Clarinettist And String Orchestra In Concert

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29802, 19 April 1962, Page 15

Clarinettist And String Orchestra In Concert

The University Hall was filled last evening for a concert given by the John Ritchie String Orchestra. Mr John McCaw, principal clarinettist of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, was the guest soloist. To be associated with such a distinguished artist was a great honour for the orchestra, but its standard of playing showed that the honour was deserved.

A most interestingly varied programme was played, and the highlights were the two concetti with Mr McCaw as soloist.

The programme began with a Passacaglia by Handel —a form and a composer well fitted for establishing a sympathetic atmosphere for this type of concert. There was a warm and vibrant tone with a balance which created a beautiful ensemble. The lines of melody were clean, and clearly phrased, and the work hung together with well-disciplined rhythm. The orchestra was augmented by some wood-wind and horns for Mozart’s Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, K. 622. The orchestra opened the work with exciting quality of sound, stylish phrasing, and vitality of movement. It showed that the players knew (from experience at rehearsal) the magic that lay in Mr McCaw's clarinet. He held the audience spell-bound as he led it through a rare land of Pied-Piper promise. An astonishing range of expressive levels is at his command, with wonderfully rich and rounded tone at all of them. Every phrase was imbued with remarkable beauty of nuances under seemingly magical control of expression.

The orchestra rose superbly to the occasion. The players did nothing to mar anything which Mr McCaw offered, and whenever he stopped playing we realised how extremely well the orchestra was playing. There was ample evidence in Warlock's Capriol Suite of the beauty of tone the orchestra was producing. Throughout this group s comparatively short history its work has always been interesting and musically vital; but every concert shows great advances. Subtle piquancies of tone, expression, and rhythm, and all welded into excellent team work in response to Professor Ritchie’s poised and artistic direction, marked the playing of this charming work and of the two numbers from Walton’s Incidental Music for Henry V. The Walton items were movingly beautiful. Mr McCaw was the soloist

in Professor Ritchie's Concertino for Clarinet and Strings. It is a charmingly attractive and interesting work. There is bright movement and a puckish humour in the opening allegro moderato. Quiet reflection and some lovely fluttering sounds from the strings against the poignant melody from the clarinet are features of the andante piacevole. Powerful harmonies are built up by the strings alone just before the end of the movement. The allegro scherzando opens in gay mood, but a section of intense yearning is of challenging interest. This is resolved by the clarinet leading the strings out into the sunshine and lighit-hearted fun again. The only trouble with this work is that there is not a lot more of it.

Interest is evenly shared between soloist and orchestra in the writing of the work: and it is a tribute to the orchestra’s playing that this was so in the standard of the performance. —C.F.B.