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| Lichfield Cathedral |
Despite living in nearby Burton on Trent for many years, I don’t think I have ever visited Lichfield Cathedral until now. It is a magnificent imposing building, very gothic in style and so intricately decorated with carvings of saints and apostles as well as other adornments – the detail in the stonework is quite remarkable. It is a stunning and beautiful piece of architecture that also has the most amazing acoustics inside and was a highly suitable venue for the evening’s performance as it really enhanced the sound of the orchestra.
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| Darwin Ensemble Chamber Orchestra with Artistic Director Alex Laing |
The Orchestra started the evening by playing Mozart’s Overture to Cosi fan tutte; a piece I am familiar with having seen the opera performed previously by Opera North. Despite being a fan of Mozart’s music, this opera isn’t one of my favourites as the storyline seems overly melodramatic. The music nevertheless is quite spectacular and in this performance, DECO brought out all the characteristics of the piece; the oboe solo, the frenzy of the strings as they build to a crescendo and are joined by the entire orchestra in quite a triumphant flourish. The sound quality was superb no doubt enhanced by the acoustics of the building which made it all very enjoyable.
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| Classical Brit Award Winner Jack Liebeck |
The Orchestra were then joined by Classical Brit Award winner Jack Liebeck. I had seen Jack win his Classical Brit for Young British Classical Performer in 2010 at the Royal Albert Hall and had met him and his wife briefly afterwards. This was the first time that I had heard him perform live though and was eager to see just how good he was. He was accompanied by the orchestra in playing the sublime Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor. This is a well-known piece that always features high in the Classic Fm Hall of Fame and is considered to be an essential piece to master by all concert violinists. That’s not to say that piece is easy but it is a great opportunity to showcase the violinist’s technique and talent. The first movement opens with an almost immediate entry of the solo violin which is then repeated by the orchestra building up to some quite elaborate and intricate passages. At times Jack’s bow just seemed to fly across the strings in quite a frenzied manner and yet the sound produced seemed so effortless.
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| Jack Liebeck in rehearsal with DECO |
I often think that the sign of a great piece of music is when you get so totally absorbed by it that everything else around you is lost and you get transported into the piece itself. Sitting in the Cathedral listening to this was just like that for me, the music was so exquisite and so wonderfully performed that you were totally transfixed by it.
The second movement is linked by one note from the bassoon and is so serene it has a great calming effect and is sublimely beautiful and almost sorrowful in places but this only adds to the beauty of the piece. In 1906, the year before his death, celebrated violinist Joseph Joachim told the guests at his 75th birthday party:
“The Germans have four violin concertos. The greatest, most uncompromising is Beethoven's. The one by Brahms vies with it in seriousness. The richest, the most seductive, was written by Max Bruch. But the most inward, the heart's jewel, is Mendelssohn's.” Listening to this piece being performed on Saturday, it was easy to see why this was considered the heart’s jewel.
The third movement starts in a similar vein to that of the second but soon builds up to a lively and quite vibrant finale which seemed so fast in places that it looked like Jack was playing twice as many notes than everyone else. It was a spectacular piece which Jack and the orchestra brought to life and had the audience in rapturous applause at the end. Truly spectacular!
After such an energetic performance, it was time for a break but the second half of the concert proved to be just as enjoyable in that it was Beethoven’s Symphony No 7.Whether consciously done or not I don’t know, but it linked well to the previous piece by Mendelssohn given the association between the two composers. In 1821, Beethoven had heard Mendelssohn play and had made quite a prophetic entry in one of his conversation books “Mendelssohn - 12 years old- promises much."
Anyone who knows me will know how much I love Beethoven and having grown up listening to his music have always enjoyed his symphonies particularly the 5th and 7th.I can still picture the 33” LP we had of his 7th symphony and when being asked as a child what I liked about Beethoven said that it was because you could play it loud! Listening to this performance tonight, transported me back to my childhood and the stories I would imagine in my mind whilst setting it to this music. For me, the piece is so expressive and full of emotions and I think the orchestra did a brilliant job in portraying this in their performance. I could go on in much more detail about this, detailing each movement but I would probably go on for longer than the concert itself!! Suffice it to say, each of the four movements was performed superbly and was incredibly emotive and poignant. Again the acoustics played an important part in the overall sound of the piece, but the orchestra did an outstanding job in bringing the music to life.
The concert lasted almost two hours but seemed to fly by so quickly, which was obviously a sign that it had gone well. Having now discovered this incredibly talented set of musicians for myself, I can assure you it won’t be the last time of seeing them perform.
For more information on their upcoming concerts: www.darwinensemble.co.uk/deco
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