Oxford Times, July 2002

The Amadeus Orchestra, whose oldest member (I should imagine) is barely the wrong side of 25, is one of several admirable organisations which bridge the gap for young musicians between college and employment. On July 18 they stopped off at the Sheldonian, en route from Bath to Dorchester, to give a difficult programme with virtuosity and youthful panache.

 

Vaughan Williams's Lark Ascending always sounds specially beautiful in this acoustic - perhaps also the atmosphere of Wren's great building complements this intensely English piece. Lucy Baker (violin) produced not just the desired silvery tone on the heights, but thoroughly musical phrasing, with the orchestra (under Jason Thornton) realising the clear textures which proclaim this 'British' composer also a pupil of Ravel.

 

Philip Mackenzie took over the baton for Strauss's Death and Transfiguration. He projected the essential forward momentum, the lightness of touch essential to prevent Strauss's orchestral writing from degenerating into a welter of sound. The strings did him proud in the 'idealism motif', and the brass chording - which frequently goes astray with world famous ensembles - was remarkably accurate. Largely through strict control of tempo, Mackenzie also did justice to the wonderful tonal beauty of the final pages, which so movingly anticipate the atmosphere of the Four Last Songs, written almost half a century later.

 

Saint Saëns's 'Organ' Symphony is a war horse of a very different kind, though written at almost exactly the same time as the Strauss. For Oxford listeners, it has the particular interest of allowing us to evaluate in performance the qualities of the recently installed 'Bradford organ', here played by Ben Summers. Naturally he chose the 'Cavaillé-Col' registration which reproduces the sound of one of that great builder's instruments in a large Parisian church. Suffice it to say it sounded magnificent, underlying yet not swamping the orchestra.

 

The final Chorale and fugue was an excellent example of togetherness on all fronts. Talking to an orchestra member afterwards, I discovered the reason - these performances come, for them, as the climax to their residential Summer School in Somerset.

 

Hugh Vicker

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