Concert review by James Day from the February 2005 edition of 'Cambridgeshire Pride'. Used with permission.

Cambridge Philharmonic Society, Church of our Lady and the English Martyrs, 18 December 2004

Phil on great form

It was good to see what was virtually a capacity audience in the Church of our Lady and the English Martyrs for the Cambridge Philharmonic Society's Christmas concert. It was even better to hear that under Martin West, both the choir and the orchestra were on excellent form and did full justice to a programme that pleasantly blended both familiar and less familiar items.

The opening work was Corelli's Christmas Concerto, performed with care and precision by a reduced body of the Phil Orchestra's strings, with neat concertino playing and a good, full sound from the band. Mr West paced the work excellently, with plenty of dazzle in the faster sections, an appropriately reflective approach to the slower ones and a gentle lilt to the finale.

The first of the less familiar pieces was a delight - a Christmas Cantata by Buxtehude, Das Neugeborne Kindelein. Here, the choir contributed a full- bodied sound (though a few more basses wouldn't have gone amiss), good diction and secure, poised, disciplined singing, projecting a delightful work in a most attractive light. It's a pity, though, that the programme didn't have room for the short text and a suitable translation.

Sir Michael Tippett's glorious Concerto for Double String Orchestra is not as familiar as it should be. Perhaps this is because it is strewn with pitfalls that would daunt even a virtuoso string ensemble. It is to the enormous credit of both the Phil's string players and Mr West, who directed the performance with his usual impeccable ear for balance, good tone and intonation and rhythmic clarity, that they surmounted virtually all of them. The playing in the two faster outer movements was remarkably secure, sturdy and vigorous, and the "bluesy" slow movement was both expressive and rich in sound. Exhilarating stuff, exhilaratingly played.

As for Vivaldi's much-loved Gloria, both choir and orchestra obviously enjoyed it: and the two excellent soloists, soprano Amanda Forbes and mezzo Catherine Hopper, provided the icing on the cake of a most enjoyable evening's music. The Phil certainly seems to be on a roll at present and I look forward to their next two concerts.

The first is on February 19, at the West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge at 7.30 pm. The orchestral programme will consist of Mozart's Overture to Cosi Fan Tutte, Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto (soloist Steve Bingham) and Schubert's Symphony No 5.

The next will be on April 9, a thoroughly enterprising choral and orchestra programme at King's.

Notes for editors

For further information including biographies please see our web site, www.cam-phil.org.uk.
If you would like any interviews for your publication please contact publicity@cam-phil.org.uk, giving as much notice as possible.