Concert Reviews
Vivaldi Four Seasons/Scottish Ensemble/Dundee
The 'Seasons' can still bring in the audiences
Spring, as far as I can recall, has come to Tayside four times this year already and summer, winter and autumn have visited us three times!
Regular concert-goers will already have guessed that the extra seasons are musical ones, those of Vivaldi, whose group of concertos known as the 'Four Seasons' is top of the baroque pops, to the virtual exclusion of other Vivaldi pieces.
However, as the Scottish Ensemble proved by the turnout at their concert in the Marryat Hall, Dundee, last night, even two of the 'Seasons' - spring and summer - can still bring in the audiences.
They made up the difference by letting us hear another Vivaldi work, the G minor concerto grosso from Op. 11.
The ensemble's crisp and alert account served the two 'Seasons' excellently, largely due to the incisive direction of their guest leader, the young violinist Simon Fischer.
This performance was everything that the lack-lustre one of the Four Seasons at the Perth Festival was not, with a splendid spring and buoyancy and not a trace of that over-sweetening which has tended to flaw some of the ensemble's past performances.
This was the most stylish baroque playing I have ever heard from them and it also did wonders in championing the cause of the lesser-known concerto, at least as worthwhile musically as any of the 'Season's and, because of the unfamiliarity, a good deal fresher to listen to.
For the rest of the programme we moved forward 150 years to Czechoslovakia in the 1870s and Dvorak's 'Serenade for Strings'. The folk idiom in the opening movement was well-projected, the long melody in the larghetto had a real lyrical flow, there was a fine lilt to the rhythm of the waltz and the finale was brilliant and passionate.
It was good, too, to hear Dvorak's little 'Nocturne in B', a charming piece affectionately played despite some rather scratchy violin tone.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable concert and, for those who missed it, a trip to Arbroath, where the ensemble are playing in the Webster Theatre tonight, or to Balbirnie House, Glenrothes, tomorrow, will bring unexpected rewards.
By our Music Critic, Dundee Courier & Advertiser
Saint-Saëns Violin Concerto No. 2 in C major/London Charity Concert Orchestra/
St. John's, Smith Square
With Suppe's Poet and Peasant Overture offering the sole concession to popularity at this gratifyingly well-attended concert, the LCCO (set up to promote concerts in aid of charities helping under-privileged children) clearly enjoys risk as much as it does enterprise. I cannot recall a London performance of Saint-Saëns' Second Violin Concerto before this one - indeed, I had previously not heard the piece - and Kalinnikov's First Symphony is hardly less of a rarity.
Like the second piano concertos of Chopin and Beethoven, Saint-Saëns' C major Violin Concerto is, in fact, his first. The influences of Mendelssohn, Brahms, Liszt and Italian opera loom fairly large, and the work is, in the main, as fastidiously put together as one would expect of this fastidious man (though one or two woodwind doublings sound immature and, though, scoreless, I'll eat my copy of Lovelock's Second Year Harmony if those are not consecutive 4ths on bassoons towards the end of the slow movement). And yet it must be said that the standard of invention is not the stuff of which memorable music is made (the work remained unpublished for over twenty years; why?) and that harmonically there is much that is primitive: the first movement - overlong and rather rambling, albeit in well-defined sonata form - opens with a tonic pedal so protracted as to make the heart sink.
Still, all credit to Simon Fischer (leader of the Chandos Players and currently a Guildhall professor) for allowing us to hear the work. Evidently he believes in it, and he brought the commitment to bear to clean, well-focused tone and an admirably supple bowing arm; his up-bow treatment of a pair of semiquaver figures in the finale was especially delightful.
Those factors alone helped to offset a certain lack of wit, urgency and violinistic guile which might have brought the concerto more readily to life. The accompaniment was, however, sluggish and in more than one instance would have benefited from some more critical rehearsal (a twice-occurring first movement string unison passage with chromatic inflection remains a persistent and unfortunate memory).
The Kalinnikov - another young man's work though, unlike Saint-Saëns' Concerto, fated by its composer's early death to be part of a slender output - fared considerably better. It is expertly and imaginatively constructed (the pre-recapitulation fugue in the first movement, though hardly a new idea, works charmingly), and the players responded with a will to its rather Dvorakian Scherzo, while the strings, though clearly not imported from the Philharmonia, shaped the slow movement 'cat's cradle' ostinato with sensitivity and commendable tonal restraint.
Andrew Keener, The Strad
Kalinnikov
An unusual evening of once popular works that have fallen by the wayside, presented with considerable spirit by the London Charity Concert Orchestra, a well-balanced and rehearsed amateur group.The overture to A Poet and Peasant, one of the best by the prolific Suppé, lacked the final coat of bright polish, but Ferencz-Diezku handled the all-important transitions in and out of waltztime and the whipping up of excitement towards the end in authentic manner.
Saint-Saëns' C major Violin Concerto is a most elegant and tasteful work, lacking the panache of the Rondo Capriccioso; this composer on his best behaviour is less than his true self. Simon Fischer played the solo part smoothly, sweetly, and making light of the technical difficulties.
Kalinnikov's First Symphony, still popular in Russia, was written in 1895. A few fierce syncopated passages clearly derived from Tchaikovsky, but the dominating influence is Borodin's. There are long flowing tunes of folk-like aspect, a whiff of the orient in the slow movement, picturesque and effective orchestration.
The main tunes are memorable, not because they are remarkable, but because we hear them over and over again. Technical limitations are obvious; but there is something very attractive about this leisurely work, unselfconscious, direct and fresh in outlook even when it is dealing in the well-worn formulae of Russian national music. Those interested should listen to tonight's broadcast, to be given by the BBCSO just after 7.
Hugo Cole, The Guardian
Mozart A major Concerto/Academy of London/Queen Elizabeth Hall
The Academy of London
There was a cheering, buoyant concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall last night. The Academy of London, under its musical director Richard Stamp, gave a programme of mainly light-hearted Mozart: three concertos, a divertimento and Symphony No. 33 in B flat, K319.
It was a long concert, too. But the ebullience which Mr Stamp coaxed from his players kept everything vibrantly alive, and left the impression that they had played not a note too many.
In the symphony, the firm opening chord and the following crisp staccatos underlined the qualities which this chamber orchestra had displayed throughout the evening. They are a well-disciplined ensemble, stylish and unobtrusively expressive. Phrasing was polished and naturally shaped; accents were neatly pointed; articulation was keenly co-ordinated.
For the most part these traits were matched by the three soloists in the concertos. Perhaps Simon Fischer could have sought out a wider range of tone colour in the Fifth Violin Concerto in A K219, although it was a lively reading, persuasive and elegantly moulded.
So too was the Horn Concerto No. 3 K447, played by Julian Baker; and the C major Oboe Concertto K314 drew dome delicately crafted playing from Sarah Francis. Crystalline scales, a full tone, eloquent phrasing - all contributed to a performance which, like the whole concert, created a sense of musical enjoyment and infectious fun.
Geoffrey Norris, Daily Telegraph
Recital with Peter Evans, Purcell Room
Fischer/Evans, Purcell Room
To approach Bach by way of Olivier Messiaen was an imaginative start to the violinist Simon Fischer's concert on Wednesday with Peter Evans at the piano. Messiaen's very early Theme and Variations has an almost baroque treatment of a theme so naked as to be in need of covering virtually for decency's sake, and the way this is achieved, with very nearly equal interest between violin and piano, was displayed with clear conviction and a touch of flamboyance.
It stimulated our awareness as well as enjoyment of Bach's D minor Partita for the violin alone, where the preliminary dances, including a thoughtful and notably tensile Sarabande, were but a preparation for the imposing and splendidly sustained Chaconne at the end. Trickier passages like the arpeggiated chords were deftly controlled, and, throughout its sonorous length, the careful placing of accents was a distinctive and indeed ennobling feature.
The secret of Mr Fischer's artistry, which is so much more than the assured technique in a youthful virtuoso, seemed to me to lie in his precise use of pressure on the bow, even to subtle variation this within an otherwise unbroken legato line. It was no less apparent in Faure's sometimes unexpectedly vehement Sonata No. 2, where the raised tone of voice adopted by the usually gentle composer did not hide the illusive qualities of a deeply serious work.
These are just as much in the piano part as with the violin, and in this respect Mr Evans was an expressive partner with a skilfully maintained balance between them. So also were the rhythmic character and colourful spirit of Falla's Spanish Popular Suite, transcribed from the better known 'Popular Songs' of that genre, in which the violinist successfully avoided merely trying to imitate vocal inflexions by successfully adapting them to his own technique.
Noël Goodwin, The Times
Recital with Peter Evans, Purcell Room
...More enjoyable as a whole was the young British violinist Simon Fischer's recital with Peter Evans (Purcell Room, 15th January). Fischer is a fine artist, possessed of good musical judgement, an impressive technique and an attractive, sensuous tone. He can be assertive enough when the occasion requires, but never makes his instrument the butt of vulgar passion or ruffian fury.
