‘An enterprising concert
Guildford PO/Handley
Civic Hall, Guildford
William Mann
Do you ever scan the announcements of forthcoming concerts,
conclude that no programme’
gratifies your fancy, and resign
yourself to another evening with
the box?
-The desirable pro-
gramme may well' be taking
place, not in your own Metropolis, but somewhere not far
away. How many concert goers,
living in London, take note of
{ the music going on in Watford
and Guildford, now that the
BBC no longer trails live concerts outside the capital ?
Guildford
has its own Philharmonic Orchestra, a professional
body drawn mostly from London
players.
It gives two concerts
“ enterprising concert’, meaning that the music is not breadand-butter classical favourites;;
many of
this
season’s
programmes could be flown under
the same banner (what about
Strauss’s
Don
Quixote
and
Rachmaninov’s third symphony
on December 137?) .
The finest performance was
of 'the Delius, whose muted
ecstasy was
strongly
conveyed
by a secure, enthusiastic choir
and by Mr Handley’s passionately sympathetic conducting,
scrupulous about melodic line
and harmonic detail and firmlyfilled
musical structure, most
uplifting.
He was tough, and
again sympathetic, with
the
eccentric yet perfectly sensible
counterpoint of Hammersmith.
~In Elgar’s first symphony the
chosen tempi sometimes mis-
a month, on Saturdays or Sunfired,
the
Adagio
sounding
days in Guildford Civic Hall, a rather
fast and chilly, the
pleasant
auditorium, though Allegro of the finale too slow
rather raw and reverberant in
and heavy, requiring a grinding
noisy orchestral music.- Since
gear-change before long.
The
1962 the musical director has basic spirit of the symphony was
been Vernon Handley, a busy nevertheless projected aright,
conductor with a special flair from the initial motto-theme,
for British music of this cen- touchingly enunciated, to the
tury’s first half, though his
grand conclusion, though the
repertory is wide. On Saturday
Scherzo’s trio melody emulated
I drove a few miles on the A3
the Cheshire Cat.
It was a
to near him conduct the Guild- greatly enjoyable concert, which
| ford PO in Holst’s Hammeralso included Parry’s Songs of
smith, Elgar’s first symphon
Farewell, and assured me that
‘and, with Guildford Philhar- Guildford’s * enterprising conmonic Choir, Delius’s Songs of
certs ” are worth any enterprisFarewell. 1t was designated an ing concertgoer’s attention.