3 March 2026
Our Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert at Spinney Theatre last Saturday featured four pieces by American composers, all written in the 1930s and 1940s, celebrating The Jazz Age and The Golden Age of Hollywood. We opened the concert with Aaron Copland's 'Quiet City' - a remarkable piece for string orchestra with solo parts for trumpet and cor anglais, brilliantly played by NSO members Terry Mayo and Harriet Brown. William Grant Still's 'Symphony No 1: Afro American' was the first symphony by an African American composer to be performed by a major orchestra ion the USA (in 1931). It's a lovely work which pairs up-beat jazz with achingly emotional blues-inspired melodies. I particularly loved the gorgeous slow opening of the final movement with its powerful descending bass line in the tuba. The composer Ferde Grofé is now best remembered as the orchestrator of 'Rhapsody in Blue' by George Gershwin and for his popular 'Grand Canyon Suite'. I hadn't previously encountered his suite '6 Pictures of Hollywood' and enjoyed discovering this comic peak backstage at the making of an imaginary 1930s film musical. Our finale was 'Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture' - Robert Russell Bennett's medley of the classic songs from George Gershwin's folk opera. It's a great arrangement which revels in the wealth of Gershwin's melodies (including 'Summertime', 'Bess, You is My Woman Now', 'I Got Plenty of Nuttin' and 'It Ain't Necessarily So') and toys with the listener - three times sounding as if it has come to a conclusion, only to segue into yet another famous tune. For our celebration of American Voices the NSO was swelled by three harps, four saxophones, banjo and an impressive array of percussion. Our Conductor John Gibbons wonderfully slotted the many jigsaw pieces together on the day: in the concert I think all four pieces were the best we had performed them. But this concert belonged to Terry and Harriet - not only playing their beautiful solo parts in 'Quiet City' but appearing to dominate the rest of the programme too. Both the 'Afro-American Symphony' and 'Porgy and Bess' open with cor anglais solos (followed by a trumpet solo in the Gerswhin) and these and the Grofé feel like showpieces for the trumpets. This really was a fun concert and the cheer from the audience at the end of 'Porgy and Bess' felt well-deserved.