The programme he chose to showcase his gifts was varied and well-balanced. After a suitably heaven-gazing performance of Messiaen's Theme and Variation came a powerful rendition of the Bach D minor Partita. By turns robust and tender, intimate and grandly rhetorical, it concluded with an admirably purposeful Chaconne in which there was no single figure that did not sound expressive or exciting.
Faure's Second Sonata provided a rather lengthy romantic interlude, Falla's Suite Populaire Espagnole a bewitching finale. In the latter Fischer showed an excellent sense of style, playing the faster dance movements with controlled abandon, and finding in the more reflective ones a delicious perfumed wistfulness.
Peter Evans' contribution to the proceedings was exemplary throughout.
The Strad
Recital with Gordon Back, Lauderdale House
It wasn't just St Valentine's Day that put a touch of romance in the air at Lauderdale House last Thursday.
Violinist Simon Fischer plays with a big, rich sound, and it was clear from the opening bars of his recital at the Mansion in Highgate Hill that the romantic works were going to be the ones to benefit most from his style.
Handel's Sonata No. 4 had a nice, solid Italianate sense of phrasing, but the lack of dynamic contrast, particularly in Lauderdale House's close acoustic, gave the work an unvarying and anachronistic intensity.
And in Mozart's K304 Sonata it was Gordon Back's close and alert partnership that teased out more of the delicate nuances than Fischer's playing, technically accomplished as it was apart from some unsteadiness of vibrato.
But in Schubert's Opus 137 No. 2 Sonatina, Fischer found his metier; a spacious, carefully controlled exploration of the first three movements exploded in an assured display of virtuosity in the closing allegro.
Bloch's Nigun was full of rich tone colours and dramatic flourish, but could serve only as a prelude to the vast expanses of Brahms' Opus 108 Sonata. Expressiveness was at last fully released in a taut and thoughtful performance.
The light and shade of the adagio was carefully etched and the opening motif of the third movement, so often dashed off as mere staccato punctuation, was given a sense of fluttering anxiety.
The finale vented that sense of pent-up energy, the technical assurance of Fischer and Back generating a powerful and polished excitement.
Not surprising then that the duo chose for their well-deserved encore the Salut d'Amour, played with relish.
Mr Fischer, who lives in Highgate, will be giving his pupils from Wells Cathedral School a chance to air their prowess in a concert at Lauderdale House on March at 5pm. I hope that he will soon be given a chance to exercise his skills on one of the big violin concertos.
Phillip Sommerich, Ham and High
Recital with Raymond Fischer, Wigmore Hall
Only the most ambitious violinist could attempt all three of Brahms's Sonatas in the one recital, and only an unusually gifted one could play them as well as did Simon Fischer in his Wigmore Hall début.
With his father Raymond Fischer providing considerably more than mere support at the piano, he projected the intensity and the light and shade in each of these massive pieces with an appositely warm sound and confident, large bow strokes.
At the same time both players saw to it that the emotional and the cerebral were held in ideal balance, while the familial relationship also doubtless helped the sense of mutual purpose that each performance contained.
Stephen Pettitt, The Times
Recital with Gordon Back, Purcell Room
With a sense of style to underpin an easy command of his instrument, the English violinist Simon Fischer respected the gravity of Tartini's 'Didone abbandonata' Sonata before travelling chronologically, with ripening tone and strengthening drive, through Beethoven's G major Sonata Op. 30 No. 3 and Brahms's Sonatensatz to Franck's Sonata in A.
Here, with generous keyboard support from Gordon Back, the flood-gates opened: every phrase glowed. Finally Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen, bringing a hapy reconciliation of temperament and good taste.
Joan Chissell, The Times
Director-Soloist/European Community Chamber Orchestra/Cork Opera House/
ECCO sparkles in Haydn symphony
The European Community Chamber Orchestra under guest Director Simon Fischer gave a concert in the Opera House that included Mozart, Bach, Dvorak and Haydn. Dublin violinist Brona Fitzgerald, a regular member of the orchestra, joined Simon Fischer for an excellent performance of Bach's well-known concerto for two violins in D minor.
The Chamber Orchestra, mainly of strings but augmented by horns, oboe and clarinet for Mozart and Haydn, produced a precisely tuned attractive sound that would have been heard to even better advantage in a hall with a brighter acoustic.
The seven pieces in the Mozart Cassations included two minuets, the second an energetic, driving dance where one could imagine the stately guests deserting their 18th century formal grace to batter out a few more complicated steps.
The Minuet in the Haydn symphony, No. 57 in D Major, was an altogether different matter - swinging, attractive music sustained on strings, with brass and woodwind punctuations to lift the dancers from the floor.
For me, this symphony was the high point of a marvellous orchestral evening. Hayden's music here sounded as if it could have been written in this century or the last.
It's attractive freshness owed much to playing of the very highest standard by the European Community Chamber Orchestra.
Tomas O Canainn, Cork Examiner
Recital with Hilary Coates, Holbourne Museum, Bath
This recital of sonatas for violin and piano was a resounding success even before it began, for a large audience packed the museum's picture gallery and extra chairs had to be brought in.
The programme ranged over several centuries, from Handel to Debussy, and ended passionately with a full blooded performance of Brahms' romantic Violin Sonata in D minor Op. 108.
I enjoyed the opening work, a grave yet at times lively Handel sonata (Op 1 No. 13 in D), originally published in 1732. The playing of violinist Simon Fischer recalled a long vanished age of music-making and seemed entirely appropriate.
Bath-born pianist Hilary Coates came into her own in Beethoven's flowing 'Spring' sonata. But the real fireworks came after the interval in Debussy's Sonata in G minor and in the Brahms work.
Both musicians rose magnificently to the challenge. An encore was demanded, and the audience went away fully satisfied.
Clive Ponsford, Bath Evening Chronicle
Chamber music concert/St Endellion Festival
Crisp tempo did not flag although audience wilted
The audience sweltered but the performers never flagged in the heat wave with the crisply-set tempos from conductor Richard Hickox for the orchestral content of last night's programme.
For wonderful contrast in late evening there was a magical performance of a Brahms piano quartet from pianist William Lloyd and his colleagues.
Last night's programme comprised orchestral and chamber music with Simon Fischer and Julian Leaper violins in the evening's concerto, the Bach D Minor Concerto for two violins.
As a foretaste of next year's Mozart's bi-centennial celebration and a likely concert version of the Magic Flute at St Endellion, Mr Hickox and the orchestra performed a splendidly dramatic and taut account of the overture and some of the ballet music from Idomeneo. This is a work which has a Cornish connection in that it was first revived as an opera by the famed Radford Sisters and the Falmouth Opera players. The orchestra played with great alertness and with regard to a style of playing which almost has the ring of a Handel Italian opera.
The Brahms piano Quartet in G minor (Opus 25) provided a perfect change of mood for the time of night with a wonderfully expressive performance form pianist Mr Lloyd and string players Simon Fischer, Garfield Jackson (viola) and Timothy Gill (cello).
Robert Earl, North and East Cornwall News
Orchestral concert, Truro Cathedral
Mass masters
This year's St Endellion Festival has been noticeable for the sheer beauty of its orchestral sound, and this was highlighted on its visit to Truro Cathedral last night to perform Brahms, Richard Strauss and Walton.
The focus on this facet came early when the New Zealand soprano Catherine Pierard sang a group of Richard Strauss songs with orchestra. The soprano was ideally partnered and had another fine voice of individuality in violinist Simon Fischer whose solo in Morgen was outstanding.Conductor Richard Hickox took a slow tempo for this song, slower than normal, but it brought out the sheer beauty of the performance by singer and violinist.
Miss Pierard was a compelling Strauss interpreter with warmth and passion, and the ability to travel in the forefront in the orchestral surges. This was a delicious forerunner to the powerful performance of Brahms German Requiem in which the soloists were Miss Pierard and baritone James Ashworth.
Mr Hickox had a mature mellow approach to the work and a chorus strong in all sections to express its depth of feeling. The orchestral sound especially from the woodwinds reacted with the development of the music's effective chemistry.
Miss Pierard and Mr Ashworth projected well while the chorus featured some excellent singing from the male sections with tenor which could not only be heard but also had a distinctive and attractive timbre for this work.
The sheer contrast of the evening for the large audience was Walton's anthem The Twelve - a work seldom heard but which is a setting for the feast of any apostle. The work is typically Walton with a colourful orchestral accompaniment exciting it its writing for brass and percussion.
But it also had many challenges for the chorus in describing the course of the text and there was subtlety as well as excitement in the work. The soloists were Miss Pierard, Frances Cooke, Tony Alderton, Paul Sutton and James Ashworth.
Robert Earl, North and East Cornwall News
Glorious sound fills cathedral
The annual concert in Truro Cathedral by the St. Endellion Festival performers opened with Walton's The Twelve, a setting of words by W.H. Auden for baritone, two sopranos and choir.
Written originally with organ accompaniment, the composer's latter version well illustrates his feeling for orchestral colour to match the text, as for example int he middle reflective section with soprano soloists and in the exciting finale: 'Let us praise them all with a merry noise'. In the unaccompanied parts at the end of the first section and the 'still starry heavens' in the third, the delicately controlled singing was splendid. As always, however, in the cathedral there was an occasional imbalance between the choir and the orchestra when they filled the building with glorious sound. One would have to listen to Hickox's recent Chandos CD recording for a perfect version.
