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YORKSHIRE POST
Friday 25 July 2008 Review: Academy of St Martin in the Fields **** By David Denton
I don't suppose we are ever likely to hear a more vivacious, affectionate or elegant account of Bizet's charming Symphony in C than this performance from the famed London chamber orchestra.
It marked the fortieth anniversary of the orchestra's first appearance with its founder conductor, Neville Marriner, in the Harrogate International Festival and was the perfect celebration of the festival's return to this gloriously restored venue.
Just to hear Christopher Cowie's long flowing seamless oboe solo in the second movement was alone worth twice the price of a ticket, the high quality of every department of the ensemble shown in Marriner's mercurial finale.
The concert had opened with an equally neat account of Haydn's Fire Symphony, propelled at nice brisk tempos, yet it smouldered rather than ever coming fully to light, a few blips in the horns too noticeable. The Dutch violinist, Simone Lamsma, was the soloist in the seldom played Rondo by Schubert, a score that seemingly was intended as part of a concerto that came too late in the composer's life for completion. It was played with a warm and unforced tone and intonation and made an ideal foil for Lamsma's effervescent account of Saint-Saens' Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, where she produced the full range of technical fireworks needed while keeping the work suitably light and frothy. Royal Hall, Harrogate |
