Sunday 28th November 2010
Review of this concert by Philip Worth:
The DSO’s second concert at the Dean’s Hall last year, graced by the presence of Cllr. Julie Laws, Mayor of Berkhamsted, was probably also its adieu to the venue, at least for the time being, as it will be back in the Centenary Hall for its next performance in March. The opening item – the overture to Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni – scintillates as does all the composer’s music, but is also cleverly crafted in the way it is linked to the main body of the opera. The dark opening bars are a foretaste of the melodrama and supernatural elements to come, but the music soon races along with all Mozart’s customary panache, promising comedy a-plenty. For no matter what deep interpretations commentators have put on the work since its first performance in Prague in 1787, so far as Mozart was concerned it was Opera Buffa – let’s leave the master with the last word on the subject!
Still with Mozart we were lucky enough to enjoy an accomplished performance of his Horn Concerto No. 3 in E flat by 26-year-old Tim Thorpe, yet another product of the Purcell school, that power house of gifted young musicians ( though it should be said that Tim has already put together a distinguished professional career since leaving the school). Historically, Tim is in the best of company; Mozart composed no fewer than four concertos for horn, and undoubtedly he was inspired by the brilliant playing of one Joseph Leutgeb who, when not performing, was making and selling cheese in Salzburg (and why not, indeed?) On the instrument in use at the time Leutgeb had no keys to guide his fingers so he had to rely on lip trills, hand stopping and rapid tonguing to produce different notes. (If he applied the same manual dexterity to his cheese making it must have been seriously tasty!) With his added advantage of keys we can be sure that Tim Thorpe’s performance would have impressed Mozart equally.
The giant Eroica Symphony of Beethoven was the DSO’s musical challenge after the interval, and with what brio they rose to it! This work is a showpiece for the composer’s virile genius at its most powerful, and inspired in the orchestra a vigour and zest in execution which did full justice to it – a fine swan song for the band’s visits to the Dean’s Hall.
The DSO’s second concert at the Dean’s Hall last year, graced by the presence of Cllr. Julie Laws, Mayor of Berkhamsted, was probably also its adieu to the venue, at least for the time being, as it will be back in the Centenary Hall for its next performance in March. The opening item – the overture to Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni – scintillates as does all the composer’s music, but is also cleverly crafted in the way it is linked to the main body of the opera. The dark opening bars are a foretaste of the melodrama and supernatural elements to come, but the music soon races along with all Mozart’s customary panache, promising comedy a-plenty. For no matter what deep interpretations commentators have put on the work since its first performance in Prague in 1787, so far as Mozart was concerned it was Opera Buffa – let’s leave the master with the last word on the subject!
Still with Mozart we were lucky enough to enjoy an accomplished performance of his Horn Concerto No. 3 in E flat by 26-year-old Tim Thorpe, yet another product of the Purcell school, that power house of gifted young musicians ( though it should be said that Tim has already put together a distinguished professional career since leaving the school). Historically, Tim is in the best of company; Mozart composed no fewer than four concertos for horn, and undoubtedly he was inspired by the brilliant playing of one Joseph Leutgeb who, when not performing, was making and selling cheese in Salzburg (and why not, indeed?) On the instrument in use at the time Leutgeb had no keys to guide his fingers so he had to rely on lip trills, hand stopping and rapid tonguing to produce different notes. (If he applied the same manual dexterity to his cheese making it must have been seriously tasty!) With his added advantage of keys we can be sure that Tim Thorpe’s performance would have impressed Mozart equally.
The giant Eroica Symphony of Beethoven was the DSO’s musical challenge after the interval, and with what brio they rose to it! This work is a showpiece for the composer’s virile genius at its most powerful, and inspired in the orchestra a vigour and zest in execution which did full justice to it – a fine swan song for the band’s visits to the Dean’s Hall.