Leamington Chamber Orchestra, “Spring Concert”, Holy Trinity Church, Sunday 23 March 2025.
- clivepeacock0
- Mar 26
- 2 min read
With a little bit of help from BBC Radio 3’s Sunday morning “upcoming concert” announcements, Holy Trinity Church provided a good house for this Spring Concert, an audience which this intriguing programme of Carl Maria von Weber, Coleridge-Taylor and Brahms fully deserved. Gentle opening bars of von Weber’s Overture to Der Freischütz are quickly overtaken by prominent horns, determined cello playing and skilful clarinet playing by Dan Sanford-Casey, ensuring a lively start to the afternoon.
Droitwich-based Shulah Oliver-Smith, a regular with Bampton Classical Opera and Orchestra of the Swan was undoubtedly the star of the afternoon with her delivery of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Violin Concerto, Op. 80. What charm, what perfect execution of the very top notes – super D, the performance was immediate and engaging. The vivacious opening movement has the hint of numerous folk songs, all given plenty of pizzicato playing support from the cellos and violas including several glissando. Shulah’s controlled cadenza played over the sustained timpani role on D was a wonderful couple of minutes. Delightful wistful playing in the second movement was followed by a return of those folk songs in the third movement, given enterprising phrasing treatment by Shulah.
For Conductor, Richard Laing, Brahms is the “most human” of all composers. Brass and wind instrumentalists were first to respond to Laing’s enthusiasm for this composer and his Symphony No 4 in E minor, Op 98. Fine bassoon work and brass, too, built this first movement to an end with a remarkable flourish. Pizzicato strings playing and strong clarinet playing were notable in the slow movement, soon to be overtaken by timpani playing at pace with CBSO’s Alex Henshaw outstanding skill in the third movement.
Finally, the trombones saw the light of day, supported by trumpets and horns, to join the healthy bassoons and challenging flutes who relieve the tensions of troubled sections before a relentless building of mounting tragedy which ends with a searing minor chord as the timpani pounds out the Brahmsian fate-motif.
This wonderful Brahms performance brought another Leamington Chamber Orchestra success to a close.
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