Sunday, 26 July 2009
Last Night of the Welsh Proms
BBC Concert Orchestra
Conductor: Owain Arwel Hughes CBE
Soloist: David Childs
St Davids Hall
Cardiff
Saturday 25th July 2009
Displays of nationalistic jingoism never quite sit easily on Welsh shoulders.
It perhaps explains why it has taken the cultural apparatchiks of the Principality so long in organising a Welsh '91Last Night of the Proms'92.
Hard work
Even though the Welsh Promenade season has now completed its 24th year, its success has been achieved through hard work and an adherence to an eclectic menu of musical tastes. The '91Last Night'92 jamboree of silly hats, inflatable daffodils and subservient adherence to Elgar'92s '91Pomp and Circumstance'92 has become a somewhat prescriptive coda to what is becoming an increasingly influential series of concerts.
However, this year, recumbent music lovers got to hear '91proms'92 of Folk and Brazilian, Gamelan, Bollywood, Romantics and Revolutionaries, Choral, Saxophone, Paul Robeson and even James Bond.
Performers
The performers are an exotic collection too, with the '91Last Night'92 seeing the BBC Concert Orchestra under the baton of the doyen of Welsh conductors, Owain Arwel Hughes CBE.
Before the musical nonsense began in earnest, there was some excellent music to be heard (much of which with a brass band connection of sorts) and performed '96 none more so than from David Childs, the featured '91Concerto'92 soloist for the evening.
Flirtatious
The BBC Concert Orchestra delivered a flirtatious '91Thievish Magpie'92, followed by some neat excerpts from '91Swan Lake'92. Eric Coates'92 '91Elizabeth of Glamis'92 seemed a musical exercise though in proletariat forelock tugging meets the '91Dambusters'92 '96 a weird amalgam portrait of the old Queen Mum in 1950s kitsch.
Star of the night
That was the mere aperitif, as enter the star for the night '96 resplendent in black tails decorated with swirling silver rococo decoration. By heck, no wonder the ladies took an instant fancy to the lad.
That said, David Childs looked the part, and certainly played the part, with a stunning performance of the world premiere of Karl Jenkins'92s '91Euphonium Concerto'92, written, as the composer noted in the programme, in a '91somewhat quirky and off the wall'92 style.
Highly melodic
The four movements of a highly melodic and accessible work certainly drew quirky inspiration '96 the opening '91The Juggler'92, having a dislocated Iberian feel as if Jenkins was playfully throwing the soloist an additional odd shaped ball to keep in the air every 30 seconds or so.
The following '91Romanza'92 was a beautifully crafted touch of lyricism, played with understated emotion but with a distinct air of romantic possibilities, whilst the third, '91It takes two'85'92, was a lazy tango with a hint of bluesy melancholy, as if Carmen had met Miles Davis in the local boozer on the nearby Caroline Street corner.
The finale was a tour de force bit of Russia meets Cymru in, '91A Troika? Tidy'92 '96 a playful and witty play on words and music that allowed the performer full rein to showcase his pyrotechnical wizardry with a breathless orchestra in his wake.
At its conclusion the extended applause and cheers were reserved for both the performer (who has an undeniably engaging stage presence) and composer who joined him on stage, in recognition for what was a substantive work that had both surprised and delighted in equal measure.
Good news
The good news is that Karl Jenkins will be scoring the Concerto for brass band in the near future, whilst it will be heard again in this, and wind band format, when David Childs appears in Hawaii and at Carnegie Hall in New York next year.
Witty, and '91off the wall'92 certainly '96 brilliantly scored and deliciously colourful too; Jenkins is some composer.
Jaw dropping
Before the second half descended into middle class mayhem, there was the chance to hear Gareth Wood'92s bubbly '91Fantasy on Welsh Songs'92, as well as David Childs return to produce a delightful cameo on the darkly scored air '91Tros y Garreg'92 ('91Crossing the Stone'92) arranged by Tony Small and orchestrated by Rodney Newton.
Not to be outdone by what was to follow though, David Childs put a smile on the faces of an excitable audience with a jaw dropping '91Hot Canary'92, that ensured that the brass band movement'92s undisputed star performer had signed up a new legion of fans.
It put the individual seal on a superb performance from a superb performer.
