SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

THE CONCORDIA FOUNDATION - Bach to Bernstein – An Orchestral Concert celebrating 15 years of Building Bridges through Music and the Arts: Tanya Cooling, Norah King, Laura Mitchell, Joanna Weeks (sopranos), Lise Christiansen, Anna Huntley, Alexandra Cassidy, Laura Kelly (mezzo sopranos), Michael Bracegirdle, Christopher Turner, James Geer, Nicky Spence (tenors), Rodney Clarke, Dingle Yandell, Njabulo Madlala, James Cleverton (baritones and basses), Anna Cashell, Louisa–Rose Staples, Michal Cwizewicz, Otoha Tabata, Irmina Trynkos, Tatiana Gilfallan (violins), Katy Elman (percussion), Concordia International Ensemble (Gareth McLearnon (flute), Satoko Fukuda (violin), Phuong Nguyen (classical accordion), Ahmed Dickinson Cardenas (guitar)), Voces8, Charities Philharmonia, Michael Alexander Young and John Wilson, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London, 22.11.2010 (BBr)

Tim Brice: Vocal Fanfare (2010) (World Première – commissioned for the 15^th anniversary Gala Concert of the Concordia Foundation)
John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine (1986)
Bach: Concerto in D minor, for two violins, BWV1043
Benjamin Britten: The Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra [Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell], op.34 (1945)

Ravel: Bolero (1928)
Astor Piazzolla: Ave Maria

Eduardo Martin: Hasta Alicia Baila

Ian Clarke: Zoom Tube

Astor Piazzolla: Libertango

Vaughan Williams: Serenade to Music (1938)
Bernstein: Make our Garden Grow (Candide) (1956)

The Concordia Foundation was set up by singer Gillian Humphreys with the aim of providing a platform for new, emerging, young artists to showcase their talents and further their careers in the musical world. Concordia provides young musicians with opportunities to be seen and heard on stage, mentoring and financial support. It also aims to open up classical music to young people by visiting schools around London and getting them involved in productions which are then performed at Wilton's Music Hall. This show was a gala concert to help, and celebrate, Concordia.

In a way, gala concerts don’t exist for critics; they are specific events for the purpose of introducing the public to the good works the organisation producing the concert have undertaken, or they take place to raise funds for the host organisation, and, as such, aren’t real concerts per se. Gillian Humphreys said, "I'm very excited about the gala. It will be simply wonderful to see so much talent on the stage.” Not to mention to hear such talent. And talent we certainly heard.

Tim Brice’s Vocal Fanfare, with timpani and percussion, was a damp squib of a piece, promising much and delivering nothing. I suppose that it was meant to be some kind of popular/classical fusion, but the timpani writing was banal and the simple setting of the text – Psalm 150 – embarrassing. It was quickly forgotten as John Adams’s splendid Short Ride in a Fast Machine took over and wove its magical spell, as it always does. This was a thrilling performance, and just what this kind of show needed for a starter.

Bach’s Double Violin Concerto was given by three sets of soloists. Anna Cashell and Louisa–Rose Staples gave the first movement, Michal Cwizewicz and Otoha Tabata the second and Irmina Trynkos and Tatiana Gilfallan the finale. All the performers showed a youthful vitality and displayed both a commitment to, and enjoyment in, the music. Staples, Tabata and Gilfallan are all very young members of the Yehudi Menuhin School.

The Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra was given with narration, but not the original Eric Crosier text, and the two narrators delivered a performance sometimes in language more suited to a children’s matinee performance of the piece than a Gala Concert. Young drew some fine playing from his orchestra and the final fugue was especially exciting. Bolero was nicely measured and built to a suitably cataclysmic conclusion.  The Concordia International Ensemble then gave four pieces, Eduardo Martin’s Hasta Alicia Baila was alovely dance piece and the two Piazzolla works scintillated.  Unfortunately, Ian Clarke’s Zoom Tube was a poor example of funky flute music, of the kind which David Heath does so much better.

John Wilson then took the baton and directed a fine performance of Vaughan Williams’s justly celebrated Serenade to Music with sixteen solo voices. I cannot help but wonder if, when this was premièred, it was thought to be a piece d’occasion which would never be heard again. It cannot be easy assembling sixteen voices for a performance but when the promoter does it makes a very good impression on the audience for it is true vocal chamber music, despite having a large orchestra in accompaniment. Tonight, the men were superior to the women, as they showed a better sense of line and knew how to control their use of vibrato. But I must mention the young woman who took the Isobel Baillie part, for she floated a most exquisite top A.

To end, almost everyone took to the stage and gave the finale from Bernstein’s Candide – a fitting end, with its talk of making the garden grow, a metaphor for the continuing work of the Concordia Foundation. The Charities Philharmonia, under its conductor Michael Alexander Young, was outstanding throughout.

Bob Briggs