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Reading Hexagon,
17 April 2005
Britten Sinfonia
Nicholas Daniel
John Mark Ainsley
Stephen Bell
Last week, in the surprisingly
sweet acoustics of Reading's Hexagon Theatre, Nicholas Daniel and Britten
Sinfonia gave their penultimate touring performance of 'An English Serenade',
a programme of music written during the Second World war. Like Douglas
Boyd, Daniel has embarked on a second career while still at the top
of his game as a soloist; exchanging his oboe for a baton. In this programme,
hoewever, he took both roles: playing Vaughan Williams' 1944 Concerto
for Oboe and Strings with eloquent intensity, and directing the remaining
pieces with obvious love for the pastoral style.
Technically and expressively
the 24 strings of the Sinfonia, led by Benjamin Nabarro, are extremely
well-matched, and their account of Tippett's Concerto for Double String
Orchestra was bright and alert and spontaneous. The pizzicato in the second
section of the Rondo pastorale of the Concerto for Oboe and Strings was
beautifully defined, while Daniel's dynamic phrasing made a strong case
for playing without the intervention of a third party.
Ambivalent, brooding, ecstatic and violent, only Britten's Serenade for
Tenor, Horn and Strings (1943) hinted at the carnage overshadowing Vaughan
Williams' pastoral idylls. Tenor John Mark Ainsley, accompanied by Stephen
Bell on natural and valved horns, gave a magnetic performance; adopting
a subtly different persona for each song, and moving his smooth, virile
tone with cruel beauty and a grand sense of line. Perfect of diction and
artfully shaped, this was an impressive interpretation of a Janus-like
work.
The Independent
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