Stretched beyond abilities
Garth WilshereAS an amateur group the Wellington Chamber Orchestra depend on the direction they get from the conductor and in this concert under Rachel Hyde even though they played well they were challenged and often stretched beyond their abilities. In the first half they seemed underprepared and the performance suffered.
Aaron Copland’s Quiet City is a lovely, affecting work, which put pressure on the strings who had a wiry, sometimes thin tone.
Trumpet soloist Cheryl Hollinger handled the trumpet lines well, nicely balanced against the plaintive cor anglais of Ashleigh Mowbray.
In his well-known ballet Appalachian Spring, here in the full orchestra concert suite, the mood and folksy atmosphere in the more rollicking sections wasn’t quite captured, but they were committed, with Hyde’s tempi throughout on the slow side.
It was clear that most rehearsal time had been spent on the Dvorak Symphony No. 9 From the New World which tested them but was played well.
There were brass and horn slips but some nice woodwinds and more weight and depth in the string sound here made for a more enjoyable experience. The famous cor anglais tune in the largo was accurately and nicely played, if little straight and short of atmospheric tonal colour and character, but that takes more experience to carry off totally convincingly and Mowbray did a nice job with it.
It is a big work, which I am sure they enjoyed playing.









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