THE SAMPSON ORCHESTRA
The bad news and the good news. First the bad: conductor Darrell Davison announced that sadly the soloist Liubov Ulybysheva had called the previous evening to announce her new Covid credentials. This meant that the special Elegy written by Davison for the cellist would have to be cancelled. It must have been a particularly bitter blow for the composer. If it was, he showed no sign of disappointment from the podium. There followed three filler pieces hastily put together by the Sampson Orchestra. First off was a real delight: the ever-popular overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla by Glinka. The band ran after this galloping bonbon with great flair and it got the evening at West Road off to a flying start.
Next up were a couple of nicely played slow movements from Walton’s suite to the film Henry V. Elegiac in nature, perhaps they captured the mood of the missing new work. There followed the Nocturne by Mendelssohn from his Midsummer Night’s Dream suite. Coming after the prettily sad Walton, it lacked I thought a bit of necessary drama. To finish the first half was the programmed overture: Leonora No. 3 by Beethoven. Again the orchestra didn’t quite pull off the excitement and drama of the piece although there was some haunting trumpet playing to provide some welcome spinetingle. The concluding fugue which should take the breath away didn’t quite do it.
The second half was filled with the Sibelius huge second symphony. And there the orchestra really let rip – it was a powerful, beautifully wrought reading of this most dramatic of symphonies. The slow build to that ravishing melody in the finale had all spines a-tingling. The band sounded transformed into a powerful unity with some heady woodwind playing, darkly dramatic lower strings and solid brass. Sibelius’ sudden twists and turns of theme and counter-theme was very successfully created. The concert, a fundraiser for the estimable local charity, the Karen Morris Memorial Trust, came to a majestic conclusion that had every audience member humming the big theme on the way out. Definitely good news.
