{"id":1995,"date":"2010-11-05T23:07:21","date_gmt":"2010-11-05T22:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/?p=1995"},"modified":"2010-11-05T23:33:12","modified_gmt":"2010-11-05T22:33:12","slug":"concert-review-classical-source-on-new-queens-hall-orchestra-gala-with-kw-and-kw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2010\/11\/05\/concert-review-classical-source-on-new-queens-hall-orchestra-gala-with-kw-and-kw\/","title":{"rendered":"Concert Review- Classical Source on New Queen’s Hall Orchestra Gala with KW and K&W"},"content":{"rendered":"

Full Review at\u00a0“New Queen\u2019s Hall Orchestra Gala Concert<\/a>”<\/p>\n

“Reviewed by:\u00a0Douglas Cooksey<\/a><\/p>\n

Rossini
\nIl signor Bruschino \u2013 Overture
\nWalton
\nFacade: An Entertainment [selection]
\nAndrew Divine, adapted and arranged Roy Moore
\nFaith [first performance]
\nBeethoven
\nSymphony No.7 in A, Op.92<\/p>\n

\n

Kit & The Widow (reciters)<\/p>\n

\n

New Queen\u2019s Hall Orchestra
\nKenneth Woods<\/p>\n

\n

St John’s, Smith Square, London<\/p>\n

\n

Thursday, November 04, 2010<\/p>\n

\n

…when did we last hear a Rossini overture in a London concert, let alone Walton’s \u201cFa\u00e7ade\u201d, at one time his most popular work \u2013 \u201cFa\u00e7ade is my first name”, said Walton.<\/p>\n

The New Queen’s Hall Orchestra use instruments made around the 1900s \u2013 gut strings, narrow-bore brass and woodwind \u2013 and this altogether gentler soundworld pays particular dividends in music such as Rossini, with balances snapping into focus. With a modern orchestra the brass all-too-easily predominates and a fuller string section frequently muddies Rossini’s effervescent writing. Although premiered in 1813, \u201cIl signor Bruschino \u2013 a brief\u00a0buffo<\/em> affair – only reached the United States in 1932 as a curtain raiser to \u201cElektra\u201d of all things! Here, the excellent NQHO strings played with attack and clarity, and Christopher Hooker, the plangent first oboe (Rossini is a godsend to oboists), had a field day. The\u00a0col legno<\/em> desk-tapping \u2013 originally the violinists marked the bars by tapping their lantern shades rather than their desks, surely slightly perilous in the days before electricity \u2013 is a joke which like all good jokes wears slightly thin on repetition.<\/p>\n

Who better to present this confection than the comedy-duo, Kit & The Widow, heirs to Flanders & Swann and the first entertainers since Marlene Dietrich to be given their own show during the Edinburgh International Festival at the Lyceum. Balance has long been a problem with \u201cFa\u00e7ade\u201d and, here, despite amplification, one frequently had to struggle to hear the words. Originally the Sitwells used megaphones. However, as to the excellence of the individual contributions of the instrumental group, there was no doubt \u2013 superb clarinet solo from Nicholas Bucknall in \u2018Through gilded trellises\u2019 \u2013 or of the comic timing of the duo in the oleaginous \u2018Tango Pasodoble\u2019. “Just think of it as rap”, said one of the reciters at the outset….<\/p>\n

Beethoven Seventh is a test for\u00a0any<\/em> orchestra, one which the NQHO passed with flying colours. Kenneth Woods is building an impressive CV with some intriguing recordings to be made, not least the symphonies of Hans G\u00e1l. Speeds were consistently well-chosen, not too fast in the first movement’s 6\/8 Vivace (exposition repeat taken) to give a spring to the step, forward-moving in the Allegretto, well-integrated between the scherzo and trio and fully energised in the finale. Of particular interest were the natural balances between strings and woodwind, the latter not having to strain to be heard and the bass line frequently clarified by not having to struggle to be heard over the brass. Woods paid special care to dynamics, in the scherzo achieving a genuine diminuendo to\u00a0ppp<\/em> before the reprise of the Presto section and, at the other end of the spectrum, an impressive\u00a0fff<\/em> at the finale’s culmination. Fortunately this Gala concert \u2013 with the Duchess of Cornwall, the NQHO’s Patron, present \u2013 was recorded.”<\/p>\n