Stylistic Eclecticism

A concert by the Eden Chamber Orchestra,
reviewed by MALCOLM MILLER

A stylistic eclecticism with energising interpretation coloured the inspiring concert of Baroque and contemporary music given by the Eden Chamber Orchestra under their founder-director Daniel Cohen at St James' Church Piccadilly, London, UK, on 12 February 2007. The Eden Orchestra, whose young members are drawn largely from the Royal Academy of Music, where Daniel Cohen is currently completing his advanced studies, aims to combine mainstream repertoire with unfamiliar works by Jewish, Israeli or Middle Eastern composers, and recent performances include a masterly account of Wagner's Siegfried Idyll at St Martin-in-the-Fields last December.

The St James' concert was framed by two works for soprano and chamber orchestra: Bach's Cantata No 51, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen and The Lewis Carroll Poems by Matan Daniel Porat. In between was the conductor's own vivid orchestration of the Piano Prelude no 6, Des Pas Sur La Neige, by Debussy, full of atmosphere and aptly icy delicacy. Cohen's delicate use of muted trumpet motifs against pianissimo string chords, the dialogue of wispy flute and whispering violin, and his spacious, subdued sense of sonority painted the snow scene with cinematic aura, still faithful to Debussy's soundworld.

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