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Surrey Mozart Players at Holy Trinity Church
As they approach their fortieth anniversary, the Surrey Mozart Players are going from strength to strength, presenting ever more adventurous programmes, and last Saturday at Holy Trinity Church was no exception.Under their charismatic conductor, Kenneth Woods, they opened their programme with Beethoven’s overture Leonora No 2. This is considerably bolder than the more frequently-played Leonora No 3, and Woods’ interpretation bore this out. the dramatic trumpet call was quite elaborate if, in the splendid Holy Trinity acoustic, not distant enough. The acoustic masked occasional insecurity in the string parts, and wind and percussion between them bolstered an exciting performance.Alberto Ginastera’s Harp Concerto conveys the atmosphere of the composer’s native country of Argentina. It is a large-scale piece, with a huge orchestra – too big for holy Trinity even with the scaling down of the percussion section. This colourful piece found the orchestra on top form, with wonderful interjections from the wind instruments and percussion. Solo harpist Victoria Davies gave a sensitive performance and shone particularly in the central slow movement and the striking cadenza which follows it. Significantly these were the places where the orchestra was at its quietest: the composer never got around to re-scoring the concerto before his death.By the time Schumann revisited the score of his 4th Symphony in 1851, he was already showing signs of his mental illness. As Kenneth Woods explained, these disturbances were borne out in the music, in the incessant repetition, the dramatic contrasts, and the trombones coming in on a dissonant note at a key point in both the outer movements.The performance reflected this frenzied mood in many ways, from the imposing opening with its constant return, to the continuous ‘A’ that boomed out in the composer’s head, to a crisp, forward moving interpretation of the opening movement.A strongly anarchic feel pervaded the slow movement, with some fine violin playing in the central trio (this music quoted again in the third movement) and there was a robust mood in the Scherzo. Woods caught the mood of the link to the finale wonderfully, and the finale itself was thrilling. Shelagh Godwin - Surrey Advertiser 26/6/2009 |
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