Mote Hall, Maidstone, 22 March 2014
Bartosz Woroch flew in a few hours before the concert on Saturday, having played in public the two previous evenings in Poland. One would never have guessed this from the sensitivity and élan he brought to Beethoven’s violin concerto. The high lying passages had a particular sweetness of tone and the first movement cadenza’s warm double-stopping was captivating.
Brian Wright took a relaxed approach to the opening movement, with Bartosz Woroch seemingly more tense than the first violins, but as the musical line developed so he appeared to become more at ease and by the first long trill was working in harmony with the rest of the strings rather than at odds with them. It was a very convincing approach and led us into a heady reading of the slow movement. There were times when the circling upwards phrases were more like Vaughan Williams than Beethoven, and the hushed accompaniment mirrored this. The final movement danced with a lightness of touch in all areas.
After the interval we moved into the vast spaces of Sibelius’ 5th Symphony. There was a slight rawness to the wind in the opening sections and an edginess to the horns, both in keeping with the uncertainty of direction which is sensed in the strings as they plough ahead regardless. Then suddenly the sun comes out, radiant joy spread throughout the orchestra and, even when the clouds return, there is never a loss of that underlying sense of purpose. Brian Wright captured this dichotomy with ease and shaped the long paragraphs with skill. The end of the first movement was genuinely triumphant. The gentler second movement brought warm wind and concise string playing, before the final movement trembled into life. Horns and trumpets were both accurate and noble in the final sections, bringing the evening to a rounded and satisfying close.
The evening had opened with Schumann’s overture, Manfred. This may have suffered from lack of rehearsal or just a need for a longer warm up. At the start the wind was uncomfortable and the horns hesitant. String sound was unfocussed and lacked bite. Brian Wright managed to galvanise his forces as the work progressed and it was well paced with some fine hushed trumpet playing towards the end.
The next concert on Saturday 17 May brings us Ravel and Gershwin, with Tom Poster the piano soloist, and the exciting new season details are now available.