The audience who filled most of the central nave on Monday were probably attracted by the main work, Brahms's German Requiem. But the most moving experience for many was the performance of five of Richard Strauss's Songs sung superbly by Catherine Pierard. Like the Walton, these began with simple keyboard accompaniment, but were later orchestrated. In the five performed last Monday was 'Morgen' scored for horns, harp, strings and with violin solo most beautifully and sensitively played by Simon Fischer, and the romantic 'Befriet'. I doubt if there were many dry eyes at the end of it!
After the interval in which to recover, we heard Brahms's principal choral work. Unlike other requiems, the composer's principal aim seems to be the offering of consolation to the bereaved: indeed the opening chorus begins with the Beatitude: 'Blest are they who weep for they shall be comforted.' Here, as elsewhere what impressed was the magnificently controlled singing, especially in the quiet unaccompanied sections, and the responsive orchestral playing under Richard Hickox.
Added to this were the baritone solos of James Ashworth and soprano solo of Catherine Pierard each of whom gave a very satisfying performance. For a cleaner acoustic, however, one should hear the performers in their summer base at St. Endellion, though it's no good going 'on spec' - tonight's final concert was sold out some time ago.
EWS, West Buton Gazette
Lark Ascending/Wooburn Festival Orchestra/Wycombe Parish Church
Finale to three fine weeks
As someone said after the last concert of the Wooburn Festival: 'That's wrapped up another one satisfactorily.'
That was the understatement of the year as a description of this terrific evening of British music. Well, British in origin perhaps, but the first half had a slightly ethnic ring about it as it opened with Gustav Holst's Beni mora oriental suite based on an Algerian five-note flute figure from Algeria - much as I like Holst's music I am glad he shortened it a bit!
With this the Festival Orchestra under Stephen Jackson surpassed itself in the wonderful chunky chords and the sense of rhythm that informed the dance movements.
Delius' Hassan is seldom performed in full. The incidental music (with the well-known Serenade) has never been engraved, the orchestra playing from the same 'dots' as those used in the premiere in 1923. What a lovely work - and the Wooburn Singers and their two soloists, Lawrence Whitehead and Stephen Douse, made much of it, especially in the early wordless chorus.
Vaughan Williams' 'Lark Ascending' brought us back to the West, and the orchestra's leader Simon Fischer soared away into the stratosphere in the solo part. You could hear that bird in the sky - which was always blue when this was written in 1914.
Holst's Hymn of Jesus is not all that well known, but the Singer again, supplemented by the Wycombe High School Chamber Choir of young girls, did full justice to it. The violent bursts of the 'Gloria' were tremendous, and as always this lovely building was acoustically perfect for these sudden changes of sound level.
Full marks to Stephen Jackson for his handling of a wonderful evening of music. He gets better as the years roll on! What impresses me always is his courtesy to his orchestra and soloists - worthy of copying by others.
To the organising committee of the Festival, I say 'Follow that!' Thanks for a splendid three weeks of entertainment.
Bucks Advertiser
English music proves a feast
A feast of English Music made up the entire programme of the final concert of this year's Wooburn Festival, and what a wonderful evening it turned out to be.
The first half had an Eastern flavour, consisting of Holst's Beni mara Oriental Suite for Orchestra, and Delius' Suite from the Incidental Music of Hassam. The players soon warmed into the Holst and brought out the Eastern impressions. Particularly evocative was the bassoon solo at the beginning of the Second Dance, but it was in the last movement, which was technically the most difficult, that the orchestra excelled.
It was intriguing to learn there were no engravings for the orchestral parts of the Delius Hassan music, so that the orchestra was playing from the parts used at the original performance in 1923.
The music was vital and rhythmic, very different in texture from the thickly orchestrated and slow-moving style normally associated with Delius. Here, the ingenious orchestration painted all sorts of exotic colours, and these were beautifully indulged, particularly by the wind players. It was a pity the orchestra overwhelmed the choir and made it impossible for the words to be heard.
Violin soloist Simon Fischer's performance of The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams was magical.
His powerful, clear tone, clean fast-finger trills, strong and accurate double-stopping, all demonstrated phenomenal technique, but most important, he used this to produce exquisite sensitivity of expression.
Holst's Hymn of Jesus was the last work to be performed and was a splendid finale. It was noticeable too, that the conductor had an excellent rapport with both choir and orchestra, bringing out the best in all performers.
As a postscript to the 1990 Wooburn Festival, it was a pleasure to have the opportunity to listen to some relatively obscure, but worthy masterpieces, which are seldom publicly performed.
Acknowledgement should therefore be given to the organisers who conceived the Festival, and also to the Delius Society which helped by finishing the parts for the performance of Hassan music.
Elaine Jordan, Bucks Free Press
Recital with Peter Evans, Wigmore Hall.
Simon Fischer is a fine musician who has made his mark as a skilful leader of orchestras, a chamber musician and a much sought-after teacher, not to mention his monthly column for this magazine. Judging by the age and enthusiasm of the audience, there seemed to be a fair number of his students, past and present, in the Wigmore Hall (19th July). His partner was the admirable Peter Evans. What was striking about Fischer's approach was his determination to stamp a different personality on each of the works in his programme. Thus, in Kreisler's Praeludium and Allegro, a pastiche on a Baroque style with which the composer was clearly none too familiar, Fischer treated it very much as a Viennese miniature, with a rich, vibrato-laden tone. Sometimes he seemed almost too liberal in his rhythmic approach, but details emerged strongly through the clarity of his technique.
For the Elgar Sonata beauty of sound was paramount, the traditional forms covered with a rhapsodic overlay and a pleasing sense of spontaneity. Evans proved to be an ideal partner, subtly reinforcing the violin lines, always in accord stylistically.
For Lutoslawski's Subito Fischer surmounted the savage technical demands so entirely that they never intruded. His was a reading of sensitive musicianship, and as such made the strongest possible case for this often-prickly composer.
Turning to French repertoire, the Fauré First Sonata in A major was superb, the Debussy even better. Here, Fischer seemed in his element and from the very opening notes it was clear that this was going to be special, as the players drew the audience into a moonlit, insubstantial world. The effect was magical and the audience was duly entranced.
Harriet Smith, The Strad
Mozart Violin Concerto No. 4 K218/Sevenoaks Philharmonic Society
Mozart lovers are not disappointed
Sevenoaks Philharmonic Society's recent concert at St Nicholas church was devoted exclusively to music by Mozart.
Lovers of his music will scarcely have been disappointed, and may well have been enlightened, since alongside such works as the 'Coronation' Mass and the motet 'Ave Verum', there were performances of rarely heard pieces: a setting of the te Deum in C, the Litaniae Lauretanae and a motet 'Sancta Maria' (both works addressed to the Virgin Mary).
Perhaps the most interesting and tantalising was the Kyrie in E flat major, the only remaining fragment of a grand mass which Mozart contemplated writing in 1778.
The choir were in good voice, their tone well-blended and with the sopranos producing a clear, bright sound, happily free from excessive vibrato. In what was a long programme there were a few moments when flagging energy resulted in contrapuntal lines losing their cutting edge, or the ensemble being less than precise, but the climaxes of all the jubilant music were well-sustained.
The quartet of soloists (Alison Charlton-West, soprano, Melanie Marshall, mezzo soprano, David Lowe, tenor, Marin Harris, bass-baritone) sang stylishly, but were disadvantageously placed in relation to the orchestra. Had the soloists been in front of the orchestra the balance would have been considerably improved.
In addition to such a feast of choral music, the programme also included a performance of the violin Concerto in D, K218. Here the soloist was Simon Fischer, the son of the Philharmonic Society's conductor, Raymond Fischer.
Under the conductor's sensitive direction Mr Fischer revealed himself as a player of some distinction: secure in technique (not least in his bowing arm) he played with excellent intonation and a warm, resonant tone which filled the church. His playing in the cadenza to the concerto's first movement was especially fine.
P.Y. Sevenoaks Chronicle
Finzi Clarinet Concerto/Emma Johnson/Sir Charles Groves/Royal Philhamonic Orchestra
... Emma Johnson was eager to point out that while the concerto has its inward and reflective side, it also offers scope in a purely virtuosic sense as well. 'Yes, there are some tricky moments, but the greatest problem is getting the balance just right, without being swamped by the orchestra!'
The producer, Roy Emerson, had placed the soloist in the midst of the RPO strings rather than in front of the orchestra and conductor, as would be the normal configuration. 'I was a little anxious about the placing at first,' she commented, 'but I do think we achieve a far more sensitive rapport together like this.'
As we listened to several playbacks in the control room, this approach was certainly paying dividends in the slow movement, with its particular mood of hushed reminiscence. 'Sir Charles also likes to use the full string section, which really helps us to bring out the full range of colour and dynamic graduation, and of course, so much of the writing is richly divided, in all the part.'
In fact, Groves had worked very closely with the leader, Simon Fischer, and the other string principals of the RPO, so that every detail of the complex string accompaniment was finely balanced throughout, and such evident concern over fine detail was prevalent during the entire session. ...
