Superb first spring concert in over two years
Abergavenny Symphony Orchestra returned to full complement with a performance of the Dvorak 8th Symphony which was not only played with considerable panache and technical accomplishment but, under conductor Michael Bell, caught the genuine Slavonic lilt essential to this most sheerly Czech of the composer’s symphonies.
It is the work which finally sheds any vestige of the Germanic influence which prevailed in European music in the first half of the 19th Century.
The concert, in Our Lady and St Michael’s Church, Abergavenny, on Sunday, opened with the wind and string sections demonstrating their distinctive colours with aplomb performing Richard Strauss’ Serenade for 13 Wind Instruments followed by Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C.
The return of this much-loved band in such superb form, under new leader Marisa Riordan, promises an assured future for music-making in the area after the long drought of lock-down and restrictions.
Chris Hall