Under the direction of conductor Tess Jackson, the Chromatica Orchestra provided a poignant balance of reflection and hope at Southwark Cathedral’s Music and Readings for Armistice Day last night. Soloist Ben Goldscheider’s performance of Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 1 with its bittersweet combination of joy and subtle melancholy mirrored well poet Sir Ben Okri’s readings of Rilke, Binyon, and Emily Dickinson. Goldscheider’s later rendition of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Concert Etude introduced a somber introspective air before the tumultuous horrors of Barshai’s Shostakovich Chamber Symphony arrangement.
There were touching moments throughout. Principle clarinettist Meline Le Calvez shone in Butterworth’s Banks of Green Willow, matched in texture and tone by the strings. The Two English Idylls brought a few modest tears to the eyes. And whilst the concluding Shostakovich saw the first violins sometimes hesitant with a handful of key entries, the five viola players worked phenomenally hard to produce an epic sound contributing to an epic vista full of pathos. Shout out to bassist Georgia Lloyd who undoubtedly has the best note of the work right at the end adding lots of delicious depth to the concluding chord.
Chromatica is a new name for an orchestra that has gone through some personnel changes in recent years. As late as January 11 this year it was known as the Bath Festival Orchestra. At the beginning of September it relaunched as Chromatica, with a new Executive Director, Alison Tedbury. Something wasn’t working. The artistic direction remain, whilst the management has changed (for a third time).
There’s a hint of something else different. Separating artistic direction from conducting works well (or at least seems to have done so far). The players responded well to conductor Tess Jackson, playing in a way I’ve not seen in concerts given by the band in its previous incarnation. There’s greater attention to detail in performance, and considerably more discipline ‘on stage’. The programming worked well too, peppering thought-provoking spoken word with a programme of music that deftly avoided cloying sentimentality.
