SEDUCED BY MR MOZART

(Review of concert at St Mary’s Church, Bridport, on July 4th 2015)

Bridport Chamber Orchestra and Allington Strings joined forces on Saturday to perform a landmark concert which raised the bar for amateur music making in the town. Under the energetic baton of Arturo Serna we were treated to an enchanting summer’s evening of Mozart, Bach and Pachelbel.

In Pachelbel’s canon the different layers of counterpoint were equally prominent, and the pizzicato bass line precise and measured. The Gigue, not so well known, was a jolly romp and set us up for Mozart’s Clarinet

Concerto. Joseph Shiner was an outstanding soloist. His rich tone, dynamic variety and dazzling technique had everyone spellbound, and the orchestra, as usual, accompanied him with sympathetic, restrained playing. Just occasionally they needed a touch more elasticity of tempo to match this fine soloist. Some fine woodwind playing brought out the texture of Mozart’s matchless orchestration.

Mozart’s divertimento K136 was delivered at a cracking pace, with agile fingerwork, especially from the cellos and bassesBach’s “Contrapunctus 1”, from “The Art of Fugue”, was much less familiar and was an exercise in concentration for players and listeners alike. A short piece, it set us up for the finale.

Arturo is bringing South American music here to Bridport, and the concert ended with Romero’s “Fuga con Pajarillo”. This music, almost unknown in Europe until Gustavo Dudamel brought it to our attention, is a fiendishly difficult dance. It has rhythms, and counterrhythms, and syncopation, and a fugue all at the same time. For the violins, playing pizzicato at speed and against the beat, it was a triumph.

BRUCE UPTON