UK’s oldest non-professional orchestra welcomes Spring to Newbury

Spring Classics with Newbury Symphony Orchestra, at St Nicolas Church, on Saturday, March 16

Review by FIONA BENNETT

I DO love a spring concert and was delighted to be asked to review Newbury Symphony Orchestra’s Spring Classics concert.

In a well-balanced programme, Jonathan Williams (conductor) brought out the best in the UK’s oldest non-professional orchestra and it was lovely to see their many supportive fans taking their seats in St Nic’s (those in the know carrying cushions to make the pews a little more comfortable).

The evening started with my O-level set work, Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture (also known as Fingal’s Cave), and hearing those opening bars took me right back to sitting in the music department, poring over the score and making notes about the various themes and orchestration.

It’s a huge favourite with concert- goers and although the composer spent three years re-writing and revising the work, pronouncing the middle section ‘…very silly…the development tastes more of counterpoint than of whale oil, seagulls and salted cod…’, we all loved it.

There was some lovely clarinet playing during the recapitulation too.

Jonathan likes to push his musicians and as a stark contrast to the overture, the second work Appalachian Spring really showed off every section of the orchestra in turn.

Copland’s horn and brass writing is always great fun to play and the woodwind section also shone in this tricky, atmospheric ballet score.

Originally composed for just 13 musicians, to accompany Martha Graham’s ballet, Copland eventually orchestrated the work and it really was a great contract to the two outer classical/romantic pieces.

When I was just six years old, my dad Des played me his treasured vinyl recording of Beethoven’s sixth symphony. He told me to listen out for the thunder rolls and lightning strikes in the fourth movement and from then on, my lifelong love of classical music has never waned.

With some convincing thunder rolls from timpanist Neil Streeter, lush string sounds in the slow movement, lusty horn calls in the peasant dance of the third movement and the sheer excitement of the storm, we all lived the story of Beethoven’s trip to the countryside and as the storm faded into the distance, we all smiled to hear the well-known melody in the fifth and final movement. Once used to advertise Tweed perfume on TV in the 1970s, it really is lush.

Our lovely market town is blessed with so many enthusiastic musicians, both instrumentalists and choral singers and it’s a joy to know live music making is alive, well and in very capable hands.

Thank you NSO and thank you Jonathan.