Stirring first concert

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34097, 8 March 1976, Page 18

Stirring first concert

The opening concert of the Christchurch Arts Festival was given in the Town Hall oo Saturday evening and should have attracted a larger audience. It was called a “Venetian” concert because the works chosen were by Gabrieli. Monteverdi. and Vivaldi, musicians associated with St Mark’s Cathedral. The programme began with two works for brass by Gabrieli. the Canon in Double Echo and Conzona Noni Toni for three brass choirs. Choruses of brass players, placed centrallv and on either side of the auditorium, made stirring sounds well suited to welcoming a festival. Interesting antiphons! effects, exploiting the resonance of the hall and its partiality for brass sounds, gave atmosphere of challenge and of pageantry. Glorious sonorities and lovely part-writing made this true music of the “grand manner." Canonic imitation gave echoing effects of fascinating complexity. Mr Dobbs Franks

conducted, keeping excellent , balance between widely separated groups. Only on rare and momentarv occasions - was there any slight lack of i togetherness. Beautiful echoing effects were brought 1 about bv canonic imitation. • The players are to be congratulated on the nobility of > tone thev nroduced. The Harmonic Chorale. I joined with the strings of the: ■ Canterburv Trust Orchestra - ii a splendid performance of - Monteverdi’s Gloria ConcerI tata. a florid and exhilarating ■ work, but one suited to the • liturgy — particular]!- to that ■ used in St Mark’s which has ( dome features peculiar to that ■building. The choir. trained bv ; Sirron Tipping, was in excel- 1

lent voice with beautiful tone and achieving a sensitive blending. There was happy excitement created in this meritorious performance. Mr Hawkey played the new chamber organ making it I blend discreetly with the expertly played string instruments. It is with great pleasure that we welcome Ruth Pearl back to the leader’s position, which she has graced to expertly in the past. The concert ended magnit ficently with Vivaldi’s Concerto in A minor for Two ; Violins. Alfredo Comnoli and Belinda Bunt were the soloists in this most fitting festival performance. There was sunerb accord between these two soloists who matched with seeming perfection in timbres, weights of sound, and in all expressive details. They blended 'with the vital sounds of the orchestra, whose expert playing was also a continuing joy to hear. Mr Franks kept every detail of the performance in accord with the stylistic demands of the period, and gave grace and elegance to every phrase. —C. Foster Browne.