Tag Archives: Peter Fribbins

In concert – English Symphony Orchestra / Kenneth Woods @ Kings Place: Elgar, Truscott, Fribbins, Weinberg & Shostakovich

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Laura Jellicoe (flute), Rosemary Cow (bassoon), Rosalind Ventris (viola), English Symphony Orchestra / Kenneth Woods

Elgar Romance in D minor Op.62 (1910)
Truscott Elegy in E flat major (1944) [London premiere]
Fribbins Folk Songs (2022) [London premiere]
Weinberg Flute Concerto no.1 in D minor Op.75 (1961)
Shostakovich arr. Barshai Chamber Symphony in A flat major Op.118a (1964, arr. 1971)

Kings Place, London
Sunday 23 March 2025

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What has become the English Symphony Orchestra’s annual appearance in London Chamber Music Society’s season saw an appealing programme of (relatively) familiar and (relatively) unfamiliar British and Soviet-era music as wide ranging as it had been carefully assembled.

It cannot often have begun a concert, but the Romance that Elgar wrote for bassoonist Edwin James made an attractive entrée – its pathos and eloquence fully conveyed by ESO principal Rosamary Cow, always heard to advantage against the strings’ warmly ruminative backdrop.

Harold Truscott finished only three works for orchestra, his Elegy for strings the undoubted masterpiece – eliding intuitively between the already burgeoning British lineage with that of Central Europe (Dvořák’s crepuscular Nocturne, heard at last year’s ESO concert, affords an interesting precedent). Despite its major-key grounding, this is music of intense while often anguished emotion – Truscott bearing his soul to a degree he was rarely, if ever, to do again. As in Worcester four seasons ago, Kenneth Woods searched out its every expressive nuance.

Concertante pieces have featured prominently in Peter Fribbins’s output, with Folk Songs the most recent example. Those traditional tunes range widely geographically and expressively – the Prelude drawing on Welsh melody Bugail Yr Hafod (When I was a Shepherd) in soulful restraint, the Fugue on Serbian tune Ajde Jano (C’mon Jana) in animated dexterity, then the Fantasia on Hungarian song Azt gondoltam eső esik (I thought it rains) in elegant profundity. Superbly played by Rosalind Ventris, it makes a welcome addition to a still-limited repertoire.

Hardly less valuable in its own context is the First Flute Concerto by Mieczysław Weinberg. Written for Alexander Korneyev, its modest proportions fairly belie its substance – whether the energetic interplay of its opening Allegro, the deftly understated threnody of its Adagio, or the whimsical humour of an Allegro anticipating numerous Weinberg finales. It was also the ideal showcase for ESO principal Laura Jellicoe to demonstrate her solo prowess, with ESO strings responding ably to what must be among its composer’s most performed pieces.

Dedicated to Weinberg and written over just 11 days, Shostakovich’s Tenth String Quartet is something of a standalone in the composer’s cycle – coming between four innately personal quartets and four dedicated to each member of the Beethoven Quartet. Yet it is music no less focussed in intent and Rudolf Barshai’s arrangement for string orchestra defines its character more markedly – not least the winsome ambivalence of its initial Andante or visceral force of its ‘furioso’ scherzo, the ESO players tackling those fearsome rhythmic unisons head on. The cellos came into their own with the emotionally restrained variations of the Adagio before, its link seamlessly effected, the final Allegretto built methodically if inexorably to a heightened restatement of the passacaglia’s theme before tentatively retracing its steps to a wistful close.

An impressive demonstration overall of the ESO’s prowess and, moreover, the ideal way to close 17 seasons of LCMS recitals at Kings Place. September finds this series relocating to the newly refurbished St John’s Church at Waterloo, ready for a new chapter in its existence.