Michael Jameson, The Gramophone
Bach E major Violin Concerto/East Surrey Choral Society/United Reformed Church, Purley
The concert given by the East Surrey Choral Society in aid of the Samaritans was held at Purley United Reformed Church on Saturday.
The choir, conducted by Michael Pilkington, were joined by soloists Veronique Dieschy (soprano), Jack Coldiron (tenor) and Omar Ebrakim (bass), and accompanied by a small string orchestra. The programme opened with the Schubert Mass in G, in which the music moved from a mellow 'Kyrie' through joy and exultation to a revered and hushed 'Agnus Dei', the soloists' voices blending beautifully in the 'Benedictus'.
Simon Fischer, a pupil of Yfrah Neaman, was the soloist in J.S. Bach's Violin Concerto No. 2 in E major. Mr Fischer gave a masterful performance, his tone strong and pure, yet capable of great sweetness, as in the Adagio where a mystical quality was attained. The whole concerto emanated enjoyment of and commitment to the music, from both soloist and orchestra. Similar enjoyment was in evidence in the 'Benedicite' by Vaughan Williams.
The soprano solo part was sung with great beauty by Veronique Diestchy who has a pure, clear voice which seemed especially suited to this music.
A.E.S. Croydon Advertiser
Chamber Group of Scotland/Stephenson Hall, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
The Chamber Group of Scotland
This was the Glasgow debut of the Chamber Group of Scotland, an innovative and flexible ensemble which brings together musicians on an ad hoc basis for chamber music of the most refined and distinguished kind. For an evening of piano trios, cellist Robert Irvine, one of the group's founders, was joined by violinist Simon Fischer and pianist Graeme McNaught.
From the outset, Beethoven's Trio in C minor Op 1 No. 3, the three players displayed a deeply sympathetic ensemble.
This was the sort of close-knit performance where there was quite as much listening going on as playing. The result: a seemless, integrated sound, and, more than the mere sensitive shaping of each phrase, the sense of a shared vision. For Beethoven, even for so early a work, this approach was perhaps a little too intimate. Though endlessly lyrical and superbly controlled, it lacked bite.
Edward McGuire's Elegy, recently written in memory of his father, is a heartfelt personal statement. Despite the occasional moments of Shostakovian bleakness it is a reflective, essentially joyous threnody rather than a keening, full of folk-like melody and sweetly subtle harmonies. Affirmation and strength, growing from a rich, beautifully turned cello line, gradually subsides to a quiet ebbing away to the plaintive strains of the Mingulay Boat Song.
Like the Beethoven, Mendelssoh's D Minor Trio Op. 49 was polished and thought through, reinforcing Graeme McNaught's enviable mastery of the keyboard.
To end, a moment of sober reflection, and the closing pages of William Sweeney's piece on Hugh MacDiarmid's 'A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle.'
Stephen Strugnell, The Scotsman
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, Aberystwyth
Having returned to Aberystwyth after a regrettable absence of several years, I am coming to terms with the changes that have taken place and relishing aspects of the town that are fortunately constant.
Take the raking of the Great Hall auditorium, for instance. At last the audience is afforded an excellent view of the stage. A pity this had to be gained by a certain loss of resonance. Swings and roundabouts, I suppose.
Fortunately, Philomusica is reassuringly still with us and, on Saturday evening, under the business-like baton of David Russell-Hulme, the orchestra demonstrated its continued high standards. The programme opened with a dignified and well-paced performance of Beethoven's Egmont Overture worthy of any professional orchestra apart from a little horn mis-pitching.
With Tchaikovsky's violin Concerto the players found a more exacting role as accompanists. The soloist, Simon Fischer, played with a full, singing tone and the rhythmic freedom the work demands. The orchestra on several occasions failed to match his rubato causing tensions and hesitations never intended by the composer. Without apportioning blame most of the problems can be attributed to lack of rehearsal and, therefore, economics. The soloist and woodwind were exquisite in the slow movement and the purely orchestral or solo sections were untroubled.
After two symphony concerts featuring over-familiar programmes it was refreshing to hear Harty's Irish Symphony. Not as great a work, or ever intended to be, as Beethoven's 5th or 7th it has, nevertheless, the charm of directness and unfamiliarity and is more a folksong suite set in symphonic mould. The first movement gave opportunities for the woodwind and brass to show their worth. The strings sang through the slow movement while the finale featured some highly proficient percussion. The horns opened and closed the world with confident fanfares, making amends for any slight lapses earlier in the programme.
Floriat Philomusica!
Peter Kingswood, Cumbrian News
Messiaen/Chamber Group of Scotland/Queen's Hall, Edinburgh
Advanced courses in not-so-easy listening
...The paragon Ensemble has imagination and skill in abundance and is a credit to Scotland but, on this occasion did not attract a large audience. The Chamber Group of Scotland, performing the following evening, did - though I suspect some members of it were being politically correct rather than enthusiastic supporters. I found it interesting, at an event organised by the Edinburgh Contemporary Arts Trust, that by far the warmest applause of the evening went to music written not yesterday but in the 1940s.
This concert could have carried the label 'for more advanced listeners.' In fact, some of the music played, to honour the 70th year of the Greek composer Xenakis, was pretty tough going. Two works by Xenakis himself flanked the programme - 'Phlegra' and 'Epicycles'. They contained some genuinely exciting sounds, though I felt both fell away after bold and arresting beginnings.
They were, however, cogent and tightly-argued compared with Peter Nelson's new piece 'Ichthys' and 'Hop' by the Frenchman Pascal Dusapin. The Nelson used electronic noises - as usual over-amplified - but its musical vocabulary was of the 1960s and it outstayed its welcome fairly early on. The Dusapin was, if anything, less inspired.
It was left to the music of Messiaen to give the programme real substance. In a movement from his masterly 'Quartet for the End of Time' the violinist Simon Fischer and the pianist Graeme McNaught gave us a promise of Heaven, their ethereal sounds coming as balm to the ears. MacNaught went on to play three of the 'Vingt Regards sur L'Enfant Jesus' with great sensitivity, obvious affection and a prodigious technique.
I could be quite wrong. But I had a clear impression that many in the audience shared my feeling that it would have been very satisfying to listen to the whole of both these works by Messiaen and leave the rest for another day.
Neville Garden, Scotland on Sunday
Vivaldi Four Seasons/Ulster Orchestra/Ulster Hall
Proms get off to a cracking start
This year's Ulster Orchestra Proms '95 opened with a concert devoted to Baroque music. Only two composers were represented - Handel and Vivaldi. Simon Fischer stepped in as conductor/soloist at the last minute in place of Christopher Warren-Green.
Fischer fairly whizzed his colleagues through the Handel items, which included The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, The Water Music Suite No. 3 and The Music from the Royal Fireworks.
The strings enjoyed their prominence and were ably supported by much fine wind playing. The Fireworks music is a punishing score for the trumpets who came away from this with great credit.
Mr Fischer elected to sit in the leader's chair throughout the first half. In fact he was most unobtrusive and the orchestra went about its business with the minimum of fuss.
Any lapses in ensemble, and there were a few, were more than outweighed by the visual sense of togetherness that was created by the director's avoidance of the limelight.
After the interval, for a performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Fischer took centre stage. And what a fine player he is. Playing now with a group of only 19 strings and continuo, Fischer filled the Ulster Hall with a glorious sound.
Given the last minute change, this was a quite remarkably fine performance.
As well as moments of serenely beautiful poetry in the slow movements, there were also passages of electrifying excitement in the allegro movements.
The orchestral players were lifted to produce some of the most stylish sounds heard this season.
But this was all rather rarefied for a promenade concert. The programme had more of the feel of an early music event.
Those who perhaps came expecting the musical equivalent of a good feed of cod and chips ended up picking their way through an exquisite portion of smoked salmon.
Joe McKee, Irish News
Director/European Community Chamber Orchestra/St Mary's Church, Haddington
It is always a pleasure to be in the presence of young players overflowing with talent and enthusiasm. When those players are drawn from the different nations of Europe and present a programme allowing the ensemble to shine, it is a positive treat.
The European Community Chamber Orchestra has a reputation as a European musical ambassador, and on Monday's showing it is easy to see why. A stunning performance of Holst's St Paul's Suite kicked off with its jaunty opening Jig, all 15 string players presenting a beautifully controlled and lyrical account. This piece is firmly in the English string tradition of Vaughan Williams, yet its middle Intermezzo is reminiscent of Dvorak.
It was with Dvorak that the second half opened - three pieces form Cypresses, an early son cycle later arranged for string orchestra. The suite allowed the orchestra to display its perfectlyshaped string tone and easy lyricism in a moving, poignant performance.
Ealier Giullo Giannelli Viscardi was the exemplary soloist in Mozart's Flute Concerto K313. His trills, swoops and fluttering rode effortlessly on the model orchestral accompaniment, directed by violinist Simon Fischer.
Haydn's Symphony No. 57, making much of contrasting silences, pianissimo passages and outbursts of frenzied energy, was followed by a well-earned encore, a movement form Mozart's Cassation in B flat.
