{"id":7131,"date":"2023-07-03T14:09:56","date_gmt":"2023-07-03T13:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=7131"},"modified":"2023-07-03T14:10:16","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T13:10:16","slug":"canterbury-orchestra-colyer-fergusson-hall-02-july-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=7131","title":{"rendered":"Canterbury Orchestra Colyer-Fergusson Hall 02 July 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Now that concerts all have to have a title, like novels, this one was called \u201cForgotten French Masterpieces\u201d which is an interesting idea for a theme especially as it included 19th century composer Louise Ferenc and we really ought to be hearing more \u2013 much more – of her.<\/p>\n

The title didn\u2019t, however, really apply to the opening work: Faure\u2019s Masques et Bergamasques which is actually pretty familiar. Good to hear it played with such commitment by this well established community orchestra, though. Once the orchestra had settled we got an elegantly courtly Menuet and some excellent flute work in the Romanze from Charlie Faux-Bowyer although some of the string work beneath her was fuzzy. There are some very strong, confident players in this orchestra, led by the ever charismatic Flo Peycelon.<\/p>\n

The five orchestral songs by Henri Duparc which occupied the \u201cconcerto slot\u201d were completely new to me and I have to say I found them a bit colourless. Soprano Penelope Martin-Smith did her best with them although she didn\u2019t evince much emotion. Moreover, although she lives in France where, according to the programme, she studies French language and culture there was no clarity in her delivery of the French text. Strange too, to use a music stand and have it set so low that you have to keep looking downward. It all felt a bit understated and more like a rehearsal than a performance.<\/p>\n

The highlight of the concert was Louise Ferenc\u2019s third symphony which came after the interval. The adagio \u2013 lots of colourful lyricism and warmth \u2013 was splendid as was the busy, nimbly delivered Scherzo. And the final Allegro gave us lots of melodies intertwined and incisively played. I know this symphony only from recordings and it was a real treat to hear it live and played with such panache.<\/p>\n

It was a while since I\u2019d been in the Colyer-Fergusson Hall which is part of the Gulbenkian Arts Centre at the University of Kent. It really does have a pleasing acoustic and the layout \u2013 audience on raked seating with the orchestra on the flat space at the bottom \u2013 works effectively because it means you can see every single player and that\u2019s rare in a concert hall.<\/p>\n

Susan Elkin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that concerts all have to have a title, like novels, this one was called \u201cForgotten French Masterpieces\u201d which is an interesting idea for a theme especially as it included 19th century composer Louise Ferenc and we really ought to … Continue reading →<\/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\/7131"}],"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=7131"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7136,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7131\/revisions\/7136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}