When we re-entered the auditorium, the stage had metamorphosised from one containing a smallish wind ensemble into one housing a full string orchestra with timpani.
The first piece of the second half was Sally Beamish’s “The Day Dawn”, originally written solely on the white keys of a piano as an exercise for beginners but revised in 1999 for professional orchestras. For me, this was the highlight of the evening. A quite beautiful piece representing the calm start to the day of a Shetland woman’s daughter’s funeral and the gradual coming out of a week of gloom and doom following the girl’s death.
Sibelius’ “Rakastava” was next up, a three-movement piece concerning lost love, unusual in that the opening and closing movements were slow, sandwiching a fast 2nd movement – which, incidentally, provided the triangle player with his six notes of the evening!
And to close, back to Mozart as the conductor, Sir Richard Armstrong left the stage to listen. This piece is described as being for two small orchestras and timpani. The first small orchestra however, is actually a quartet comprising two violins, viola and double bass and they are accompanied, concerto style by the remainder of the orchestra.
Of all the pieces played tonight, this is the only one of which I have a recording and I am listening to it again as I type.
A superb evening’s entertainment then and all for a measly £5 (with free coffee thrown in!). Apparently, the orchestra performs a season of concerts like this each year from September to June (around four or five in the series) so I’ll be watching out for next years “gigs”.
Driving home we listened to Eno’s album in the car and, when we arrived, the fourth good thing was that there, behind the door, was the latest Madredeus CD, “Faluas do Tejo” which you may recall I bought on e-bay from an Argentinean dealer on the night of their concert at the Usher Hall a couple of weeks ago.
A quick initial listen reveals it to be as good as I expected. You can read my opinion of this Portuguese band back at 28 May.
After tonight, the hunt is on for recordings of the Beamish and Sibelius pieces….
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