Visit the English Symphony Orchestra website to read more about the orchestra, and click on the artist names to read more about flautist Laura Jellicoe, bassoonist Rosemary Cow, viola player Rosalind Ventris and conductor Kenneth Woods. Click also to read more on composers Peter Fribbins and Harold Truscott

Published post no.2,483 – Monday 24 March 2025

In concert – Simon Desbruslais, English Symphony Orchestra / Kenneth Woods: Sibelius, Sawyers, Dvořák, Fribbins & Elgar

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Simon Desbruslais (trumpet), English Symphony Orchestra / Kenneth Woods

Sibelius Rakastava Op.14 (1893, arr. 1912)
Sawyers Concerto for Trumpet, Strings and Timpani (2015)
Dvořák Notturno in B major Op.40 (1870, arr. 1883)
Fribbins Soliloquies (2012, arr. 2017)
Elgar Introduction and Allegro for strings Op.47 (1905)

Hall One, Kings Place, London
Sunday 15 April 2024

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

Concerts by the English Symphony Orchestra in the London Chamber Music Society’s season are always a worthwhile fixture and this early-evening event, in its mixing established classics with contemporary pieces, demonstrated the stylistic range and sympathies of this ensemble.

A pity that Sibelius’s Rakastava has never been taken up by many British conductors – John Barbirolli and Sir Colin Davis excepted – as this extensive reworking for strings and timpani of an early choral work should be a staple of its repertoire. Kenneth Woods duly brought out the wistful poise of The Lover, and if the stealthiness which underpins The Way of the Lover seemed just a little tentative, the bittersweet pathos that permeates Good evening, Farewell then came through unabated in what is as moving a leave-taking as its composer ever penned.

The music of Philip Sawyers has been a constant feature of the ESO’s programming this past decade, and his Trumpet Concerto more than deserved revival. The outward Classicism of its formal trajectory should not belie the deftness by which Sawyers modifies the sonata design of its opening Allegro, the impetus and reflectiveness of its main themes finding accord prior to a trenchant cadenza with timpani at the fore, or a central Andante that exuded an emotional breadth and fervour in advance of the excellent recording by these artists. Among the leading trumpeters of his generation, Simon Desbruslais – placed high to the rear of the auditorium, to potent effect – was wholly unfazed by its demands; nor those of a final Allegro in which more reflective elements leaven the initial energy, only to be outdone in the virtuosic closing bars.

Next, a welcome hearing for the Notturno that Dvořák salvaged from an early (and reckless) quartet. Its relative swiftness here recalled its intermediate reworking as an intermezzo in the second of his string quintets, so emphasizing its appealing lilt over any more ethereal quality.

Desbrulais (above) returned after a brief hiatus for Soliloquies by Peter Fribbins. A composer as adept on a symphonic as on a miniature scale, these brief if affecting pieces draw on three earlier songs – the recasting of whose vocal line encourages the soloist to an eloquence that, after the relative restraint of the initial Adagio and central Tranquillo, comes to the fore in a final Adagio where evocation takes on an almost cinematic aura. With impressive concertos for piano and violin to his credit, Fribbins ought to consider a full-length work for trumpet.

Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro has not unexpectedly been key to the ESO’s repertoire since its founding some 45 years ago, and this performance did not disappoint. Most admirable was the variety and depth of string tone that Woods (a one-time professional cellist) secured from only 19 players, so ensuring a vitality and impact in the more animated sections together with the requisite delicacy in those passages where the composer’s ruminative mood is uppermost. Both aspects were brought into thrilling accord at the close of the powerfully projected coda.

Beforehand, Woods spoke of the changing nature of commissions and the current difficulties in securing the necessary funding. This season has not been easy for the ESO though, on the basis of this programme, these players are commendably taking it all in their collective stride.

Click on the link to read more on English Symphony Orchestra, and on the names for more on their conductor Kenneth Woods, and trumpeter Simon Desbruslais. Click on the names for more on the new composers featured, Philip Sawyers and Peter Fribbins

Published post no.2,150 – Tuesday 16 April 2024