Axe Vale Orchestra
Recent Concerts
Sunday 26th February 2023, 3.00 pm, Colyton Feoffees Hall
Cimarosa Overture: The Secret Marriage
Fauré Masques et Bergamasques
Rossini, arr.Respighi La Boutique Fantasque
Bizet Carmen Suite No. 2
Concert Review by Ray Bruno
Date: 26th February, 3.00 pm Venue: Colyton Town Hall
The Axe Vale Orchestra gave a spirited concert of music under the title An Afternoon at the Theatre. It’s always good to start a concert in the traditional way, with an overture. In this case it was from the rarely played opera The Secret Marriage by Domenico Cimarosa, a contemporary of Mozart. The music moved between thumping chords and brisk strings and reminded me of another contemporary, Cherubini.
Fauré’s Suite of music from his eight movement entertainment Masques and Bergamasques has a rather poetic title as none of the four movements is in the traditional bergamasque form. But how familiar the music seemed; was it the theme music from a TV or radio show of long ago? The opening overture movement was tuneful and flowing. The lilting mood of the following minuet was well captured by the AVO under its regular conductor Arturo Serna. Fauré certainly used some strange harmonic shifts. And the lively Gavotte contained some striking syncopations – I wouldn’t have liked to dance to it. The concluding gentle Pastorale gave the string players some rather modern sounding cascading scales.
Respighi’s Boutique Fantasque was another piece which reminded me of theme music of long ago. The orchestra caught the shifts of mood so well, from the thigh slapping Cossack Dance to an atmospheric Nocturne; the woodwind were particularly fine here. They also captured the quirkiness of the Tarantella.
Bizet’s Carmen suite is a sure test of an orchestra’s skills and they succeeded brilliantly. Such a shame that Bizet died without seeing the opera go from failure to triumph. The AVO played superbly from the opening scene at the smuggler’s den, through the Nocturne beautifully played by the leader Jane Bultz and the Toreador’s song with a great rendition of the difficult trumpet part. The final Gypsy Dance conjured up the swirling skirts in Lillas Pastia’s smoky tavern.
This was probably the best performance I have ever heard from the AVO. Well done.
Sunday 22nd May 2022, 3.00 pm, Colyton Feoffees Hall
Purcell Rondeau from Abdelazar
Sullivan (arr. Charles Mackerras) Pineapple Poll
Mendelssohn Fingals Cave Overture
Handel Music for the Royal Fireworks
Eric Coates Elizabeth of Glamis
Queen Elizabeth
Lehár Gold and Silver Waltz
The Axe Vale Orchestra presented a really up-beat concert in the Feoffees Hall, Colyton, to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of HM Queen
Elizabeth II. By clever planning, all the music was associated with the UK but not all of it was written by British composers.
The concert opened with the rondeau from Henry Purcell’s Abdelazar. His music is well established in the British heart and this little melody was taken up three
hundred years later by another archetypal British composer, Benjamin Britten. He used it as the theme for the set of variations used in the educational documentary film, “Instruments of the
Orchestra”.
Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas are quintessentially British with their lampooning of British institutions and aristocracy. Once more, it was a later composer,
this time an Australian, Charles Mackerras, who lifted the best tunes to create a ballet “Pineapple Poll”. The orchestra really relished Sullivan’s catchy tunes and had fun with the fast
string passages and striking brass tunes. And when the orchestra struck up “Never Mind the Why and Wherefore” from HMS Pinafore you sensed the audience wanting to join
in.
The AVO are rather good at Mendelssohn’s music so it was no surprise that they captured the misty atmosphere of his Hebrides Overture, better known as Fingal’s
Cave. I thought this was one of the best AVO performances I can remember. Mendelssohn was a great enthusiast for Britain; he visited many times and had a close friendship with Queen
Victoria and Prince Albert with whom he spent musical evenings.