Andrew Clark, The Scotsman
The 'Seasons' can still bring in the audiences
Spring, as far as I can recall, has come to Tayside four times this year already and summer, winter and autumn have visited us three times!
Regular concert-goers will already have guessed that the extra seasons are musical ones, those of Vivaldi, whose group of concertos known as the 'Four Seasons' is top of the baroque pops, to the virtual exclusion of other Vivaldi pieces.
However, as the Scottish Ensemble proved by the turnout at their concert in the Marryat Hall, Dundee, last night, even two of the 'Seasons' - spring and summer - can still bring in the audiences.
They made up the difference by letting us hear another Vivaldi work, the G minor concerto grosso from Op. 11.
The ensemble's crisp and alert account served the two 'Seasons' excellently, largely due to the incisive direction of their guest leader, the young violinist Simon Fischer.
This performance was everything that the lack-lustre one of the Four Seasons at the Perth Festival was not, with a splendid spring and buoyancy and not a trace of that over-sweetening which has tended to flaw some of the ensemble's past performances.
This was the most stylish baroque playing I have ever heard from them and it also did wonders in championing the cause of the lesser-known concerto, at least as worthwhile musically as any of the 'Season's and, because of the unfamiliarity, a good deal fresher to listen to.
For the rest of the programme we moved forward 150 years to Czechoslovakia in the 1870s and Dvorak's 'Serenade for Strings'. The folk idiom in the opening movement was well-projected, the long melody in the larghetto had a real lyrical flow, there was a fine lilt to the rhythm of the waltz and the finale was brilliant and passionate.
It was good, too, to hear Dvorak's little 'Nocturne in B', a charming piece affectionately played despite some rather scratchy violin tone.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable concert and, for those who missed it, a trip to Arbroath, where the ensemble are playing in the Webster Theatre tonight, or to Balbirnie House, Glenrothes, tomorrow, will bring unexpected rewards.
By our Music Critic, Dundee Courier & Advertiser
Saint-Saëns Violin Concerto No. 2 in C major/London Charity Concert Orchestra/
St. John's, Smith Square
With Suppe's Poet and Peasant Overture offering the sole concession to popularity at this gratifyingly well-attended concert, the LCCO (set up to promote concerts in aid of charities helping under-privileged children) clearly enjoys risk as much as it does enterprise. I cannot recall a London performance of Saint-Saëns' Second Violin Concerto before this one - indeed, I had previously not heard the piece - and Kalinnikov's First Symphony is hardly less of a rarity.
Like the second piano concertos of Chopin and Beethoven, Saint-Saëns' C major Violin Concerto is, in fact, his first. The influences of Mendelssohn, Brahms, Liszt and Italian opera loom fairly large, and the work is, in the main, as fastidiously put together as one would expect of this fastidious man (though one or two woodwind doublings sound immature and, though, scoreless, I'll eat my copy of Lovelock's Second Year Harmony if those are not consecutive 4ths on bassoons towards the end of the slow movement). And yet it must be said that the standard of invention is not the stuff of which memorable music is made (the work remained unpublished for over twenty years; why?) and that harmonically there is much that is primitive: the first movement - overlong and rather rambling, albeit in well-defined sonata form - opens with a tonic pedal so protracted as to make the heart sink.
Still, all credit to Simon Fischer (leader of the Chandos Players and currently a Guildhall professor) for allowing us to hear the work. Evidently he believes in it, and he brought the commitment to bear to clean, well-focused tone and an admirably supple bowing arm; his up-bow treatment of a pair of semiquaver figures in the finale was especially delightful.
Those factors alone helped to offset a certain lack of wit, urgency and violinistic guile which might have brought the concerto more readily to life. The accompaniment was, however, sluggish and in more than one instance would have benefited from some more critical rehearsal (a twice-occurring first movement string unison passage with chromatic inflection remains a persistent and unfortunate memory).
The Kalinnikov - another young man's work though, unlike Saint-Saëns' Concerto, fated by its composer's early death to be part of a slender output - fared considerably better. It is expertly and imaginatively constructed (the pre-recapitulation fugue in the first movement, though hardly a new idea, works charmingly), and the players responded with a will to its rather Dvorakian Scherzo, while the strings, though clearly not imported from the Philharmonia, shaped the slow movement 'cat's cradle' ostinato with sensitivity and commendable tonal restraint.
Andrew Keener, The Strad
Kalinnikov
An unusual evening of once popular works that have fallen by the wayside, presented with considerable spirit by the London Charity Concert Orchestra, a well-balanced and rehearsed amateur group.The overture to A Poet and Peasant, one of the best by the prolific Suppé, lacked the final coat of bright polish, but Ferencz-Diezku handled the all-important transitions in and out of waltztime and the whipping up of excitement towards the end in authentic manner.
Saint-Saëns' C major Violin Concerto is a most elegant and tasteful work, lacking the panache of the Rondo Capriccioso; this composer on his best behaviour is less than his true self. Simon Fischer played the solo part smoothly, sweetly, and making light of the technical difficulties.
Kalinnikov's First Symphony, still popular in Russia, was written in 1895. A few fierce syncopated passages clearly derived from Tchaikovsky, but the dominating influence is Borodin's. There are long flowing tunes of folk-like aspect, a whiff of the orient in the slow movement, picturesque and effective orchestration.
The main tunes are memorable, not because they are remarkable, but because we hear them over and over again. Technical limitations are obvious; but there is something very attractive about this leisurely work, unselfconscious, direct and fresh in outlook even when it is dealing in the well-worn formulae of Russian national music. Those interested should listen to tonight's broadcast, to be given by the BBCSO just after 7.
Hugo Cole, The Guardian
Mozart A major Concerto/Academy of London/Queen Elizabeth Hall
The Academy of London
There was a cheering, buoyant concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall last night. The Academy of London, under its musical director Richard Stamp, gave a programme of mainly light-hearted Mozart: three concertos, a divertimento and Symphony No. 33 in B flat, K319.
It was a long concert, too. But the ebullience which Mr Stamp coaxed from his players kept everything vibrantly alive, and left the impression that they had played not a note too many.
In the symphony, the firm opening chord and the following crisp staccatos underlined the qualities which this chamber orchestra had displayed throughout the evening. They are a well-disciplined ensemble, stylish and unobtrusively expressive. Phrasing was polished and naturally shaped; accents were neatly pointed; articulation was keenly co-ordinated.
For the most part these traits were matched by the three soloists in the concertos. Perhaps Simon Fischer could have sought out a wider range of tone colour in the Fifth Violin Concerto in A K219, although it was a lively reading, persuasive and elegantly moulded.
So too was the Horn Concerto No. 3 K447, played by Julian Baker; and the C major Oboe Concertto K314 drew dome delicately crafted playing from Sarah Francis. Crystalline scales, a full tone, eloquent phrasing - all contributed to a performance which, like the whole concert, created a sense of musical enjoyment and infectious fun.
Geoffrey Norris, Daily Telegraph
Recital with Peter Evans, Purcell Room
Fischer/Evans, Purcell Room
To approach Bach by way of Olivier Messiaen was an imaginative start to the violinist Simon Fischer's concert on Wednesday with Peter Evans at the piano. Messiaen's very early Theme and Variations has an almost baroque treatment of a theme so naked as to be in need of covering virtually for decency's sake, and the way this is achieved, with very nearly equal interest between violin and piano, was displayed with clear conviction and a touch of flamboyance.
It stimulated our awareness as well as enjoyment of Bach's D minor Partita for the violin alone, where the preliminary dances, including a thoughtful and notably tensile Sarabande, were but a preparation for the imposing and splendidly sustained Chaconne at the end. Trickier passages like the arpeggiated chords were deftly controlled, and, throughout its sonorous length, the careful placing of accents was a distinctive and indeed ennobling feature.
The secret of Mr Fischer's artistry, which is so much more than the assured technique in a youthful virtuoso, seemed to me to lie in his precise use of pressure on the bow, even to subtle variation this within an otherwise unbroken legato line. It was no less apparent in Faure's sometimes unexpectedly vehement Sonata No. 2, where the raised tone of voice adopted by the usually gentle composer did not hide the illusive qualities of a deeply serious work.
These are just as much in the piano part as with the violin, and in this respect Mr Evans was an expressive partner with a skilfully maintained balance between them. So also were the rhythmic character and colourful spirit of Falla's Spanish Popular Suite, transcribed from the better known 'Popular Songs' of that genre, in which the violinist successfully avoided merely trying to imitate vocal inflexions by successfully adapting them to his own technique.
Noël Goodwin, The Times
Recital with Peter Evans, Purcell Room
...More enjoyable as a whole was the young British violinist Simon Fischer's recital with Peter Evans (Purcell Room, 15th January). Fischer is a fine artist, possessed of good musical judgement, an impressive technique and an attractive, sensuous tone. He can be assertive enough when the occasion requires, but never makes his instrument the butt of vulgar passion or ruffian fury.
The programme he chose to showcase his gifts was varied and well-balanced. After a suitably heaven-gazing performance of Messiaen's Theme and Variation came a powerful rendition of the Bach D minor Partita. By turns robust and tender, intimate and grandly rhetorical, it concluded with an admirably purposeful Chaconne in which there was no single figure that did not sound expressive or exciting.
