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Intertwining Counterpoint
The St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra,
heard by MIKE WHEELER
Touring Russian orchestras usually bring with them wall-to-wall Russian music. So the prospect of hearing the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, and conductor Vladimir Altschuler, in something as iconically English as Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis was intriguing, to say the least (Assembly Rooms, Derby, UK, 4 October 2012)
The work needs a resonant cathedral acoustic to make its full effect, and the constraints of the performing space meant that the second orchestra had to be closer than ideal, ranged in a line behind the main body of players. Even so, the orchestra really seemed to connect with a work they can't have played that often...
Copyright © 18 October 2012
Mike Wheeler,
Derby UK
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