George Frideric Handel was another fan of Britain and not only moved to London but took on British citizenship and changed the spelling of his name! The Music
for the Royal Fireworks is such a joyful, celebratory piece with the tunes coming thick and fast.
Eric Coates wrote mainly popular music. The AVO played his Three Elizabeths Suite; the movement commemorating the Queen Mother had a serene oboe solo played
beautifully by Caroline Page. This contrasted so well with the ebullient last movement with its striking brass themes.
Finally, Franz Lehar’s Gold and Silver Waltz with its colourful glockenspiel brought this splendid concert to an end and left the audience smiling and gently
swaying to the waltz rhythms. Well done Arturo Serna and the AVO. I look forward to hearing Arturo as the soloist in Dvorak’s gorgeous Cello Concerto on 16 October.
Ray Bruno
Sunday 27th February 2022, 3.30 pm, Seaton Gateway
- Suppé Overture "Pique Dame"
- Chopin Piano Concerto No.1
- Mozart Symphony No.31, "Paris"
Suppé’s lively and atmospheric overture to The Queen of Spades was a suitably uplifting start to the Axe Vale Orchestra’s first concert of the year which took place in The Gateway, Seaton. The original operetta (and Suppé wrote around forty of them, mostly totally neglected) was based on a spooky story by Pushkin of magic cards, deception and madness. Fortunately, Suppé modified this story to a more light-hearted love story and reflected this in the sparkling overture, played with great panache by the AVO, bringing out both the mystery and the rollicking fun. Those of a certain generation may have smiled as they remembered this music from numerous Mickey Mouse and Tom and Jerry cartoons!
Just a few days before Chopin’s birthday we heard his glorious Piano Concerto No.1. This was an early work and apparently a bit less difficult to play than his later works; all things are relative! Vyvian Bronk was an outstanding soloist asserting the piano’s supremacy from her first grandiose entry. She made light of the fiendish passage work and imbued the song-like melodies with a lyrical beauty. This is very much a concerto for piano with orchestra as Chopin created it to promote his own prodigious talent with the orchestra playing an often elusive accompanying role just adding touches of colour. This requires great concentration; they managed it excellently. The energetic finale in its Krakowiak dance rhythm was suitably quirky like the city of Krakow itself. How fortunate to hear such a thoughtful and sensuous performance.
Our conductor Arturo Serna took us into Mozart’s Paris Symphony. The title is the clue : Mozart not only wrote and first performed it there but consciously modified his style to appeal more to the Parisian audience. Mozart was no mug. The trumpets and timpani produce a dramatic effect and the fanfares continued into the finale. This finale was well performed by the AVO, not an easy task as there were a lot of separate lines of melody and individual instrumental entries.
Well done Arturo and the AVO. I look forward to the next concert, a special commemoration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with appropriate music. It’s on Sunday 22 May in the Feoffees Hall, Colyton.
Ray Bruno
Sunday 27th February 2022, 3.30 pm, Seaton Gateway
- Suppé Overture "Pique Dame"
- Chopin Piano Concerto No.1
- Mozart Symphony No.31, "Paris"
Suppé’s lively and atmospheric overture to The Queen of Spades was a suitably uplifting start to the Axe Vale Orchestra’s first concert of the year which took place in The Gateway, Seaton. The original operetta (and Suppé wrote around forty of them, mostly totally neglected) was based on a spooky story by Pushkin of magic cards, deception and madness. Fortunately, Suppé modified this story to a more light-hearted love story and reflected this in the sparkling overture, played with great panache by the AVO, bringing out both the mystery and the rollicking fun. Those of a certain generation may have smiled as they remembered this music from numerous Mickey Mouse and Tom and Jerry cartoons!
