EAST ANGLIA CHAMBER ORCHESTRA AT WEST ROAD
Conductor à l’extraordinaire Dominic Grier
Sarah Makinson- Solo flute player
Classical music is there to listen to. But it’s far more than that. It’s a visual activity not just a sound’ – we should celebrate the performance element of concerts - not simply the music they make.That is the view of critic and writer Richard Cook and I am inclined to agree. The East Anglia Chamber Orchestra at West Road tonight, showed how some musicians pulse out thrilling waves of energy, they work mysteriously close together linked by an unseen thread beyond the music. It is magical . ‘You have to be there’ as they say.
First there was the freshness of it all. Schubert often appears in song form. But a full-on orchestra like the EACO gave his Symphony in D Major a glorious treatment. From his vast output here is dramatic delight, full of melody and a drive and determination in the work, such a contrast from his meditative compositions.. The East Anglia Chamber Orchestra under the baton of their accomplished, elegant conductor set a summer night aflame with the precision – and confidence – of their skills.
Jamie Foreman the lead violin
“They are professionals” insisted a man behind me in the pause between movements. “Of course they aren’t” his companion contradicted. She was right of course. All the performers had day jobs. A fact made more unbelievable in the next piece Carl Nielsen Concerto for Flute and Orchestra – very weighted on the flutey side. Nielsen wrote it for a Paris production far from his native Denmark. He loved it from the outset, but he was aware of how hard he had made the flute part, as he wrote in his diary :
“The flute concerto is going very well and just today I have finished the first movement, but it is very difficult for the soloist.” A hundred and twenty-three years later last night Zara Makinson, award winning flautist, showed us just how demanding the music is. Zara is a doctor and had a six-month-old baby waiting in the wings for her, so how she had time to capture the virtuoso demands of this piece we could only guess at. But she did. The music surged and soared between different instruments, often as natural as blackbird song, at other points discordant and even jarring. This concerto is naturally plaintive and melodic in turns. And although the soloist starred, the orchestra – and conductor- supported it with original inventive sound. Quite an experience.
Malcolm Arnold came next. His Variations for Orchestra on a Theme by Ruth Gipps felt so contemporary – and has become somehow part of the 21st century playlist, it was featured at the Last Night of the Proms in 2021. I felt the timpani is this piece was superb, it amused and disturbed at once. Arnold’s compositions compel the listener and entertain at the same time. His ‘natural melodic gift’ made a film score favourite – he wrote a hundred apparently - including The Bridge On The River Kwai . It is sad his Ruth Gipps minimalist wakeup call of a composition isn’t heard more often. But I have a feeling it will be in time to come.
How the EACO had the strength on a hot night for a tour de force with Mozart’s Symphony no 38 in D major. is a marvel.. Juxtaposed to the other pieces it emerged as a familiar face - always nice – but one you have seen enough of. Brilliantly performed it still failed to dazzle like the other three pieces.
The EACO are next on display at the Saffron Hall. It really will be well worth the trip to hear– and importantly see and experinece- an orchestra of such style precision and energy.