Faure's Second Sonata provided a rather lengthy romantic interlude, Falla's Suite Populaire Espagnole a bewitching finale. In the latter Fischer showed an excellent sense of style, playing the faster dance movements with controlled abandon, and finding in the more reflective ones a delicious perfumed wistfulness.
Peter Evans' contribution to the proceedings was exemplary throughout.
The Strad
Recital with Gordon Back, Lauderdale House
It wasn't just St Valentine's Day that put a touch of romance in the air at Lauderdale House last Thursday.
Violinist Simon Fischer plays with a big, rich sound, and it was clear from the opening bars of his recital at the Mansion in Highgate Hill that the romantic works were going to be the ones to benefit most from his style.
Handel's Sonata No. 4 had a nice, solid Italianate sense of phrasing, but the lack of dynamic contrast, particularly in Lauderdale House's close acoustic, gave the work an unvarying and anachronistic intensity.
And in Mozart's K304 Sonata it was Gordon Back's close and alert partnership that teased out more of the delicate nuances than Fischer's playing, technically accomplished as it was apart from some unsteadiness of vibrato.
But in Schubert's Opus 137 No. 2 Sonatina, Fischer found his metier; a spacious, carefully controlled exploration of the first three movements exploded in an assured display of virtuosity in the closing allegro.
Bloch's Nigun was full of rich tone colours and dramatic flourish, but could serve only as a prelude to the vast expanses of Brahms' Opus 108 Sonata. Expressiveness was at last fully released in a taut and thoughtful performance.
The light and shade of the adagio was carefully etched and the opening motif of the third movement, so often dashed off as mere staccato punctuation, was given a sense of fluttering anxiety.
The finale vented that sense of pent-up energy, the technical assurance of Fischer and Back generating a powerful and polished excitement.
Not surprising then that the duo chose for their well-deserved encore the Salut d'Amour, played with relish.
Mr Fischer, who lives in Highgate, will be giving his pupils from Wells Cathedral School a chance to air their prowess in a concert at Lauderdale House on March at 5pm. I hope that he will soon be given a chance to exercise his skills on one of the big violin concertos.
Phillip Sommerich, Ham and High
Recital with Raymond Fischer, Wigmore Hall
Only the most ambitious violinist could attempt all three of Brahms's Sonatas in the one recital, and only an unusually gifted one could play them as well as did Simon Fischer in his Wigmore Hall début.
With his father Raymond Fischer providing considerably more than mere support at the piano, he projected the intensity and the light and shade in each of these massive pieces with an appositely warm sound and confident, large bow strokes.
At the same time both players saw to it that the emotional and the cerebral were held in ideal balance, while the familial relationship also doubtless helped the sense of mutual purpose that each performance contained.
Stephen Pettitt, The Times
Recital with Gordon Back, Purcell Room
With a sense of style to underpin an easy command of his instrument, the English violinist Simon Fischer respected the gravity of Tartini's 'Didone abbandonata' Sonata before travelling chronologically, with ripening tone and strengthening drive, through Beethoven's G major Sonata Op. 30 No. 3 and Brahms's Sonatensatz to Franck's Sonata in A.
Here, with generous keyboard support from Gordon Back, the flood-gates opened: every phrase glowed. Finally Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen, bringing a hapy reconciliation of temperament and good taste.
Joan Chissell, The Times
Director-Soloist/European Community Chamber Orchestra/Cork Opera House/
ECCO sparkles in Haydn symphony
The European Community Chamber Orchestra under guest Director Simon Fischer gave a concert in the Opera House that included Mozart, Bach, Dvorak and Haydn. Dublin violinist Brona Fitzgerald, a regular member of the orchestra, joined Simon Fischer for an excellent performance of Bach's well-known concerto for two violins in D minor.
The Chamber Orchestra, mainly of strings but augmented by horns, oboe and clarinet for Mozart and Haydn, produced a precisely tuned attractive sound that would have been heard to even better advantage in a hall with a brighter acoustic.
The seven pieces in the Mozart Cassations included two minuets, the second an energetic, driving dance where one could imagine the stately guests deserting their 18th century formal grace to batter out a few more complicated steps.
The Minuet in the Haydn symphony, No. 57 in D Major, was an altogether different matter - swinging, attractive music sustained on strings, with brass and woodwind punctuations to lift the dancers from the floor.
For me, this symphony was the high point of a marvellous orchestral evening. Hayden's music here sounded as if it could have been written in this century or the last.
It's attractive freshness owed much to playing of the very highest standard by the European Community Chamber Orchestra.
Tomas O Canainn, Cork Examiner
Recital with Hilary Coates, Holbourne Museum, Bath
This recital of sonatas for violin and piano was a resounding success even before it began, for a large audience packed the museum's picture gallery and extra chairs had to be brought in.
The programme ranged over several centuries, from Handel to Debussy, and ended passionately with a full blooded performance of Brahms' romantic Violin Sonata in D minor Op. 108.
I enjoyed the opening work, a grave yet at times lively Handel sonata (Op 1 No. 13 in D), originally published in 1732. The playing of violinist Simon Fischer recalled a long vanished age of music-making and seemed entirely appropriate.
Bath-born pianist Hilary Coates came into her own in Beethoven's flowing 'Spring' sonata. But the real fireworks came after the interval in Debussy's Sonata in G minor and in the Brahms work.
Both musicians rose magnificently to the challenge. An encore was demanded, and the audience went away fully satisfied.
Clive Ponsford, Bath Evening Chronicle
Chamber music concert/St Endellion Festival
Crisp tempo did not flag although audience wilted
The audience sweltered but the performers never flagged in the heat wave with the crisply-set tempos from conductor Richard Hickox for the orchestral content of last night's programme.
For wonderful contrast in late evening there was a magical performance of a Brahms piano quartet from pianist William Lloyd and his colleagues.
Last night's programme comprised orchestral and chamber music with Simon Fischer and Julian Leaper violins in the evening's concerto, the Bach D Minor Concerto for two violins.
As a foretaste of next year's Mozart's bi-centennial celebration and a likely concert version of the Magic Flute at St Endellion, Mr Hickox and the orchestra performed a splendidly dramatic and taut account of the overture and some of the ballet music from Idomeneo. This is a work which has a Cornish connection in that it was first revived as an opera by the famed Radford Sisters and the Falmouth Opera players. The orchestra played with great alertness and with regard to a style of playing which almost has the ring of a Handel Italian opera.
The Brahms piano Quartet in G minor (Opus 25) provided a perfect change of mood for the time of night with a wonderfully expressive performance form pianist Mr Lloyd and string players Simon Fischer, Garfield Jackson (viola) and Timothy Gill (cello).
Robert Earl, North and East Cornwall News
Orchestral concert, Truro Cathedral
Mass masters
This year's St Endellion Festival has been noticeable for the sheer beauty of its orchestral sound, and this was highlighted on its visit to Truro Cathedral last night to perform Brahms, Richard Strauss and Walton.
The focus on this facet came early when the New Zealand soprano Catherine Pierard sang a group of Richard Strauss songs with orchestra. The soprano was ideally partnered and had another fine voice of individuality in violinist Simon Fischer whose solo in Morgen was outstanding.Conductor Richard Hickox took a slow tempo for this song, slower than normal, but it brought out the sheer beauty of the performance by singer and violinist.
Miss Pierard was a compelling Strauss interpreter with warmth and passion, and the ability to travel in the forefront in the orchestral surges. This was a delicious forerunner to the powerful performance of Brahms German Requiem in which the soloists were Miss Pierard and baritone James Ashworth.
Mr Hickox had a mature mellow approach to the work and a chorus strong in all sections to express its depth of feeling. The orchestral sound especially from the woodwinds reacted with the development of the music's effective chemistry.
Miss Pierard and Mr Ashworth projected well while the chorus featured some excellent singing from the male sections with tenor which could not only be heard but also had a distinctive and attractive timbre for this work.
The sheer contrast of the evening for the large audience was Walton's anthem The Twelve - a work seldom heard but which is a setting for the feast of any apostle. The work is typically Walton with a colourful orchestral accompaniment exciting it its writing for brass and percussion.
But it also had many challenges for the chorus in describing the course of the text and there was subtlety as well as excitement in the work. The soloists were Miss Pierard, Frances Cooke, Tony Alderton, Paul Sutton and James Ashworth.
Robert Earl, North and East Cornwall News
Glorious sound fills cathedral
The annual concert in Truro Cathedral by the St. Endellion Festival performers opened with Walton's The Twelve, a setting of words by W.H. Auden for baritone, two sopranos and choir.
Written originally with organ accompaniment, the composer's latter version well illustrates his feeling for orchestral colour to match the text, as for example int he middle reflective section with soprano soloists and in the exciting finale: 'Let us praise them all with a merry noise'. In the unaccompanied parts at the end of the first section and the 'still starry heavens' in the third, the delicately controlled singing was splendid. As always, however, in the cathedral there was an occasional imbalance between the choir and the orchestra when they filled the building with glorious sound. One would have to listen to Hickox's recent Chandos CD recording for a perfect version.