Just a few days before Chopin’s birthday we heard his glorious Piano Concerto No.1. This was an early work and apparently a bit less difficult to play than his later works; all things are relative! Vyvian Bronk was an outstanding soloist asserting the piano’s supremacy from her first grandiose entry. She made light of the fiendish passage work and imbued the song-like melodies with a lyrical beauty. This is very much a concerto for piano with orchestra as Chopin created it to promote his own prodigious talent with the orchestra playing an often elusive accompanying role just adding touches of colour. This requires great concentration; they managed it excellently. The energetic finale in its Krakowiak dance rhythm was suitably quirky like the city of Krakow itself. How fortunate to hear such a thoughtful and sensuous performance.
Our conductor Arturo Serna took us into Mozart’s Paris Symphony. The title is the clue : Mozart not only wrote and first performed it there but consciously modified his style to appeal more to the Parisian audience. Mozart was no mug. The trumpets and timpani produce a dramatic effect and the fanfares continued into the finale. This finale was well performed by the AVO, not an easy task as there were a lot of separate lines of melody and individual instrumental entries.
Well done Arturo and the AVO. I look forward to the next concert, a special commemoration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with appropriate music. It’s on Sunday 22 May in the Feoffees Hall, Colyton.
Ray Bruno
Sun 10th October 2021: 3.30pm Axminster Church
Mendelssohn Overture: The Fair Melusine
Tomlinson: Suite of Engish Fol Dances
Delius: La Calinda
Haydn: Clock Symphony
"How thrilling it was to be part of a live audience in front of a symphony orchestra. You could feel this excitement in the Minster Church, Axminster, as the Axe Vale Orchestra gave its first live concert since February last year. Mendelssohn’s overture The Fair Melusine tells the familiar story of a water nymph who falls in love with a mortal, except this nymph inconveniently turns into a mermaid once a week. Well, you can imagine the problems. The orchestra captured the watery opening beautifully and then went on to portray musically the conflicts which followed. And did those tunes originate in Scotland? The young Mendelssohn was on a walking holiday there a couple of years before he wrote this overture.
A real feast of tunes followed when the AVO played the first Suite of English Folk Dances written by Ernest Tomlinson. They caught the dance-like feel of these pieces so well : from the opening violin solo played by the leader Jane Bultz, through an oboe solo with gossamer-like violin harmonics, to the powerful full orchestra of the final dance. And how familiar they made the tunes sound; do we know them from theme music perhaps?
La Calinda is the popular dance from Frederick Delius’ opera Koanga. Despite it’s being probably the first opera based on Afro-American tunes it is now neglected and wasn’t published until after Delius’ death. What we heard was a truly delightful rendition of this gentle, tuneful dance, one which always brings a smile to my face. Well done conductor Arturo Serna and the AVO for making such familiar music sound so fresh.
It’s easy to be dismissive of Joseph Haydn. He may have been overshadowed by Beethoven but just listen to his music and then dare to say he wasn’t a genius. The well-known Clock Symphony is full of remarkable twists and turns, ably negotiated in this performance. This takes a lots of skill to manage so all credit to Arturo and his band.
You hear so much detail just by being there with a live orchestra. They set the bar high for the next concert on 27th February at Seaton Gateway."
Ray Bruno
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Reviews:
Last Concert - 13th October 2019: The Feoffes Hall, Colyton
The concert was a triumph. Definitively one of the best so far.
Bizet overture ' Dr Miracle'
The orchestra played with the perfect speed the overture. It was performed with wit and precision
Beethoven: Piano Concerto no 3
Throughout the concerto I could feel the orchestra wide awake, listening and reacting to whatever the soloist did.
Mendelssohn: Symphony no 3 ( The Scottish)
However, I have to say the symphony was the very best item
The violins were the absolute stars at the beginning of the symphony with their semiquavers performed flawlessly, together and perfectly in tune. I haven't found a single recording where that is achieved. Big bravo to them!
The woodwind performed with incredible precision and excellent intonation. All the dangerous speed changes were perfectly executed. The slow movement was performed with beautiful tenderness and striking changes of mood and colour.
And the last movement was terrific, fast, furious, loud and with a fantastic royal ending for a gorgeous audience.
The orchestra was stunning in every single way. Bravo!
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