Review of Norfolk Symphony Orchestra’s Symphonic Visions concert
Reviewer Andy Tyler shares his thoughts on the Norfolk Symphony Orchestra’s recent concert...
Drama, high spirits, childhood innocence, and the beauty of nature were all visions and emotions conjured up in the recent Norfolk Symphony Orchestra concert appropriately entitled Symphonic Visions at Lynn’s Alive Corn Exchange.
The finely contrasted programme consisted of Rossini’s Overture from The Thieving Magpie, Songs from the Auvergne by Canteloube, and Mahler’s 4th Symphony.
After a dramatic account of the Rossini Overture, in complete contrast stylistically, the British/ German soprano Lara Marie Muller gave a fine rendering of some songs from Joseph Canteloube’s Auvergne Song collection including the popular Bailero.
The tunes are traditional Melodies from rural France, and Canteloube eventually collected them in five volumes.
Both orchestra and soloist delighted the audience blending well together with their sensitive performances of these songs, all pastoral in nature.
The concert’s second half consisted of one work: Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No.4 in G Major.
A work of the late Romantic period, it is stylistically varied, reflecting the sound world the composer was surrounded by, with marches and menacing trumpet calls, but also sleigh bells and romantic strings.
There is tenderness and regret; he experienced tragedy and loss in his personal life as well as anti-Semitism, being Jewish. The symphony’s last movement is a setting of a text from The Youth’s Magic Horn, a collection of anonymous German folk poetry, portraying a child’s vision of heaven.
Once again, the soloist and orchestra gave their best in this final movement of the slightly smaller scale but masterful symphony of Mahler. The orchestra was led by Alice Ruffle and conducted in style, as usual, by Steve Bingham.
The orchestra’s main season sponsor is Adrian Flux. Music lovers can Dance to the Music of Time with the orchestra during its next concert on Sunday, May 12.
Andy Tyler
