-
SEASON
ENDS
ON HIGH
NOTE
anything
IF I needed any justification ‘
for reviewing the recent
season by the Guildford
Philharmonic
Orchestra,
Rachmaninov concert a fortnight special solo charity concerts at
Felix Aprahamian, of the later did not quite come up to Clandon Park.
“Sunday Times,” has pro- high expectations — which only
A section of the Proteus Choir
goes to show you should never
vided it by calling Vernon anticipate . musical pleasure to will also be- heard this Saturday
at Sutton in anothef charity conHandley “the best E-;fhm'sh much,
cert.
:
con
Ta-
tion.”
.
5
What did- the London critics
miss by failing \to cover any of
the G.P.O. concerts? First, the
inspiration and integrity. Second
some
of
those
rare
musical
moments
survival.
we need for. 'spiritual
=My
particular
three
*So our thanks once "again to
was - splendid
Jeffrey
Siegel
enough technically, but the per- Tod Handley for another replenresplendent season.
For
fect performance of the Third ishing,
Piano Concerto by Rachmaninov 1974-75, may I have the temerity
to ask for a few of the following
is rare.
— Vaughan Williams, Shostakovich, Sibelius, Strauss, Bourgeois,
ORCHESTRA’S CHOICE
Bartok and Bax.
;
John Frayn Turner.
On December. 15th the G.P.O.
were ably conducted by a couple
of guests, Anthony
Ridley and
Barry
Wordsworth, in a Mozart/
programme,
Second Beethoven[ Haydn
favourites for the season were the
shattering - Symphony No. 8 "by
Shostakovich;
Elgar’s
Symphony;
and
perhaps
surprisingly, the Richard Strauss Ein
Heldenleben.
with
of concerts
Philharmonic Orchestra.
heard that-this orchestr:
\h'l“he Shostakovich showed that Handley
to
G.P.O.
the
can
tackle
anything
n
SO
conductor for.p:
— and with their “own brand of _ment
distinction. The Elgar symphony
actually overshadowed the rest of
its all-British concert, with the
have
efers
e
_enjoN=-
The New Year opened with
a
programme.
Sibelius/Beethoven
This
demonstrated
again
how
work sculpter inte its true monu- excitingly
unpredictable a
live .
mental emotional shape by Hand- performance can be. 1. -expected
ley. While the Richard Strauss the - Sibelius half to be better
caught many listeners unawares than the Beethoven.
i
by
the
intensity of his vocabu-
lary. The whole of this Delius/
Kalliwoda/Strauss programme
came off well though
it was not
onc of the best box-office draws.
After the Brahms First Symphony started the season with a
“suitable
bang, it soon became
In fact the G.P.O. played with
compulsive precision to produce
a memorable Beethoven Eighth.
Yet Handley loves Sibelius! The
G.P.O. was led on this occasion .
by John Georgiadis, lately leader
TeA~E
of the London Symphony Orches-
t
kd.i
The following fortnight, the
two works with the Elgar Second
leader the G.P.O. was likely to
Symphony were John McCabe’s
inscribe another glowing chapter
Symphony (Elegy) and Vaughan
to its story of nearly a dozen
Williams Serenade to Music. The
clear
that
with
Hugh
Bean. as
yvears under Handley. The Guildford “sound” struck Aldershot
early, with the combined acoustic
clarity - of the Prince’s Hall and
the ‘orchestra’s open tone. The
climax was the Tchaikovsky Symminor
in
phony No.
liltingly full-blooded without the
soul-searching. . melancholia
of
| parts of the later symphonies 4,
5 and 6. The G.P.O:. ‘achieved
an almost tangible tension in the
finale to this extrovert work.
McCabe work fell rather between
though perand
stools
two
suasively played sounded more
like a skilled musical exercise
than a profundly-felt creation.
of
I suppose the programme
the year could be called the one
with
Peter and the Wolf by
Prokofiev; Symphony of Psalms
by Stravinsky; and Symphony No.
8 by Shostakovich. The Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 in
B flat minor filled the Civic Hall
the Crossley Clitheroe confor
After a couple of concerts for
schools, the
G.P.O. went on to
l'a popular concert of seven pieces,
culminating in the livley Mas-
_An,»-e()o"a.;p:bgfil
revealed
Binns
Malcolm
cert.
measured authority, but one was .
left with an impression that like
have heard this
senet ballet music to Le Cid. It other people who
before, he too was
was Tchaikovsky again at the end work so often
for something new to
of October, when Handley illu- searching
say pianistically.. The contrasts
was were more marked than usual.
minated autumn with another of
highlights,
his
This
slight disappointment of
the
-was
season Wagner/Saint Saens/Rimsky Korsakov “afternoon, but:' the music
chosen “plums no great depths”
note said of
essence of the work has never as the progsgamme
works.
been better portrayed =— certainly one of the
Then the season came to a
not in my hearing.
spiritual close with “The® Dream
A personal tragedy prevented of Gerontius.” Beyond emotion
“Francesca da Rimini,” transmitted and almost transmuted with
all its overpowering passion, tempestuous fatalism and desperate
ferocity.- The brooding, blazing
My
the
‘I me from hearing the Enterprising and experience, this is ome of.
creations.
musical
'sublime
concert' of Tippett/Britten/Finzi the
Hhon N ovembet 10th. In retrospect, Handley handled it with reflecinexorability. The. Philharit seems especially strange that tive
| the last work in this memorable monic Choir were also moved by
|
Fal
i
programme was ‘“Intimations
Immortality” . . .
-of
the occasion.
The Proteus Choir meanwhile
sang in the Serenade to Music,
Perhaps the Rimsky Korsakov/ as well as giving one of their
e
e
i
mi
i
e
G
s
. i L U G
ki
i
b el S
AL