21 Feb 2009

INNOVATIONS CHAMBER ENSEMBLE

CONCORD COLLEGE

The Innovations Chamber Ensemble (ICE) is a group of musicians drawn from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. They played a concert  at Concord College, a fine contribution to Shropshire Music Trust's impressive season.  With Marcus Barcham-Stevens and Judith Templeman, cellist Richard Jenkinson and bassist John Tattersdill. It was a glorious, spirited rendition of a work by 12 year old Rossini. As befits the music of a man destined to become an opera-writing genius, the music sang joyfully. For Schoenberg's "Transfigured Night" the bass player left the stage but viola players Mike Jenkinson and cellist Angela Swanson joined their colleagues. This is a beautiful, atmospheric work and, like every other in the concert, was played by the instrumentation for which it was written. Much of the piece is in minor keys serving to emphasize the uncertainty of the woman who is the subject of the poem which inspired the music. The attention to Schoenberg's detailed dynamic instructions made this a memorable performance. Every instrument could be heard as a result of the carefully rehearsed balance.

The second half opened with a cello quintet in C by Boccherini. It is a lovely work, given a suitably witty, elegant performance. But the final work was the highlight of the concert. At the age of 80, Richard Strauss wrote his "Metamorphisen" as an elegy for the bombing of German cities at the end of World War 2. It was played by all 7 musicians, as Strauss wrote the work though it is best known as a work for 23 strings. It fairly simple thematic material yet, as it progresses, the emotions intensify to the very depths of the agony experienced by the composer. It would be difficult to imagine a more convincing, beautiful performance of this wonderful music.

Andrew Petch

Last Updated : 01/03/2009