{"id":3857,"date":"2017-10-15T17:20:20","date_gmt":"2017-10-15T16:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=3857"},"modified":"2017-10-15T17:20:20","modified_gmt":"2017-10-15T16:20:20","slug":"maidstone-symphony-orchestra-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=3857","title":{"rendered":"Maidstone Symphony Orchestra"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Mote Hall, Maidstone, Saturday 14 October 2017<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The new season is built around a series of concerti all of which will be performed by young professionals, often at the start of what we hope will be long careers.<\/p>\n<p>For this first concert, Savitri Grier was the eloquent soloist for Mendelssohn\u2019s ever popular violin concerto, finding a gentle melancholy in the opening passages but a real sense of bite in the cadenza and unexpected sweetness in the unfolding melody of the slow movement. Brian Wright\u2019s approach to the work was more reflective than is often the case, with a greater sense of waltz rhythms in the slow movement and introspection in the first. Any shadows were however blown away with the sparkle of the fleet finale, hinting throughout at the other world of <em>A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Savitri-Grier.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3858\" src=\"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Savitri-Grier.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"275\" height=\"183\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The concerto was sandwiched between two Russian masterpieces, opening with Shostakovich\u2019s <em>Festive Overture<\/em>, a riot of colour and a tour de force for the brass. Written at great speed for the 37<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary of the Revolution, it is never quite clear how tongue in cheek it actually is \u2013 not that that affects our enjoyment.<\/p>\n<p>After the interval we were presented with Rachmaninov\u2019s Second Symphony. One of the problems with the popularity of the two central movements is that we rarely hear them in context, and the long unwinding of the first movement demands considerably more attention than either the <em>Allegro molto<\/em> or the <em>Adagio. <\/em>There is also the reality that the composer\u2019s style and orchestration has been regularly high-jacked by the film industry to the point where the original can sound derivative. Thankfully the orchestra\u2019s playing and the skilful direction from the podium kept us on our toes and alive to the every shifting patterns that Rachmaninov creates for us on what is a long and often complex journey, before the exhilaration of the finale.<\/p>\n<p>The next concert is on Saturday 2 December when Olivier Stankiewicz will perform Strauss\u2019 Oboe Concerto, together with works by Wagner and Vaughan Williams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mote Hall, Maidstone, Saturday 14 October 2017 The new season is built around a series of concerti all of which will be performed by young professionals, often at the start of what we hope will be long careers. For this &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=3857\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3859,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3857\/revisions\/3859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}