Jubilant 'Choral' Symphony for the Jubilee

MALCOLM MILLER at the penultimate
London Soloists Chamber Orchestra 'Totally Beethoven' concert

The bold horn calls of Beethoven's Fidelio Overture launched the penultimate concert in the Totally Beethoven series at London's St John's Smith Square on 14 June 2002 -- aptly billed as a 'Jubilee Concert' and featuring as its main work Beethoven's jubilant Choral Symphony. The twelve concert series is presented by the London Soloists Chamber Orchestra under their musical director David Josefowitz. The Fidelio Overture and Extracts, given a vigorous interpretation with many felicities of orchestration realised with pristine energy, was an ideal work for this young orchestra, its members either graduates or students at London's leading conservatoires. They played with freshness and vitality, under the baton of David Josefowitz, whose dynamic conducting is imbued with the spirit of the great masters, having worked for many years in the record industry as a plastics expert and later as producer of some 2000 LPs. He founded the ensemble fifteen years ago as a platform for young talent, and indeed many of its members have since attained international recognition.

The Fidelio extracts began with Leonore's first aria, impelled with gusto by soprano Ruby Hughes. She was joined in the moving quartet, fervently projected over the suavely smooth strings by alto Jeanette Ager (1998 Richard Auber Prize winner), James Lawrence, a wonderful Royal Academy of Music trained tenor, and Philip O'Brien who is currently at Glyndebourne. O'Brien's rendition of the Rocco aria Das Gold was bustling and fun, followed by a highlight -- Lawrence's outstanding account of Florestan's Act II aria -- beautifully phrased with depth and variety of tone. His duet with Ruby Hughes provided a thrilling conclusion.

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