Sinfonia shines on the Coast
Thu 17 August 2006
Florence Perkins, Journalism
When an orchestra's performance has risen to a high level of proficiency it develops its own ‘sound’, which is as identifiable as a person's voice.
The Suncoast Sinfonia concert at St. Mark's Anglican Church on Sunday, 14 August saw this chamber orchestra and its audience join together for the ultimate experience in chamber music.
Chamber music is played by a small group of musicians for the enjoyment of the mind as well as the ear, with the audience being involved in the music as much as the musicians for a complete performance.
It was obvious that this partnership had been reached in the pause between the second and third movements of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar and orchestra. The audience was still and silent, neither a wriggle nor a whisper was heard.
The classical guitar is one of the most difficult instruments to master, but soloist Michael Knopf makes it look easy.
With a little more attention to the romantic nature of the music, and less evidence of his favourite métier of jazz, he could have matched the orchestra in technicality and interpretation. Without obscuring or drowning Mr Knopf's performance, the orchestra out-played the soloist.
The light-hearted dance themes in the third movement of the concerto balance the fiery intensity of the second movement. The concerto ends with the audience and the orchestra having a good, jolly time.
Precise tempos and unambiguous cuing from the Sinfonia's new Musical Director, Rita Paczian, enabled individual instrumentalists to give sensitive and professional performances of their solo passages in all the works on the program.
One of the most enjoyable features of a chamber orchestra is that each instrument can be heard, and no nuance in the music is obscured. The Sinfonia's performance of Faure's Pavanne, Op.50, was crystalline and delicate, more suitable for the composer's gentle melodies, perhaps, than the density of a full symphony orchestra.
Schubert's Symphony No.6 in C, Op.589 is a textbook example of the early Romantic period. Schubert plays with key changes and works out the themes in Romantic style, but he does not break away from the constraints (as the Romantics saw it) of the form and structures within movements of the Classical era symphony.
References:
Brewer, Janet. 2006 Romantic Guitar Programme notes.
Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Fifth Edition. Paperback edition. 1954. ed. Eric Blom. Chamber Music. Vol 2. pp. 152-154.
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