The Solent Concert Orchestra recently performed a programme of well-known pieces and a few lesser well-known pieces in support of the Honeypot children’s charity at Bramshaw Village Hall under the baton of their musical director, Simon Wilkins.
The concert got off to a rousing start with Verdi’s Nabucco with its famous Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves. This was followed by Ferdinand Herold’s foot- tapping Clog Dance. The orchestra then managed to capture the sensitive textual contrasts of Delius’s The Walk to the Paradise Garden from the opera A Village Romeo and Juliet.
Solent Concert Orchestra
The next piece was probably the most challenging of the evening; Franz Liszt’s Les Preludes combined lilting melodies with fast arpeggios. The result was loudly applauded by the audience and richly deserved.
Beethoven’s Creatures of Prometheus overture got the second half of the evening underway. This, too, gathered pace as it progressed finishing with a final flourish. This was followed by extracts from Saint-Saens’ Henry VIII Ballet-Divertissement containing some easily recognisable English, Scottish and Irish folk melodies.
Delibes’s delightful Prelude to the Ballet Sylvia brought the programme to its final item, namely pieces from Bizet’s Carmen Suites 1 and 2. Rumbustuous renditions of The Toreadors March and Chanson was greeted with rapturous applause with the former being repeated as an encore.
A most successful concert was thus concluded which enabled generous donations to be given to the much deserving Honeypot Children’s Charity. The supporting presence of co-patron Lady Fiona Lewis was much appreciated.
The Solent Concert Orchestra’s next concert is at URC, Cornerstone, Hythe on Saturday 15th November which will feature Lalo’s cello concerto and Mendelssohn’s ‘Italian’ symphony. More details are available at: www.solentconcertorchestra.org.uk
Howard Moore