The audience who filled most of the central nave on Monday were probably attracted by the main work, Brahms's German Requiem. But the most moving experience for many was the performance of five of Richard Strauss's Songs sung superbly by Catherine Pierard. Like the Walton, these began with simple keyboard accompaniment, but were later orchestrated. In the five performed last Monday was 'Morgen' scored for horns, harp, strings and with violin solo most beautifully and sensitively played by Simon Fischer, and the romantic 'Befriet'. I doubt if there were many dry eyes at the end of it!
After the interval in which to recover, we heard Brahms's principal choral work. Unlike other requiems, the composer's principal aim seems to be the offering of consolation to the bereaved: indeed the opening chorus begins with the Beatitude: 'Blest are they who weep for they shall be comforted.' Here, as elsewhere what impressed was the magnificently controlled singing, especially in the quiet unaccompanied sections, and the responsive orchestral playing under Richard Hickox.
Added to this were the baritone solos of James Ashworth and soprano solo of Catherine Pierard each of whom gave a very satisfying performance. For a cleaner acoustic, however, one should hear the performers in their summer base at St. Endellion, though it's no good going 'on spec' - tonight's final concert was sold out some time ago.
EWS, West Buton Gazette
Lark Ascending/Wooburn Festival Orchestra/Wycombe Parish Church
Finale to three fine weeks
As someone said after the last concert of the Wooburn Festival: 'That's wrapped up another one satisfactorily.'
That was the understatement of the year as a description of this terrific evening of British music. Well, British in origin perhaps, but the first half had a slightly ethnic ring about it as it opened with Gustav Holst's Beni mora oriental suite based on an Algerian five-note flute figure from Algeria - much as I like Holst's music I am glad he shortened it a bit!
With this the Festival Orchestra under Stephen Jackson surpassed itself in the wonderful chunky chords and the sense of rhythm that informed the dance movements.
Delius' Hassan is seldom performed in full. The incidental music (with the well-known Serenade) has never been engraved, the orchestra playing from the same 'dots' as those used in the premiere in 1923. What a lovely work - and the Wooburn Singers and their two soloists, Lawrence Whitehead and Stephen Douse, made much of it, especially in the early wordless chorus.
Vaughan Williams' 'Lark Ascending' brought us back to the West, and the orchestra's leader Simon Fischer soared away into the stratosphere in the solo part. You could hear that bird in the sky - which was always blue when this was written in 1914.
Holst's Hymn of Jesus is not all that well known, but the Singer again, supplemented by the Wycombe High School Chamber Choir of young girls, did full justice to it. The violent bursts of the 'Gloria' were tremendous, and as always this lovely building was acoustically perfect for these sudden changes of sound level.
Full marks to Stephen Jackson for his handling of a wonderful evening of music. He gets better as the years roll on! What impresses me always is his courtesy to his orchestra and soloists - worthy of copying by others.
To the organising committee of the Festival, I say 'Follow that!' Thanks for a splendid three weeks of entertainment.
Bucks Advertiser
English music proves a feast
A feast of English Music made up the entire programme of the final concert of this year's Wooburn Festival, and what a wonderful evening it turned out to be.
The first half had an Eastern flavour, consisting of Holst's Beni mara Oriental Suite for Orchestra, and Delius' Suite from the Incidental Music of Hassam. The players soon warmed into the Holst and brought out the Eastern impressions. Particularly evocative was the bassoon solo at the beginning of the Second Dance, but it was in the last movement, which was technically the most difficult, that the orchestra excelled.
It was intriguing to learn there were no engravings for the orchestral parts of the Delius Hassan music, so that the orchestra was playing from the parts used at the original performance in 1923.
The music was vital and rhythmic, very different in texture from the thickly orchestrated and slow-moving style normally associated with Delius. Here, the ingenious orchestration painted all sorts of exotic colours, and these were beautifully indulged, particularly by the wind players. It was a pity the orchestra overwhelmed the choir and made it impossible for the words to be heard.
Violin soloist Simon Fischer's performance of The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams was magical.
His powerful, clear tone, clean fast-finger trills, strong and accurate double-stopping, all demonstrated phenomenal technique, but most important, he used this to produce exquisite sensitivity of expression.
Holst's Hymn of Jesus was the last work to be performed and was a splendid finale. It was noticeable too, that the conductor had an excellent rapport with both choir and orchestra, bringing out the best in all performers.
As a postscript to the 1990 Wooburn Festival, it was a pleasure to have the opportunity to listen to some relatively obscure, but worthy masterpieces, which are seldom publicly performed.
Acknowledgement should therefore be given to the organisers who conceived the Festival, and also to the Delius Society which helped by finishing the parts for the performance of Hassan music.
Elaine Jordan, Bucks Free Press
Recital with Peter Evans, Wigmore Hall.
Simon Fischer is a fine musician who has made his mark as a skilful leader of orchestras, a chamber musician and a much sought-after teacher, not to mention his monthly column for this magazine. Judging by the age and enthusiasm of the audience, there seemed to be a fair number of his students, past and present, in the Wigmore Hall (19th July). His partner was the admirable Peter Evans. What was striking about Fischer's approach was his determination to stamp a different personality on each of the works in his programme. Thus, in Kreisler's Praeludium and Allegro, a pastiche on a Baroque style with which the composer was clearly none too familiar, Fischer treated it very much as a Viennese miniature, with a rich, vibrato-laden tone. Sometimes he seemed almost too liberal in his rhythmic approach, but details emerged strongly through the clarity of his technique.
For the Elgar Sonata beauty of sound was paramount, the traditional forms covered with a rhapsodic overlay and a pleasing sense of spontaneity. Evans proved to be an ideal partner, subtly reinforcing the violin lines, always in accord stylistically.
For Lutoslawski's Subito Fischer surmounted the savage technical demands so entirely that they never intruded. His was a reading of sensitive musicianship, and as such made the strongest possible case for this often-prickly composer.
Turning to French repertoire, the Fauré First Sonata in A major was superb, the Debussy even better. Here, Fischer seemed in his element and from the very opening notes it was clear that this was going to be special, as the players drew the audience into a moonlit, insubstantial world. The effect was magical and the audience was duly entranced.
Harriet Smith, The Strad
Mozart Violin Concerto No. 4 K218/Sevenoaks Philharmonic Society
Mozart lovers are not disappointed
Sevenoaks Philharmonic Society's recent concert at St Nicholas church was devoted exclusively to music by Mozart.
Lovers of his music will scarcely have been disappointed, and may well have been enlightened, since alongside such works as the 'Coronation' Mass and the motet 'Ave Verum', there were performances of rarely heard pieces: a setting of the te Deum in C, the Litaniae Lauretanae and a motet 'Sancta Maria' (both works addressed to the Virgin Mary).
Perhaps the most interesting and tantalising was the Kyrie in E flat major, the only remaining fragment of a grand mass which Mozart contemplated writing in 1778.
The choir were in good voice, their tone well-blended and with the sopranos producing a clear, bright sound, happily free from excessive vibrato. In what was a long programme there were a few moments when flagging energy resulted in contrapuntal lines losing their cutting edge, or the ensemble being less than precise, but the climaxes of all the jubilant music were well-sustained.
The quartet of soloists (Alison Charlton-West, soprano, Melanie Marshall, mezzo soprano, David Lowe, tenor, Marin Harris, bass-baritone) sang stylishly, but were disadvantageously placed in relation to the orchestra. Had the soloists been in front of the orchestra the balance would have been considerably improved.
In addition to such a feast of choral music, the programme also included a performance of the violin Concerto in D, K218. Here the soloist was Simon Fischer, the son of the Philharmonic Society's conductor, Raymond Fischer.
Under the conductor's sensitive direction Mr Fischer revealed himself as a player of some distinction: secure in technique (not least in his bowing arm) he played with excellent intonation and a warm, resonant tone which filled the church. His playing in the cadenza to the concerto's first movement was especially fine.
P.Y. Sevenoaks Chronicle
Finzi Clarinet Concerto/Emma Johnson/Sir Charles Groves/Royal Philhamonic Orchestra
... Emma Johnson was eager to point out that while the concerto has its inward and reflective side, it also offers scope in a purely virtuosic sense as well. 'Yes, there are some tricky moments, but the greatest problem is getting the balance just right, without being swamped by the orchestra!'
The producer, Roy Emerson, had placed the soloist in the midst of the RPO strings rather than in front of the orchestra and conductor, as would be the normal configuration. 'I was a little anxious about the placing at first,' she commented, 'but I do think we achieve a far more sensitive rapport together like this.'
As we listened to several playbacks in the control room, this approach was certainly paying dividends in the slow movement, with its particular mood of hushed reminiscence. 'Sir Charles also likes to use the full string section, which really helps us to bring out the full range of colour and dynamic graduation, and of course, so much of the writing is richly divided, in all the part.'
In fact, Groves had worked very closely with the leader, Simon Fischer, and the other string principals of the RPO, so that every detail of the complex string accompaniment was finely balanced throughout, and such evident concern over fine detail was prevalent during the entire session. ...
