Saffron Walden Symphony Orchestra Concert Sunday 3 May

Concert goers and fans of the incomparable asset that is Saffron Hall were treated to a virtuoso performance at Sunday afternoon’s concert by the Saffron Walden Symphony Orchestra, this year celebrating the 70th anniversary of their foundation in 1956 as the Uttlesforde Orchestra. Beginning with Rachmaninov’s tone poem, The Isle of the Dead opens quietly in 5/8 rhythm growing gradually with some fine playing by the six french horns followed by a section played with impressive unanimity by the cellos. The music reached a peak with full orchestra dominated by a powerful brass section, before subsiding into fragments of the mediaeval plainchant Dies Irae – Day of Wrath, a recurrent theme in Rachmaninov’s compositions.

The highlight of the concert was undoubtedly the dazzling performance of Franz Liszt’s ‘Totentanz’ by the young and gifted Bishop’s Stortford virtuoso pianist Stephen Smithers. Stephen first appeared with this orchestra as a teenager and has joined them as soloist many times since. Liszt’s composition is a series of variations on the ‘Dies Irae’ theme, featuring piano solo passages accomplished with spectacular dexterity and force, from the opening solo passage to the furious fugue, all in the minor key, before returning to the theme in a more joyous major key and then into a piano cadenza of demonic intensity before the music calms into a delicate passage that features the gentle tinkle of Liszt’s favourite percussion instrument, the triangle. The piece proceeds by way of two further exhilarating piano cadenzas, with a rippling chromatic feature in the right hand over the main theme in the left, before the rousing final bars. The dexterity and confident professionalism with which Stephen accomplished this most taxing of piano works earned him prolonged, enthusiastic and richly deserved applause from an exhilarated audience.

The second half of the concert consisted of two reflections on the theme of death and transfiguration: Wagner’s Funeral March from his opera ‘Siegfried’, of which Wagner himself said “never again will I write anything as complicated as that”; followed by Richard Strauss’s meditation on the same theme from which he takes his title. Strauss follows the physical and mental tribulations of the dying artist, portrayed in dialogues between the different instruments of the orchestra and rising to a radiant climax before subsiding almost to silence as the artist’s spiritual journey reaches its end.

The Orchestra was expertly led through these challenging works by their conductor Richard Hull, and displayed the wide variety of its technical expertise in all sections whilst presenting an accomplished and satisfying whole. We are fortunate indeed to have such musicianship flourishing in our midst and wish them well for their anniversary, in anticipation of their performances through the decades to come. They richly deserve the privilege of appearing regularly in this magnificent concert venue.

Ian Priest