St David’s Hall, Cardiff
Tues 14 Feb
Experiencing a full orchestra perform is much like awakening a new sense. Its intricate workings and unfaltering symmetry are a truly mesmerising sight, and yet, the amorphous nature of the music played proved difficult to describe.Just like any relationship, the ensemble honed its illustrative ability to lavishly paint fictitious scenes and successfully createthe heartbreaking pitfalls and limitless peaks of love on Valentine’s Day.
The musicians were blanketed in a soft golden light as they tuned and prepared for the evening with a large collection of visitors in attendance. To say there was an even range of age group however would prove unfortunately to be an outright lie, with the majority honing silver hair and the requirement of support to make it in and out of the large hall.
Out walked the conductor of the evening, Michael Bell, mounting his podium and thanking the auditorium with a subtle smile and head nod for their applause. Opening the night’s repertoire was French composer Manuel de Falla’s Love, The Magician, written with the vision of sun-swept Spain in mind during the outbreak of the First World War.
The grand introduction began with a wave of string instruments including violinists, violas, cellos and double bass that washed over the space in a sea of raised neck hairs. As time progressed into The Apparition movement, an oboe began to accompany and set a menacingly uncomfortable tone that would not be uncommon in a Stephen Sondheim score. Moving into ‘midnight’ with delicate and heavenly smooth ballads, the cellos plucked away as the violins rose in volume, imitating something like a fleeting bee whizzing in and out of hearing. Flutes and trumpets bluntly fired off sharp notes that brought the movement to the dramatic Ritual Fire Dance, introducing huge climaxes before The Bells of Sunrise Toll eventually settled the success of sunrise, bringing the melodic tale to a close.
Max Christian Friedrich Bruch was the next composer of choice with his famous Violin Concerto No.1 in G Minor. For this particular score however, a guest musician was waiting in the wings, ready to perform like no other previously seen and catch the eye of every patron present. Up and coming violinist Benjamin Baker took to the stage and as the sharply dressed twenty seven year old led the opening movement, it was clear that he was an artist of a different class altogether. His sublime strokes accompanied by passionate body language confirmed the man lived and breathed classical music. As he scaled notes and drove his bow over the Tenoni strings, his skill grew with each passing moment with the orchestra following in swift succession behind his solo pieces.
After a short interval, the ominous and spectacularly ferventtempo of Tchaikovsky was the closing number chosen for the day of romance with Symphony No. 5 in E Minor (said to be one of the most romantic instrumental pieces of all time). With enough major notes to hint at hope of ascension, the blasts of trombone and tuba took the ambience from an overwhelming bellow to a subtle whisper of cello strings, emphasising the mysterious and contemplative element that bled into the Russian music master’s method.
A roll of the percussion brought in the works violently exciting finale, filled with strong and exaggerated notes with a flurryof enthusiasmbursting from the conductor as he quite literally hopped on spot and threw his arms through the air, directing each corner with a fine finesse.
Like watching Fred Astaire dance for the first time, the first experience of a professional philharmonic group is nothing short of pure elegance (and the perfect way to spend Valentine’s for those seeking something a little different from the conventional meal out, box of chocolates and bed of roses).
words NATHAN ROACH