The national Sinfonia in concertBy Anne Hilton Saturday, August 25 2007
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The National Sinfonia plays Beethoven's "Coriolan" Overture....
The Queen’s Hall was as near full as makes no difference for the National Sinfonia’s annual “end-of-workshop” concert on Sunday, August 19. Family and friends may have made up the bulk of the audience, but there were many who, while appreciating the best the world has to offer on CD and DVD, find that even so, recorded music is no substitute for truly live and alive performances – warts and all – since few really and truly ‘live’ performances are perfect from beginning to end. Given a ‘run’ of eight or ten performances of, for example, opera, recording companies record them all; that done they cut, splice and knit together the perfect recording with not one false note.
That said, the National Sinfonia should be proud of this year’s concert, the result of an intense series of workshops with overseas tutors, under the direction of Jessel Murray. The Sinfonia consists chiefly of young people still in school, plus some members of the Police Band, and enthusiastic mature amateurs coming to rehearsals once a week and spending their “summer” vacations at the workshop.
This year’s concert began with an old favourite the “Coriolan” Overture that some members may have played as mere infants when Kerry Roebuck arranged the music for beginners. Nevertheless, it was a rousing start to the evening.
There followed a violin solo, “Meditation from Thais” by Massenet. A neighbour in the audience commented that provided one shuts one’s eyes, Marie-Noelle Wharton’s playing was a delight; however, her deadpan expression, staring, apparently, into space throughout was distracting to more than one member of the audience. We hope she accepts this comment as it is intended, remarking only that while playing, most solo violinists look at their instrument, or the conductor, rarely, if ever, do they stare into outer space.
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is another piece well known to those who started playing with Kerry Roebuck. We found the opening brisk, as it should be. The strings were a tad ragged in places in the second movement, the brass a bit overpowering in the third; we detected a few false notes in the fourth when players must have been tiring. Trinidad audiences have yet to learn (despite constant reminders) that they should only applaud at the end of a symphony or concerto. Yet those I reckoned should know better clapped at the end of each movement both in the Beethoven and the Trumpet Concerto that followed the interval. Perhaps a gentle reminder in the programme to hold the applause until the last movement ends might be of help to artists who don’t want to break their concentration by bowing or acknowledging the applause until they have finished their performance? For a nation aiming at developed status by 2020 (musically and otherwise) it’s a thought worth bearing in mind.
Rellon Brown gave a very good account of himself as the soloist in Haydn’s “Trumpet Concerto in E Flat Major” despite the applause after every movement.
One could feel the audience relax with the familiar as the National Sinfonia launched into a selection from Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” which is fast becoming a favourite with “classical” orchestras to end the evening with a bang.
However, the evening of August 19 ended with a first public performance of “Nostalgia” by Mark Loquan, transcribed for traditional orchestra by Gary Gibson. The Soca and Calypso beat had feet tapping and bodies swaying, in a quiet, refined manner as befits a concert hall. One could see the players, too, could scarcely resist the rhythm.
All in all, this was a most enjoyable live and alive concert. Our thanks to the National Sinfonia and especially to Jessel Murray for a true musical treat.
