed against unison strings and throbbing bass; the final virtuoso section was masterful.
David Campbell (clarinet) gave an expert account as the soloist in Finzi's Concerto for clarinet and string orchestra, Op 31. Dialogue between soloists and orchestra in the first movement was a charming reverie leading to a stunning cadenza, with the clarinet crescendoing to a frenetic finish, with the orchestra.
Through the translucency of the second movement, with as if suspended strings in melody, the orchestra excelled in complementary playing with the soloist. A joyful rondo, with flourishes from the clarinet, rounded off a pleasurable performance.
In Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus by Ralph Vaughan Williams (with a harp) the apparent simplicity of the folk-tune somewhat belied skilful surging of textured strings. The subito piano, and the emerging solo cello before the last chords, procured a soulful end.
Frank Bride's Suite for String Orchestra abounding in contrasts, with a flexible Prelude, a jaunty Intermezzo with swells of crescendo, a Nocturne of exquisite serenity and beauty, and a bustling Finale, penultimately rising in excitement by means of tempo and pitch.
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