Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert
14 November 2013The Northampton Symphony Orchestra’s November concert invariably coincides with the weekend of Bonfire Night and/or Remembrance Sunday. This year we made the most of this coincidence with a remembrance-themed concert at St Matthews Church in Northampton. The music was interspersed with war poems by Wilfred Owen, George Fraser Gallie and Konstantin Simanov, beautifully read by three members of the orchestra – Virginia Henley, Maria King and Nick Bunker. As Virginia stepped forward to start the concert with Owen’s ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, the church bells rang the half hour and she waited a moment for the sound to die away before reading “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?” – it was a perfect opening to the evening.
The first
piece of music was the beautiful pastoral work ‘The Banks of Green Willow’ by
George Butterworth – a charming piece with an aching poignancy in this context
as Butterworth was killed at the Battle of the Somme at the age of 30. Another
delicate, pastoral English work completed the first half of the concert as the
orchestra’s leader Stephen Hague gave a stunning performance of ‘The Lark
Ascending’ by Ralph Vaughan Williams. That some of the desperately quiet
passages were interrupted by the explosions of fireworks outside only served to
emphasise the contrast between the peaceful idyll of the countryside and the
brutal reality of war.
In the second
half of the concert we played the mighty ‘Leningrad Symphony’ by Dimitri
Shostakovich. Shostakovich’s seventh symphony was composed during the Siege of
Leningrad in 1941-42 and powerfully evokes the horror of the 872 day isolation
of the city which saw almost a third of the population (around a million
people) die of starvation. Despite being offered the opportunity to escape the
siege Shostakovich decided to stay in the city to work on a one-movement
symphony which he wanted to dedicate to Leningrad. I can imagine the look on
Mrs Shostakovich’s face when he later announced that it now felt like the work actually
needed four movements! Shostakovich did complete the composition elsewhere but
after the premiere of the symphony by the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra in March
1942, there was a determination to stage a first performance in Leningrad
itself, while the siege continued. With many of its players dead or away
fighting the war, The Leningrad Radio Orchestra could muster only 14 musicians.
Extra players were brought back from the front line and posters were displayed
around the city appealing for anyone with a musical instrument to join in. At
the end of July an orchestra of professionals and amateurs played the symphony
in the Leningrad Philharmonic Hall with the performance broadcast on
loudspeakers throughout the city. In a show of defiance there were speakers
relaying the concert to German troops stationed outside the city. The NSO
concert programme notes suggest that the senior Russian officer on the front
was issued with a copy of the score so that he might order his troops to cease
fire during the quieter passages!
The Leningrad
symphony is a mammoth work, lasting 70 minutes and requiring a large orchestra.
In our performance in Northampton, conducted by Alexander Walker, I was one of
nine horn players, alongside six trumpets, six trombones, tuba and extensive
percussion. This was the first time, as an orchestral musician, that I have
genuinely regretted not wearing earplugs for a performance. It was incredibly
loud and immensely dramatic – a realisation of the brutality of war in music,
though the conflict is contrasted with passages of delicate beauty. There were
a host of great solos by Andrea Patis (flute), Kimberley Chang (piccolo), Kathy
Roberts (oboe), Simon Cooper (cor anglais), Naomi Muller (clarinet), Peter
Dunkley (bass clarinet), Sian Bunker (bassoon) and Nick Bunker (trumpet). And the
side drum playing of Matt Butler through the long, relentless, repetitive march
that dominates the first movement was truly amazing – controlled, precise and
devastating all in its path. For me that famous tune still conjures up
childhood memories of the 1978 BBC TV adaptation of John Buchan’s
‘Huntingtower’, but heard in the heart of the symphony it evokes the horror of
war, starting as a simple fife and drum melody then growing ever more insistent
and grotesque until the bombardment is overwhelming. It was a stunning, moving,
exhausting performance and one I will remember for a long time.
posted by Robin Simpson @ 5:34 pm
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