Saturday 20th October 2012 40th Anniversary Concert
The programme consisted of the same works which were performed at the very first concert on 8 November 1972.
Many former players joined us at this special Anniversary concert, with some joining us in the orchestra, including 3 former leaders, Clare March, Andrew Lyons and Myrna Fleet (now on percussion)
At the post concert party in the Nash Harris Building there was a chance to reminisce and to renew old friendships. Our Founder and Musical Director, Tom Loten, was presented with various gifts, including wine and wine glasses, a cariacature drawing, and restaurant and opera vouchers
Many former players joined us at this special Anniversary concert, with some joining us in the orchestra, including 3 former leaders, Clare March, Andrew Lyons and Myrna Fleet (now on percussion)
At the post concert party in the Nash Harris Building there was a chance to reminisce and to renew old friendships. Our Founder and Musical Director, Tom Loten, was presented with various gifts, including wine and wine glasses, a cariacature drawing, and restaurant and opera vouchers
Below is a review of the concert, written by Philip Worth -
For this fortieth anniversary concert of the DSO, director Tom Loten led his dedicated performers through a typically varied programme of music from the classical, romantic and modern repertoires. And what a feast the capacity audience enjoyed; the concert, in Berkhamsted’s Centenary Theatre, opened in suitably grand style with the overture to Wagner’s opera Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg. This music has many memorable attributes: a burst of sunshine after the dark shadows of Tannhauser; a celebration of the guild system as it applied to music, with rules and regulations ensuring the highest standards of composition and performance; a basis of historical fact rather than Nordic mythology; but above all, the proud entry of the Mastersingers of Nuremberg as a body to a triumphant march ablaze with orchestral colour.
By way of contrast Delius’ opera Koanga is a dark story ending with a serious body count. Even so the dance sequence La Calinda sounds, if not a lighter, then at least a more graceful and rather poignant note. Small wonder that it has become a popular concert piece in its own right; and it is worth noting the Negro influence on Delius at this early stage in his career, a legacy of his sojourn at an orange plantation in Florida (cf. Florida Suite and Appalachia). If his father thought that this experience would cause him to think favourably about the wool trade as his future he would be sadly (and happily for us!) mistaken.
Next, the combination of the DSO and the sparkling clarinet of Timothy Orpen was indeed a happy one, and just as Mozart would have wished. The great Austrian master always thought orchestrally, valuing each and every instrument as an indispensable contribution to an artistic whole, while giving due, but not excessive (cf. Liszt!) prominence to any solo instrument. In the Concerto in A major he succeeded in producing just that. A lush orchestral backdrop does not dominate but rather highlights the clarinet’s sweet tones, a balm to the jaded spirit. Timothy and the DSO created a wonderfully integrated reading of this great work.
The sonorous tone achieved by the orchestra informed its rendering of the ever popular Enigma Variations by Elgar, the piece which catapulted him to international fame. Like so many great works of art (in any medium) its origins were fortuitous. Elgar, depressed by his failure, at turned forty, to gain the celebrity as a composer he felt was his due, was strumming idly on his piano one evening, when his wife Alice caught a simple melodic line and suggested that this could be the subject of a set of variations, each one in the style of the personality of a friend (she followed this up by suggesting that he should enjoy a good cigar – what a treasure of a wife!) Fired up, the composer set to and produced a unique tapestry of sound, from the solemn opening chords to the plaintive farewell sung mournfully by the clarinet in the last movement but one (Romanza). The finale is vintage Elgar – bursting with imperial triumphalism!
A very happy party after the concert, where we enjoyed the company of many old friends, and a delightfully witty speech by the President, duly honoured Tom’s dedicated directorship of the DSO since its inception in 1972.
For this fortieth anniversary concert of the DSO, director Tom Loten led his dedicated performers through a typically varied programme of music from the classical, romantic and modern repertoires. And what a feast the capacity audience enjoyed; the concert, in Berkhamsted’s Centenary Theatre, opened in suitably grand style with the overture to Wagner’s opera Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg. This music has many memorable attributes: a burst of sunshine after the dark shadows of Tannhauser; a celebration of the guild system as it applied to music, with rules and regulations ensuring the highest standards of composition and performance; a basis of historical fact rather than Nordic mythology; but above all, the proud entry of the Mastersingers of Nuremberg as a body to a triumphant march ablaze with orchestral colour.
By way of contrast Delius’ opera Koanga is a dark story ending with a serious body count. Even so the dance sequence La Calinda sounds, if not a lighter, then at least a more graceful and rather poignant note. Small wonder that it has become a popular concert piece in its own right; and it is worth noting the Negro influence on Delius at this early stage in his career, a legacy of his sojourn at an orange plantation in Florida (cf. Florida Suite and Appalachia). If his father thought that this experience would cause him to think favourably about the wool trade as his future he would be sadly (and happily for us!) mistaken.
Next, the combination of the DSO and the sparkling clarinet of Timothy Orpen was indeed a happy one, and just as Mozart would have wished. The great Austrian master always thought orchestrally, valuing each and every instrument as an indispensable contribution to an artistic whole, while giving due, but not excessive (cf. Liszt!) prominence to any solo instrument. In the Concerto in A major he succeeded in producing just that. A lush orchestral backdrop does not dominate but rather highlights the clarinet’s sweet tones, a balm to the jaded spirit. Timothy and the DSO created a wonderfully integrated reading of this great work.
The sonorous tone achieved by the orchestra informed its rendering of the ever popular Enigma Variations by Elgar, the piece which catapulted him to international fame. Like so many great works of art (in any medium) its origins were fortuitous. Elgar, depressed by his failure, at turned forty, to gain the celebrity as a composer he felt was his due, was strumming idly on his piano one evening, when his wife Alice caught a simple melodic line and suggested that this could be the subject of a set of variations, each one in the style of the personality of a friend (she followed this up by suggesting that he should enjoy a good cigar – what a treasure of a wife!) Fired up, the composer set to and produced a unique tapestry of sound, from the solemn opening chords to the plaintive farewell sung mournfully by the clarinet in the last movement but one (Romanza). The finale is vintage Elgar – bursting with imperial triumphalism!
A very happy party after the concert, where we enjoyed the company of many old friends, and a delightfully witty speech by the President, duly honoured Tom’s dedicated directorship of the DSO since its inception in 1972.