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16 October 2010 - Riley, Beethoven, Rachmaninov
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A handbill for this concert can be downloaded here. Why not print off a few to give or email to friends?
Soloist -
Tom Poster (Piano)
Conductor: Brian Wright
Malcolm Riley – Fairmeadow, an overture for Maidstone (world premiere/MSO commission).
Beethoven – Piano Concerto No.4
Rachmaninov – Symphonic Dances
Malcolm Riley's new Fairmeadow Overture includes the tune of a locally collected folksong and references to the music of the 17th century composer John Jenkins, who was born in Maidstone. Acclaimed young pianist Tom Poster returns in the classical splendour of Beethoven's 4th Concerto and MSO tackles the effervescent brilliance of Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances.
For more information see his website.
The Concert starts at 7.30pm in Mote Hall, which is within the Maidstone Leisure Centre, Mote Park, Maidstone.
For ticket details click here or phone 0845 1552277
Review by Don Goodsell
Made to Measure
Some concerts revisit familiar territory - as memorable as a trip to the shops. Not so October. I’d like to say that MSO flourishes not despite but because of its policy of exploration, but let’s ask some straight questions. Were we born knowing Beethoven? Of course not, though some seem to think so. There was a time when every musical experience was new.
MSO’s printed programmes are a good read, and have long been so. They read as well after the event as before. Every page tells us something. Asked why he chose Beethoven Four, piano soloist Tom Poster reveals that it wasn’t his choice but ‘the orchestra’s’. Not asking him what his choice would have been, the interviewer leaves us in the air. It says something for Poster’s professionalism that he turned in so vivid a performance of this popular work. Whoever had the final choice, it was a wise choice. It is one of the less orchestrally demanding works of this (until his later years) eminently practical composer, written in the amenable key of G major – albeit for a somewhat smaller orchestra than today’s MSO.
Because of this choice, more time could be spent rehearsing for the première of Malcolm Riley’s commission, his concert-overture Fairmeadow, and for that challenging masterpiece Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances. Even a pre-cursive scan of the programme notes left me not knowing what to expect of Riley. In the event reality outshone expectation. Those who turned up to hear Steve Migden’s prefatory introduction to the woodwind section (on stage to demonstrate) would have noted how well the composer casts these key orchestral personalities. Indeed, Riley’s new piece had the prime ingredients of a concert-opener. Also (which some composers overlook) it was good to play. It was, one might say, ‘made to measure’. One can almost forgive Riley for attributing Faversham’s Shepherd Neame to Maidstone!
There are times in music when the first bars grip you and don’t let go – as with Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances. They hold me to the very end, not with the romance of the Second Piano Concerto but with something more compelling. That MSO should programme this terminal work and give so emotionally gripping a performance more than justifies the existence of this fine orchestra.
Maidstone Symphony Orchestra, through generations of conductors, still flourishes after one hundred years of playing the sort of music that attracts a dedicated and (to use today’s in-word ‘sustainable’) minority following.
What matters is that the people of Kent support what MSO is trying to do, which is not simply to tickle their fancy with what they already know. Nor should we forget that without our cars and our network of motorways and trunk roads today’s MSO and much of our audience would not be there at all.
Don Goodsell