The Minster, Axminster - Sunday 18 May 2025

• Mozart - The Impresario Overture
• Mendelssohn - Selection of Incidental Music to a Midsummer Night's Dream
• Beethoven - Symphony No 2 in D major Op 36

On Sunday afternoon the Axe Vale Orchestra performed another lively concert in Axminster Minster Church: Mozart, Mendelssohn and Beethoven.

An excellent piece to open the concert, Mozart’s overture to The Impresario set up a theme that would run through the whole afternoon: strong ensemble and finely judged balance. This is not a group of musicians who are vague or sloppy with note lengths. Their conductor, Walter Brewster, demands immense concentration and accurate following of his beat. Indeed, the AVO is fortunate to benefit from the conductor who can claim to have the crispest beat in the West.

Three excerpts from the Incidental Music to a Midsummer Night’s Dream started with an atmosphere of mystery in the Intermezzo, then reflection in the Nocturne and finally jollity and controlled excitement in the Scherzo. It is a great pleasure to hear such controlled crescendi and fast passages. In their pews, members of the audience could be seen at times surreptitiously jiggling in time with the frenetic, dancing rhythms. It could not be helped. We could visualise feverish flights of fairies and appreciate the flow of tension and release in the music. Thanks to Mendelssohn, thanks also to Walter Brewster. Immaculate flute playing allowed the spell to cast to the very last note of the piece.

After the interval came Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2. It is actually quite unusual to hear a live performance of this piece, it’s far more likely that it is known from recordings. This is a pity, for there is so much detail that can be enjoyed in the concert hall. Syncopations, games of throw and catch between instruments of passages, surprising changes of rhythms, conversations between groups of instruments. It was clear that Walter had been pushing the orchestra hard in rehearsals. Sensitive playing and performances full of contrasts are the result.

The splendid Minster Church suits an orchestra of this size perfectly. When the performers are at their most energetic it makes for a thrilling body of sound without shattering any windows.

Excellent tea and cakes were enjoyed on the green rounded off a spirit-lifting concert.

T Love

Feoffee's Hall, Colyton - Sunday 23 February 2025

• Humperdinck - Overture - Hansel and Gretel (1891)
• Alwyn - Suite of Scottish Dances (1946)
• Bizet - L'Arlesienne Suite No 2 (
• Mozart - Symphony No 39 in E flat major K543

If you had been in the Colyton Feoffees Town Hall, on Sunday afternoon, you would have been treated to an effervescing demonstration of orchestral colours from around Europe.

Opening with Humperdinck’s overture to the fairy-tale opera Hansel and Gretel, the orchestra immediately proved that it is able to produce a delicate sound in quiet passages as well as a full-bodied one in forthright, energetic sections. This adaptation of the Brothers Grimm tale was not actually composed for children, but it was clear that it was being enjoyed by young and old alike on Sunday afternoon. (Nice to see so many young people at the concert on the last day of half term.)

The orchestra followed with Alwyn’s Suite of Scottish Dances. It is difficult to erase the image of a swaying kilt as one listened to the stately throbbing of the strathspey. Then, as the clarinets lightly skipped a reel along the shore of Loch Earn, we knew for sure that we were in the Highlands. Walter Brewster conducted the joyful hornpipe as fast as he dared, which raised the audience’s pulse significantly, unable to avoid moving to the rhythm as they listened.

From Scotland then on to Provence as the Mediterranean light flooded into the Feoffees Hall with the performance of the second suite from Bizet’s l’Arlésienne. I have to highlight the delicate flute playing in the minuet and then the controlled gusto of the farandole which brought the first half to a rousing end.

The players approached Mozart’s 39th Symphony in E flat minor K543 with a deft touch. Strings played elegantly and rhythmically, even when the pace got lively. Clarinettists captured the spirit of the Austrian folk dance charmingly. The AVO clearly enjoys getting to grips with Mozart’s subtlety and managed to express the contrasts within the symphony with aplomb.

The Axe Valley can consider itself blessed to have its own orchestra with its special blend of former professional musicians and experienced amateur players giving us three concerts a year. (I wish it were more.) This is a musical ensemble to be cherished for its serious and rewarding contribution to the musical life of the region.

T.Love

The Gateway, Seaton - Sunday 20 October 2024

'Home Grown'

Soloist: Faye Mayer

• Holst: A Moorside Suite H173 (1927)
• Stanford: Clarinet Concerto in A Minor Op 80 (1904)
• Elgar: Nursery Suite (1931)
• Arnold: Little Suite No. 1 for orchestra Op 53 (1955)

Concert review

A terrific concert of all British music, entitled Home Grown, was performed by our own home grown orchestra this weekend.  Music by Holst, Stanford, Elgar and Arnold was played with sensitivity, passion and enlightenment. 

Holst’s ‘Moorside Suite’captured the lyrical, English folk idiom with intimations of the familiar ‘Planets’ (particularly on the side-drum in the final movement).  Elgar’s ‘Nursery Suite’ contained the range of emotion we know so well, but from the perspective of early childhood.  Perhaps it was best represented by the contrast between the Serious and Sad Doll’s which are two of the 6 short movements extremely well played with a tricky, but well executed solo by the flautist, Jane Smith.  The Elgar was reminiscent of his jolly shed music!

But it was the other two pieces that stood out for me.  Stanford’s A minor Clarinet concerto was brilliantly played by 17 year old local school-girl, Faye Mayer.  She performed impeccably with excellent control and intonation.  Her superb pianissimo entries at both ends of the register were outstanding.  (My only criticism would be that the orchestra couldn’t match her dynamic control!)  Then she played the final and furious last movement with a lightness and technical accuracy that many older and more experienced players would envy.  Moreover, she took command of the orchestra by stressing the beat through difficult flourishing passages throughout her compass.  No wonder she gained a distinction in her diploma and plays at National and European level.  She is someone to look out for! 

The Little Suite by Malcolm Arnold was the final piece.  It could be film music, and suits the orchestra very well.  Well done the brass, percussion and timps who made the most of their moment.

Altogether this was a thrilling concert and made for a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon’s entertainment.

Jeremy White