Review of Norfolk Symphony Orchestra’s Breaking Free concert: Orchestra gave a joyful performance with no complaints
Reviewer Andy Tyler shares his thoughts on the Norfolk Symphony Orchestra’s recent concert...
The Norfolk Symphony Orchestra’s new season got off to a rousing start, in its first concert, Breaking Free, with Dimitri Shostakovich’s buoyant and celebratory Festive Overture, which had its first performance in 1954, commissioned for the Bolshoi, and written for a concert celebrating the 37th anniversary of the October Revolution.
Recycled from a previous piano piece, the popular and memorable work was chosen as the signature musical theme for the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Perhaps the overture’s mainly high spirits reflect Shostakovich’s feelings of freedom, the death of the Russian dictator Joseph Stalin, having occurred in 1953.
Stalin strictly made known what was expected of contemporary Russian composers during his time in power. The orchestra gave a joyful performance of the lively piece, with appropriate fire!
It was refreshing to hear music by a contemporary composer after the overture, and Anna Clyne’s Cello Concerto Dance, with soloist Ariana Kashefi, fitted the bill to perfection.
The concerto takes its name from a five-line poem by the thirteenth-century poet Rumi, and each of the five movements is named after a line from the poem.
The work is multi-faceted incorporating different styles and moods cleverly intertwined. The deeply felt performance of the work by both orchestra and soloist showcased the piece superbly and I’m sure will encourage listeners to explore more of Anna’s work.
We at Lynn’s Alive Corn Exchange were lucky to have heard the work interpreted by such a distinguished cello soloist as Ariana Kashefi, she enjoys a full and active international career.
The concert concluded with another Shostakovich work his famous Fifth Symphony, first performed in 1937.
Written when the composer was under pressure to write music that was positive and could be easily appreciated by the Russian public, although positive in some ways, it nevertheless contains ambivalence below the surface, and the composer is trying to combine what the authorities required in his music with what he wanted. Not completely a reply to just criticism of his work up to then!
No complaints, with another excellent performance from all departments of the orchestra, conducted with vigour and subtlety by Steve Bingham.
The leader was Alice Ruffle. I look forward to Russian, French and American music at the next Norfolk Symphony Orchestra Concert on Sunday, January 19, next year.