'a9 Iwan Fox '96 Editor 4barsrest.com
BBC Concert Orchestra
Conductor: Owain Arwel Hughes CBE
Soloist: David Childs
St Davids Hall
Cardiff
Saturday 25th July 2009
Displays of nationalistic jingoism never quite sit easily on Welsh shoulders.
It perhaps explains why it has taken the cultural apparatchiks of the Principality so long in organising a Welsh '91Last Night of the Proms'92.
Hard work
Even though the Welsh Promenade season has now completed its 24th year, its success has been achieved through hard work and an adherence to an eclectic menu of musical tastes. The '91Last Night'92 jamboree of silly hats, inflatable daffodils and subservient adherence to Elgar'92s '91Pomp and Circumstance'92 has become a somewhat prescriptive coda to what is becoming an increasingly influential series of concerts.
However, this year, recumbent music lovers got to hear '91proms'92 of Folk and Brazilian, Gamelan, Bollywood, Romantics and Revolutionaries, Choral, Saxophone, Paul Robeson and even James Bond.
Performers
The performers are an exotic collection too, with the '91Last Night'92 seeing the BBC Concert Orchestra under the baton of the doyen of Welsh conductors, Owain Arwel Hughes CBE.
Before the musical nonsense began in earnest, there was some excellent music to be heard (much of which with a brass band connection of sorts) and performed '96 none more so than from David Childs, the featured '91Concerto'92 soloist for the evening.
Flirtatious
The BBC Concert Orchestra delivered a flirtatious '91Thievish Magpie'92, followed by some neat excerpts from '91Swan Lake'92. Eric Coates'92 '91Elizabeth of Glamis'92 seemed a musical exercise though in proletariat forelock tugging meets the '91Dambusters'92 '96 a weird amalgam portrait of the old Queen Mum in 1950s kitsch.
Star of the night
That was the mere aperitif, as enter the star for the night '96 resplendent in black tails decorated with swirling silver rococo decoration. By heck, no wonder the ladies took an instant fancy to the lad.
That said, David Childs looked the part, and certainly played the part, with a stunning performance of the world premiere of Karl Jenkins'92s '91Euphonium Concerto'92, written, as the composer noted in the programme, in a '91somewhat quirky and off the wall'92 style.
Highly melodic
The four movements of a highly melodic and accessible work certainly drew quirky inspiration '96 the opening '91The Juggler'92, having a dislocated Iberian feel as if Jenkins was playfully throwing the soloist an additional odd shaped ball to keep in the air every 30 seconds or so.
The following '91Romanza'92 was a beautifully crafted touch of lyricism, played with understated emotion but with a distinct air of romantic possibilities, whilst the third, '91It takes two'85'92, was a lazy tango with a hint of bluesy melancholy, as if Carmen had met Miles Davis in the local boozer on the nearby Caroline Street corner.
The finale was a tour de force bit of Russia meets Cymru in, '91A Troika? Tidy'92 '96 a playful and witty play on words and music that allowed the performer full rein to showcase his pyrotechnical wizardry with a breathless orchestra in his wake.
At its conclusion the extended applause and cheers were reserved for both the performer (who has an undeniably engaging stage presence) and composer who joined him on stage, in recognition for what was a substantive work that had both surprised and delighted in equal measure.
Good news
The good news is that Karl Jenkins will be scoring the Concerto for brass band in the near future, whilst it will be heard again in this, and wind band format, when David Childs appears in Hawaii and at Carnegie Hall in New York next year.
Witty, and '91off the wall'92 certainly '96 brilliantly scored and deliciously colourful too; Jenkins is some composer.
Jaw dropping
Before the second half descended into middle class mayhem, there was the chance to hear Gareth Wood'92s bubbly '91Fantasy on Welsh Songs'92, as well as David Childs return to produce a delightful cameo on the darkly scored air '91Tros y Garreg'92 ('91Crossing the Stone'92) arranged by Tony Small and orchestrated by Rodney Newton.
Not to be outdone by what was to follow though, David Childs put a smile on the faces of an excitable audience with a jaw dropping '91Hot Canary'92, that ensured that the brass band movement'92s undisputed star performer had signed up a new legion of fans.
It put the individual seal on a superb performance from a superb performer.
'a9 Iwan Fox '96 Editor 4barsrest.com
