Bow String Orchestra
Garth WilshereConductor: Rachel Hyde
St Andrew’s on The Terrace, July 10
Reviewed by Garth Wilshere
FORMED last year, Bow is an amateur group of string players who prepare and rehearse on a workshop weekend culminating in a Sunday concert. This was their second outing with repertoire very similar to that of last year.
Performed in the round on the St Andrew’s Church floor the audience with many youngsters, were close to the ensemble. Despite providing things to keep the children occupied many of them constantly had running races around the church.
Starting with Two Elegiac Melodies by Grieg the mood was unrelentingly sombre with generally slow tempi throughout. The group played well and when the whole ensemble played en-mass the sound was nice, although the string sound was rather lean and wiry.
The big work exposed a certain tiredness and some issues of sustaining their playing with the slow tempi, but Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings is a popular work and it was generally nicely done.
I like the idea of having young school-age players in the ensemble but I expected that they would be “twinned” with a more experienced player aiding in their development, rather looking rather isolated on their own at the back of the sections.
In repertoire terms I longed for some variety with some more lively and sparkling pieces to balance the rather deliberate, relentless conducting style from Hyde. The sombre, though beautiful melodies, made for a rather soporific concert









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