MiV Home
Phillip T Young Recital Hall
June 1, 2011
"English music? Did you say English music? Well, I've never heard of any!"
We must, of course, bear in mind that Frederick Delius had several axes to grind in this regard; moreover, we have it on the same authority (Eric Fenby) that Delius also described the finale of Beethoven's Fifth as "mere notespinning".
Fortunately Delius played no part in the selection of Wednesday's programme by the Galiano Ensemble and Music Director Yariv Aloni, which provided a wonderful close to the season.
Despite fielding a larger-than-usual number of non-regulars, including nine current and recent UVic students, standards of playing were as high as ever - testament to the depth and quality of string playing in this city.
The evening opened with two pieces from William Walton's incidental music to Henry V. The first is a passacaglia, a form which has fascinated English composers from Purcell to Britten (one thinks, particularly, of the finale of Vaughan Williams' Fifth and of the Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes). The opening statement of the ground bass was beautifully contoured and the sound of the full body of strings was lush and smooth.
Frank Bridge's reputation probably rides higher today than at any time since the 1920s. His Suite for String Orchestra is a delightful work and was given an ardently persuasive performance.
The opening prelude featured an impressive depth of sound and a genuinely rhapsodic feel. Kay Cochran made the most of her brief viola solo towards the end of the movement. The succeeding intermezzo bounced along like a brisk walk on a breezy spring day.
The slow movement, entitled "Nocturne" - to my ears, this was more a homage to Whistler than to Chopin - was entrancingly lovely, featured some eloquent solo playing from cellist Pamela Highbaugh Aloni and violist Kay Cochran, while the closing pages contained some delicious harmonics from the violas collectively. The exuberant finale, with several excellent changes of tempo, brought the first half of the evening to a close.
Of the performance of Elgar's moving Elegy, my notebook contains but a single word: "immaculate". I see no reason to add to that.
Delius died some three years before Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge was premiered, so we shall never know his opinion of this new generation of English composers.
Britten certainly laid down a gauntlet with this work, which contains some of the finest music for strings of the last century. Aloni and his performers rose to the considerable technical challenges of the music and turned in a performance that was quite dazzling.
A few individual moments must serve to represent the entire performance: the dramatic, fizzing opening with its growling doublebass (Mary Rannie on excellent form); the driving pizzicatos in the Aria Italiana under soaring violins - there were definite chuckles from the audience at the end of this variation; the spectral col legno playing in the waltz; and the brilliantly angular fugue, leading inevitably to a weighty final chord.
As both music and performance this was undoubtedly a tour-de-force.
A truly wonderful evening.
MiV Home