Michael Jameson, The Gramophone
Bach E major Violin Concerto/East Surrey Choral Society/United Reformed Church, Purley
The concert given by the East Surrey Choral Society in aid of the Samaritans was held at Purley United Reformed Church on Saturday.
The choir, conducted by Michael Pilkington, were joined by soloists Veronique Dieschy (soprano), Jack Coldiron (tenor) and Omar Ebrakim (bass), and accompanied by a small string orchestra. The programme opened with the Schubert Mass in G, in which the music moved from a mellow 'Kyrie' through joy and exultation to a revered and hushed 'Agnus Dei', the soloists' voices blending beautifully in the 'Benedictus'.
Simon Fischer, a pupil of Yfrah Neaman, was the soloist in J.S. Bach's Violin Concerto No. 2 in E major. Mr Fischer gave a masterful performance, his tone strong and pure, yet capable of great sweetness, as in the Adagio where a mystical quality was attained. The whole concerto emanated enjoyment of and commitment to the music, from both soloist and orchestra. Similar enjoyment was in evidence in the 'Benedicite' by Vaughan Williams.
The soprano solo part was sung with great beauty by Veronique Diestchy who has a pure, clear voice which seemed especially suited to this music.
A.E.S. Croydon Advertiser
Chamber Group of Scotland/Stephenson Hall, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
The Chamber Group of Scotland
This was the Glasgow debut of the Chamber Group of Scotland, an innovative and flexible ensemble which brings together musicians on an ad hoc basis for chamber music of the most refined and distinguished kind. For an evening of piano trios, cellist Robert Irvine, one of the group's founders, was joined by violinist Simon Fischer and pianist Graeme McNaught.
From the outset, Beethoven's Trio in C minor Op 1 No. 3, the three players displayed a deeply sympathetic ensemble.
This was the sort of close-knit performance where there was quite as much listening going on as playing. The result: a seemless, integrated sound, and, more than the mere sensitive shaping of each phrase, the sense of a shared vision. For Beethoven, even for so early a work, this approach was perhaps a little too intimate. Though endlessly lyrical and superbly controlled, it lacked bite.
Edward McGuire's Elegy, recently written in memory of his father, is a heartfelt personal statement. Despite the occasional moments of Shostakovian bleakness it is a reflective, essentially joyous threnody rather than a keening, full of folk-like melody and sweetly subtle harmonies. Affirmation and strength, growing from a rich, beautifully turned cello line, gradually subsides to a quiet ebbing away to the plaintive strains of the Mingulay Boat Song.
Like the Beethoven, Mendelssoh's D Minor Trio Op. 49 was polished and thought through, reinforcing Graeme McNaught's enviable mastery of the keyboard.
To end, a moment of sober reflection, and the closing pages of William Sweeney's piece on Hugh MacDiarmid's 'A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle.'
Stephen Strugnell, The Scotsman
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, Aberystwyth
Having returned to Aberystwyth after a regrettable absence of several years, I am coming to terms with the changes that have taken place and relishing aspects of the town that are fortunately constant.
Take the raking of the Great Hall auditorium, for instance. At last the audience is afforded an excellent view of the stage. A pity this had to be gained by a certain loss of resonance. Swings and roundabouts, I suppose.
Fortunately, Philomusica is reassuringly still with us and, on Saturday evening, under the business-like baton of David Russell-Hulme, the orchestra demonstrated its continued high standards. The programme opened with a dignified and well-paced performance of Beethoven's Egmont Overture worthy of any professional orchestra apart from a little horn mis-pitching.
With Tchaikovsky's violin Concerto the players found a more exacting role as accompanists. The soloist, Simon Fischer, played with a full, singing tone and the rhythmic freedom the work demands. The orchestra on several occasions failed to match his rubato causing tensions and hesitations never intended by the composer. Without apportioning blame most of the problems can be attributed to lack of rehearsal and, therefore, economics. The soloist and woodwind were exquisite in the slow movement and the purely orchestral or solo sections were untroubled.
After two symphony concerts featuring over-familiar programmes it was refreshing to hear Harty's Irish Symphony. Not as great a work, or ever intended to be, as Beethoven's 5th or 7th it has, nevertheless, the charm of directness and unfamiliarity and is more a folksong suite set in symphonic mould. The first movement gave opportunities for the woodwind and brass to show their worth. The strings sang through the slow movement while the finale featured some highly proficient percussion. The horns opened and closed the world with confident fanfares, making amends for any slight lapses earlier in the programme.
Floriat Philomusica!
Peter Kingswood, Cumbrian News
Messiaen/Chamber Group of Scotland/Queen's Hall, Edinburgh
Advanced courses in not-so-easy listening
...The paragon Ensemble has imagination and skill in abundance and is a credit to Scotland but, on this occasion did not attract a large audience. The Chamber Group of Scotland, performing the following evening, did - though I suspect some members of it were being politically correct rather than enthusiastic supporters. I found it interesting, at an event organised by the Edinburgh Contemporary Arts Trust, that by far the warmest applause of the evening went to music written not yesterday but in the 1940s.
This concert could have carried the label 'for more advanced listeners.' In fact, some of the music played, to honour the 70th year of the Greek composer Xenakis, was pretty tough going. Two works by Xenakis himself flanked the programme - 'Phlegra' and 'Epicycles'. They contained some genuinely exciting sounds, though I felt both fell away after bold and arresting beginnings.
They were, however, cogent and tightly-argued compared with Peter Nelson's new piece 'Ichthys' and 'Hop' by the Frenchman Pascal Dusapin. The Nelson used electronic noises - as usual over-amplified - but its musical vocabulary was of the 1960s and it outstayed its welcome fairly early on. The Dusapin was, if anything, less inspired.
It was left to the music of Messiaen to give the programme real substance. In a movement from his masterly 'Quartet for the End of Time' the violinist Simon Fischer and the pianist Graeme McNaught gave us a promise of Heaven, their ethereal sounds coming as balm to the ears. MacNaught went on to play three of the 'Vingt Regards sur L'Enfant Jesus' with great sensitivity, obvious affection and a prodigious technique.
I could be quite wrong. But I had a clear impression that many in the audience shared my feeling that it would have been very satisfying to listen to the whole of both these works by Messiaen and leave the rest for another day.
Neville Garden, Scotland on Sunday
Vivaldi Four Seasons/Ulster Orchestra/Ulster Hall
Proms get off to a cracking start
This year's Ulster Orchestra Proms '95 opened with a concert devoted to Baroque music. Only two composers were represented - Handel and Vivaldi. Simon Fischer stepped in as conductor/soloist at the last minute in place of Christopher Warren-Green.
Fischer fairly whizzed his colleagues through the Handel items, which included The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, The Water Music Suite No. 3 and The Music from the Royal Fireworks.
The strings enjoyed their prominence and were ably supported by much fine wind playing. The Fireworks music is a punishing score for the trumpets who came away from this with great credit.
Mr Fischer elected to sit in the leader's chair throughout the first half. In fact he was most unobtrusive and the orchestra went about its business with the minimum of fuss.
Any lapses in ensemble, and there were a few, were more than outweighed by the visual sense of togetherness that was created by the director's avoidance of the limelight.
After the interval, for a performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Fischer took centre stage. And what a fine player he is. Playing now with a group of only 19 strings and continuo, Fischer filled the Ulster Hall with a glorious sound.
Given the last minute change, this was a quite remarkably fine performance.
As well as moments of serenely beautiful poetry in the slow movements, there were also passages of electrifying excitement in the allegro movements.
The orchestral players were lifted to produce some of the most stylish sounds heard this season.
But this was all rather rarefied for a promenade concert. The programme had more of the feel of an early music event.
Those who perhaps came expecting the musical equivalent of a good feed of cod and chips ended up picking their way through an exquisite portion of smoked salmon.
Joe McKee, Irish News
Director/European Community Chamber Orchestra/St Mary's Church, Haddington
It is always a pleasure to be in the presence of young players overflowing with talent and enthusiasm. When those players are drawn from the different nations of Europe and present a programme allowing the ensemble to shine, it is a positive treat.
The European Community Chamber Orchestra has a reputation as a European musical ambassador, and on Monday's showing it is easy to see why. A stunning performance of Holst's St Paul's Suite kicked off with its jaunty opening Jig, all 15 string players presenting a beautifully controlled and lyrical account. This piece is firmly in the English string tradition of Vaughan Williams, yet its middle Intermezzo is reminiscent of Dvorak.
It was with Dvorak that the second half opened - three pieces form Cypresses, an early son cycle later arranged for string orchestra. The suite allowed the orchestra to display its perfectlyshaped string tone and easy lyricism in a moving, poignant performance.
Ealier Giullo Giannelli Viscardi was the exemplary soloist in Mozart's Flute Concerto K313. His trills, swoops and fluttering rode effortlessly on the model orchestral accompaniment, directed by violinist Simon Fischer.
Haydn's Symphony No. 57, making much of contrasting silences, pianissimo passages and outbursts of frenzied energy, was followed by a well-earned encore, a movement form Mozart's Cassation in B flat.
Andrew Clark, The Scotsman