Fenella Humphreys (violin, below), ESO Youth Symphony Orchestra / James Topp

Walton Prelude and Fugue ‘The Spitfire’ (1942)
Korngold Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35 (1945)
Heathfield JAZZ HORSE (2024) [World Premiere]
Korngold arr. Russ The Sea Hawk – Suite (1940)
Walton arr. Matheson/ed. Lloyd-Jones Henry V – Suite (1944, arr. 1963)

The Bradshaw Hall, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham
Friday 23 August 2024

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

The English Symphony Orchestra’s annual Summer Course reached its climax this evening with a concert by its Youth Symphony Orchestra as ranged across film music from the mid-20th century, and in various guises from straightforward adaptation to wholesale reworking.

Whether or not those films for which he provided music have stood the test of time, Walton’s is a significant contribution to the cinema. As adapted from The First of the Few, his ‘Spitfire’ Prelude and Fugue remains one of his most characteristic such pieces and this performance did full justice to the prelude’s martial tread as to the fugue’s driving impetus, though James Topp was mindful to ensure the pastoral interlude (just before the return of the main theme) yielded an intimacy as underlined the essentially personal nature of this now underrated film.

Whereas Walton’s metier was in wartime or theatrical subjects, that of Korngold centred on Hollywood ‘blockbusters’ which required scores of suitably emotional opulence. Several of these found an equally appropriate home in the Violin Concerto completed at the end of the Second World War, whose formal cohesion prevents any risk of its expressive power losing focus. This was certainly the impression as conveyed by Fenella Humphreys – notably the ardency of her take on the opening Moderato, with a central Romance as ingenious in its trajectory as it was eloquent in content. Nor was there any lack of energy in a final Allegro with repartee between soloist and orchestra at its most engaging and not least in its closing stages, when a resplendent version of the main theme is outflanked by the uproarious coda.

After the interval, a sinisterly attired Finn Heathfield put members of the orchestra through their collective paces with JAZZ HORSE, described as ‘‘a collection of improvisations and performance exercise rooted by the rhythm section’s bass motif (thus F-Ab-Bb-Eb). It duly provided a telling foil to the suite (here arranged by Patrick Russ) from Korngold’s score to The Sea Hawk; a sequence capturing this film’s overall panache as surely as its resourceful writing for percussion and a reminder of a composer who should never be underestimated.

The programme concluded with more Walton and the suite from his score to Henry V – now remembered as a star-vehicle for Laurence Olivier, but which at the time played a necessary role in the British war-effort. Muir Matheson’s adaptation features most of the highlights and, as edited by the late David Lloyd-Jones, takes in more from the Overture in its evoking The Globe Playhouse via Elizabethan stylizations these players audibly relished. The sombreness of The Death of Falstaff and calm ecstasy of Touch Her Soft Lips and Part were rendered with no less insight, while the Charge and Battle placed between them brought a frisson of excitement set in relief by a poetic evocation of the Baïlerò at the close. Building intently to its joyous close, the Agincourt Song provided a rousing end to the suite and to this concert.

Another Summer Course Concert completed – its success not, as Topp indicated, to be taken for granted given the logistical and financial obstacles in bringing 91 musicians to this level of attainment. Hopefully such considerations will not become insurmountable in the future.

For details on the artists, click on the names to read more about Fenella Humphreys, James Topp, the ESO Youth Orchestra and the English Symphony Orchestra – and for more on composer Finn Heathfield

Published post no.2,282 – Monday 26 August 2024