Press Reviews of the Brunel Sinfonia

The following review appeared in the Clifton Chronicle Saturday 25 March 2006, 7.30, Clifton Cathedral

By JAMIE CADDICK

Programme:
Mozart Overture to The Marriage of Figaro, K492
Deegan Beginning (first performance)
Debussy Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune
Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel)

EVERYTHING about the concert was theoretically perfect. The program was a delicious mix of old favourties (Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition), with the premiere of a new work by one of the orchestra members.

The venue was ideal - Clifton Cathedral, with its expansive, beautifully unique and unusual interior and top notch acoustics. All performed by an up-and-coming orchestra still in its infancy but blessed with a fine track record of previous concerts and a feather-in-the-cap sell out performance of Handel's Messiah in 2005.

And it did NOT disappoint.

Opening with the toe-tappingly hummable Mozart favourite, The Marriage of Figaro overture, the Brunel Sinfonia launched in to vigorous, spritely, and enthusiastically cheeky interpretation of the repertoire classic. It served as a fine curtain raiser and and a mouth-watering taster of the orchestra's undoubted talents.

Next up was the premier of a piece composed by one of the orchestra's bassists, Matt Deegan, entitled Beginning. Alternating between modernistic, romantic, lush, repetitive, dramatic, tender, thunderous and moving, the piece could probably be best described as an interesting orchestral experiment - different, fresh, original, and drawing on Deegan's experience as a jazz musician with its shifting, improvisational, schizophrenic nature. The trumpet player slipped on a few key solos, but nevertheless Deegan is clearly a man with talent who has to be admired for his 12 minute musical endeavour.

Debussy's Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune led us in to the interval - a flute-heavy, atmospheric, dreamy, ahead-of-its-time, ten minute tone poem that was lyrical, free flowing and magical.

In the finest tradition of audience-pleasing, show-stopping porgamming, however, the best was saved til last - Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

Inspired by an exhibition of paintings by Mussorgsky's friend, Viktor Hartmann in St Petersburg in 1874, comprised of ten movements linked by the main Promenade theme, this orchestral barnstormer of a piece musically tells each paintings' story, evoking a varied and flavoursome musico-representation of Russian life. Originally composed for solo piano, the piece was the version orchestrated by Ravel - the general favourite - and exercised the full skills and musical muscle-flexing of the Sinfonia players.

Bold, imaginative, thrilling, moving, wistful, declamatory, crammed with rich, exotic instrumentation, fiery rhythms, and frequent splashes of the spectacular, this was without doubt the orchestra playing at the tops of its game. The deafening, triumphant finale was met with the enthusiastic cheers, clapping and appreciation the players so deserved.

Conductor Tom Gauterin introduced a couple of pieces by way of providing musical and historical context, only let down in the second half by a techie problems with the microphone.

Brunel Sinfonia is an orchestra to look out for - only a few years old (founded in 2004), but possessed with the combined talent, skill, professionalism and edge to rank alongside some of the country's finest.

Their next concerts are on Saturday 10 June (Shostakovich, Beethoven, plus a newly commissioned Brunel 200 piece), and Saturday 11 November (Arnold, Shostakovich, Beethoven), both at 7.30 at Clifton Cathedral. Based on this performance, you'd be hatter-mad to miss them.