13 October 2007 at 7.30pm

Jennifer Pike  - Violin

Conductor: Brian Wright

Elgar/Payne – Pomp & Circumstance March No.6

Sibelius – Violin Concerto

Elgar – Symphony No.2

The Maidstone Symphony Orchestra’s 97th season began with an impressive concert of works by Elgar and Sibelius, showcasing excellent ensemble and musical commitment in intense and gripping performances of two hugely challenging scores.

The concert marked two anniversaries, commemorating fifty years since the death of Sibelius and celebrating one hundred and fifty since the birth of Elgar. To open, as a curiosity and providing some novelty, Brian Wright conducted the orchestra in a re-construction of Elgarian sketches worked up by Anthony Payne into a sixth Pomp and Circumstance March. Musically lightweight in comparison to the rest of the programme, though none the worse for that, the piece did provide a vehicle to highlight the precision in the orchestra’s playing and gave the percussion department and heavy brass something else to play as well as the symphony.

Jennifer Pike then joined the orchestra for an engrossing performance of the Sibelius Concerto. The warm, full tone of her instrument easily soared over the orchestral accompaniment, which was subtle and sensitive in this elusive work. The unanimity between soloist, conductor and orchestra in this performance showed all musicians to be on their top form at the start of this new season.

Elgar’s 2nd Symphony is another work that could be said to be elusive, certainly not Elgar in his Imperialistic mode as in the Pomp and Circumstance Marches. Brian Wright alluded to this fact in his remarks at the start of the evening, pointing out that the work had mystified its early audiences. Like many great composers Elgar does not repeat himself and in this work the words of Shelley that he placed at the head of the score seem to provide the key to its world. Certainly for this listener they seemed the springboard to the performance - “Rarely, rarely comest thou, Spirit of delight”.

There was a real spring in the symphony’s opening paragraph, a confident explosion of sound from Elgar delighting in artistic creation matched by the orchestra’s enthusiasm. Such music, played with 100% commitment, cannot fail to capture the concentration of the audience and it was clear from the intense silence during the performance that the orchestra were taking their listeners with them on this epic journey. Even in the more elegiac parts of the score Brian Wright never allowed the tension to sag or become self indulgent, this performance was working towards a clear goal at the end of the final movement. This summation of the work, with its wistful reference to the opening theme from the first movement, was confidently and warmly created by the players. Perhaps in some ways a regional orchestra, such as this, has an advantage over hardened professionals since we were clearly privileged to be hearing a thoroughly rehearsed performance where each player had a stake in the creation of the whole.

Some people consider Elgar to be a quintessentially English composer, whatever that is, though I admit to being irritated by such narrow parochialism. Hearing the passionate commitment of the orchestra in the slow movement was to experience, both in orchestral sound and musical argument a composer of European stature at work, and to experience a twinge of regret that his image is taken off the twenty pound note in this anniversary year.

Review by Duncan Lord

Click here to listen to a clip.

Jennifer has performed in major venues and arts festivals around the UK, Europe, the Middle East and the USA. At the age of fifteen she made her BBC Proms début in the Royal Albert Hall, and since then she has made her evening recital débuts in London’s Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room, all to great critical acclaim. She was the BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2002.