Conductor saves the day for Newbury Symphony Orchestra

Newbury Symphony Orchestra, at St Nicolas Church, Newbury, on Saturday, March 19. Review by FIONA BENNETT

At 6.45am on Saturday, John Traill (renowned conductor, composer and music educator) received a phone call asking him to conduct the Newbury Symphony Orchestra, in a programme of Mozart, Shostakovitch and Beethoven – that very evening!

The orchestra’s usual conductor, Jonathan Williams, was poorly but thankfully, John was au fait with the programme and he did an absolutely sterling job on the night. The air of expectation was palpable as we took our seats in St Nic’s Church; clearly all those months in lockdown, not being able to go out and enjoy live music, now make us count our blessings and the evening we spent with John, the orchestra and our talented soloist, Jennifer, was indeed a blessing.

We began with the overture to Don Giovanni, famously reputed to have been composed the night before the opera’s premiere in 1787. Amadeus is my all-time favourite film and those two menacing, pulsating opening chords send shivers down my spine to this day. Mozart is notoriously tricky to execute but I was impressed with the strings’ and woodwind articulation and it was a great start to the evening

Jennifer, our concert pianist, tells me she’s chosen a single moniker because her real name causes confusion when people try and spell it (it’s Aizen Koharu), but whichever name she uses, she oozes style, talent and commitment and her performance of the second piano concerto by Shostakovitch brought the house down. The audience burst into spontaneous applause at the end of the first movement and again, once she had played her last note and the orchestra gave her all the support she needed with a well-balanced, sympathetic accompaniment.

Beethoven’s first two symphonies have more than a smidge of ‘classical era’ about them but his mighty third symphony broke the mould and still stands as one of the giants of the symphonic genre. As with our overture, two chords announce the opening movement and the orchestra gave a very good account of themselves indeed, throughout the longest symphony written during the early part of the nineteenth century. The woodwinds sparkled, the trumpets shone, the strings deftly handled the brilliantly written score and the famous hunting horn sections in the third movement were mostly en pointe.

A well-chosen programme, a gifted soloist and a stylish conductor, who quite literally saved the day, all helped make our evening very special indeed and quite honestly, I’ve never heard NSO play as well. Well done to all!