CLASSICAL SOURCE
What do you programme with Shostakovich’s epic ‘Leningrad’ Symphony? Since it lasts seventy minutes or longer options are limited. However the presence of cohorts of brass made Fanfare for the Common Man a good choice, then add in Mendelssohn’s evergreen Violin Concerto with a popular soloist.
Helen Storey has been playing with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for sixteen years as Sub-Principal Bassoon. She has toured with the RPO to destinations as far afield as Korea, the USA and China, but now she has the opportunity to perform in her hometown of Bromley on Friday 31 March, as the Orchestra makes its long-awaited return to the Churchill Theatre. We took the opportunity to ask about her time at the RPO and the thriving musical scene on her doorstep.
CLASSICAL SOURCE
The Overture to Egmont is a tricky number to start unanimously, as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Pinchas Zukerman demonstrated. When settled this nominally dramatic opener hung fire somewhat, rather contemplative if musically observant regarding detail and dynamics (typically); short on theatre as the whole was though, it meant that the triumphant coda became more of a Pyrrhic victory.
HENLEY STANDARD
LAST Sunday, consistent with their adventurous classical music programming, the Hexagon in Reading hosted one of the great London orchestras, the Royal Philharmonic, in its 70th anniversary season — and, in his eighth season as principal guest conductor, one of the greatest violin virtuosi, Pinchas Zukerman.
