Leamington Chamber Orchestra, Spring Concert

Let there be joy and beauty requested Conductor Richard Laing at Leamington Chamber Orchestra’s (LCO) Spring Concert.  There was an abundance of both in the most charming and endearing first half.  Amy Beach has become a very popular composer with both soloists and orchestras in recent years. Her Romance Op 23 for violin and piano dates from 1893; in 2020 Joakim Unander arranged the work for violin and small orchestra – an inspired choice for Zoë Beyers to prepare for her  performnce of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, Op 64.

Zoe Byers’ musical charisma, her understanding of pace, her bowing skills of flying staccato and spiccato plus the required richochet make the most knowledgeable of patron wonder at how she combines all these talents into one afternoon’s work in Leamington! Her delivery of Romance brought that joy we were promised at the start. How do you follow the Beach Romance? Execute the beauty of Mendelssohn’s ever-popular Violin Concerto with its pizzacato and rhythmic textures in a riveting high-octane performance, giving a deserving audience much pleasure. At times she wanted to be less extrovert, at times more enigmatic. At all times her playing was in sympathy with the excellent support she received from Lesley Mills, now comfortable as leader. Lesley led a confident entry at the end of Mendelssohn’s first movement cadenza which he wrote out in full rather than allow the soloist to improvise! Zoë is called upon to act as accompaniment to the orchestra for extended periods when the wind section enjoyed the limelight including confident oboe playing. Soon enough,  the frenetic coda completes the work! LCO are fortunate to have a strong network enabling the orchestra to attract such star soloists. She plays an Alessandro Mezzadri instrument dated 1709, which she hopes, eventually, to buy!

Sadly the joy and beauty enjoyed in the first half was absent in the second half with a disappointingly hurried delivery of Beethoven’s Symphony No 7 in A major Op 92.  With the exception of the wind section, there was little to deserve a mention.