Spa Pavilion, Strathpeffer, 21 August 2011

TWO highlights greeted the audience for the second programme this year by the ambitious Highland Chamber Orchestra as their eleventh season reached a climax with a premiere of a work by an orchestra member and a return home by a local girl who is making it big on the London classical music scene.

The Spa Pavilion in Strathpeffer has become a favourite venue for both orchestra and audience; everything is catered for and there is always a warm welcome. This ambience makes for enjoyable music and with a carefully selected programme, the HCO rose to the occasion to entertain their growing number of supporters.

Conductor Susan Dingle started things off with a crowd pleaser, Beethoven’s concert overture, Coriolan. The story of the play to which this work relates makes it a rather dark piece and that suited the large cello section in the HCO, bigger even than the first violins. But even if the violins were a bit thin, they worked hard and the ear soon adjusted. Overall delivery was crisp and the work was played with confidence at just the right tempo.

Cello soloist Rowena Calvert

Over the past few years, HCO violist Helen Goodwill has been putting together a charming work in four movements called Ayres of the Aird, inspired by the natural beauty of the area west of Inverness. The first movement, a jig, opened with a flute solo from Catherine O’Rourke describing the burn tumbling down Reelig Glen, before the strings took over and alternated with the flute. A haunting, lilting waltz called ‘Lovat Vespers’, again alternating winds and strings, portrayed an autumn sunset over the Lovat estates.

Helen Goodwill reworked a Victorian air called ‘Belladrum House’ into a slow march called ‘Barons of Belladrum’ before the suite was brought to a conclusion with a serene tune that reflects the peace and pace of life in The Aird. Traditionalists will be delighted with this gentle example of 21st century music that was full of home town comfort and offered exactly what it says on the tin.

Rogart-raised Rowena Calvert has won a host of awards for her cello playing, both as a soloist and as a member of the Cavaleri Quartet. Although much of her time is now spent in London and Madrid, she told me how thrilled she was to be playing for her “home” audience again. Glamorously attired in a royal blue gown and accessorised with a deep red hydrangea, she gave a scoreless and flawless performance of Tschaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme.

Comparisons can be unfair, but the definitive recording of this work is by Mstislav Rostropovich, with whom Rowena has had lessons. Her interpretation was sweeter and less aggressive, at times more flowing and less staccato, but when vigour was called for, vigour was there. It was a performance full of thought and personality; twenty minutes that left the audience wishing that Tschaikovsky had composed more than seven variations. And praise is due to Susan Dingle and the members of the HCO who accompanied Rowena with care and attention.

After the interval the Highland Chamber Orchestra gave a vibrant and confident delivery of Schubert’s Third Symphony. Composed in 1815 while he was still a teenager, Schubert showed no lack of experience with this work. It made a perfect finale for a very enjoyable concert, packed with melodies both known and new, a concert that will go down as a highlight in the history of the orchestra.

© James Munro, 2011

Links

• Highland Chamber Orchestra
• Rowena Calvert