Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter Festival Overture
Saint-Saëns: Violin Concerto No 3 (Soloist: Gina McCormack)
Dvoøák: Symphony No 9 From the New World
"Hard work pays off for orchestra"
"For their first concert of 2003, The Bristol Concert Orchestra opened with the Russian Easter Overture by Rimsky-Korsakov, an appropriate choice with Easter only a few weeks ago [sic].
Composed in 1888 it is a beautiful melodic piece of music, a collection of Russian Orthodox Church canticles and the 80-strong orchestra performed it splendidly under its Dutch conductor Stefan Hofkes with the solo violin passages beautifully played.
Next came the Saint-Saëns Violin Concerto No 3 - an under-performed concerto where the soloist was the highly acclaimed Gina McCormack.
Ms McCormack gave a very accomplished display of this easy-to listen-to concerto, with its lovely melodies and the three movements all blended in extremely well with the orchestra.
After the interval Mr Hofkes introduced Dvorák's Symphony No 9 (From the New World) to the 450-strong audience, which settled down to witness a rousing performance of this very popular and much-loved symphony.
There are four lively movements, all of which call for a lot of hard work from all the members of this amateur orchestra and they gave a very good rendering of this work, especially the various solo parts for the clarinet, flute and horn players.
It was indeed a lovely programme of late 19th century music and the young conductor and the orchestra were given much deserved applause at the end by this appreciative and knowledgeable audience".
Star rating: **** out of *****
(Peter Collett - Bristol Evening Post - 31 March 2003)
Last updated: 02 April 2003
