SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Dag Wirén, Peter Hope, Vaughan Williams, Peter Aviss and Dvořák: John Turner (recorders), Oare String Orchestra, Peter Aviss, The Alexander Centre, Faversham, 24.4.2010 (BBr)

 

Dag Wirén: Serenade for Strings, op.11 (1937)

Peter Hope: Geordie Tunes for Recorder and Strings (2010) (forst performance of the orchestral version)

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on Greensleeves (1929)

Peter Hope: Recorder Concerto (2003)

Peter Aviss: Fantasia Concertante (2007)

Dvořák: Serenade in E, op.22 (1875)

 

It is the Serenade for Strings which has kept the name of Dag Wirén alive before the British public. And it’s a lovely piece, but we really should give this composer more of our time for he is a major Symphonist who, at exactly the same time as Vagn Holmboe, and unbeknownst to each other, formulated a theory of Symphonic Metamorphoses. He also wrote Absent Friend, known in Swedish as Annorstädes vals (Elsewhere waltz), the 1965 Swedish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest – where it was placed 10^th, out of 18, with 6 points. The Serenade is a delightful piece in four movements, full of tunes and with a final march which apes the Nazi Goosestep. It received a brilliantly racey performance this evening, the famous March (familiar to all over a certain age as the signature to the BBC TV programme Monitor), being given a raucous performance. This set the tone for this show which was devoted entirely to melody.

But melody was only half the reason for this show, for it was as much a celebration of the marvellous art of Peter Hope, a composer we hear too little of these days. Geordie Tunes is a collection of five well known tunes arranged for recorder and keyboard, tonight receiving its première in a new version with string orchestra. Delightful and unpretentious, these miniatures are utterly charming, and make a fine entertainment, which pleased us all. His larger Concerto for recorders – written for every instrument from sopranino to bass – was written for the soloist’s 60^th birthday (what a fine present) exploits tunefulness and is full of the composer’s obvious sense of fun, especially in the rhumba inflected finale. This is a real winner of a piece and John Turner and the orchestra did Hope proud in a performance by turns tender – the slow movement using the bass recorder to great melodic effect – to rumbustious – the finale employs conga drums to highlight the festive nature of the music. Both works had small, but telling parts for harp which added a nice piquancy to the sound.

Peter Aviss’s Fantasia Concertante, also written for tonight’s soloist, started as if it were made of sterner stuff but as it progressed incorporated the dance and John Turner became a kind of impish Pied Piper. Short, and to the point, it proved an admirable foil to Hope’s works. Here are three pieces which enrich the still all too small repertoire for an instrument too often consigned to the baroque, and, less often these days, the schoolroom.

Vaughan Williams’s celebrated version of that most English of tunes, Greensleeves – how could Busoni have thought it was of Chinese origin? – was given in a version for strings and harp and not for one moment did I miss the flutes. The show ended with a performance of Dvořák’s Serenade which was memorable for the warmth and richness of string tone which Aviss elicited from his players. The waltz was especially good, given with a real swing, and the finale was all fire and action.

This was the second time I have had the pleasure of hearing this orchestra and praise must go to their imaginative programming and obvious passion for investigating interesting repertoire. If only more programme planners had the imagination shown in Faversham! It is worth the trip to Kent to hear them.

 

Bob Briggs