Paper planes, drama and creative energy in three Christmas concerts

CHRISTMAS 2012 began in the most family-friendly manner at a packed Guy Nelson Hall. Hosting the annual family concert with great skill, Paul Leddington Wright managed the delightful voices of the St Michael’s Singers of Coventry Cathedral and the exuberant spirits of a Warwickshire Symphony Orchestra getting into the festive mood with colour coordinated tinsel-adorned string instruments.

Leddington Wright’s Christmas Fanfare ensured a very bright start to proceedings, continued by a busy Bethan Jones’s handling of an array of percussion instruments to good effect in Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride. Order returned with St Michael’s Singers’ graceful rendition of Howard Skempton’s Adam Lay y-Bounden and their invitation to sing with them in the arrangement of Good King Wenceslas by accompanist Robert Ramskill.

Interval tasks included building paper planes and completing the regulation quiz. Why paper planes? So we can launch them at the orchestra during 633 Squadron – which we did most enthusiastically - only to be taken aback when the orchestra most effectively launched them back at their audience. Great fun for all the family.

With Ramskill’s arrangement of When a Child is Born, giving harpist Dilys O’Driscoll a world première opportunity, this family concert had everything to promote a happy build-up to the festive season. Well done WSO.

Mark Swinton is one of those quiet, reserved, gentle young men until he sets himself at the organ console, when the output becomes mesmeric. And so it was at St Mary’s on Wednesday night with Olivier Messiaen’s La Nativité du Seigneur. An hour and ten minutes of solo effort, such a huge undertaking on a bitterly cold night both outside and inside St Mary’s.

Mark’s helpful programme notes fully prepared the small, resolute audience for atmospheric, dazzling harmonies, exciting toccatas and explosive, audacious dances. This is a rare treat; he deserved a bigger audience.

The most eagerly awaited City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra concert was worthy of the packed house on Thursday evening. Eagerly awaited because CBSO are blessed with a conductor in Andris Nelsons, who has a unique ability to build tension and drama into his work and demonstrate the skills of an effective workgroup leader. His capability too, to achieve a most agreeable balance between soloists and orchestras was demonstrated in Beethoven’s Concerto for piano, violin and cello in C major.

In recent months we have become familiar with Baiba Skride’s skills as a violinist. The cello performance by Daniel Müller-Schott was nothing short of astonishing and Lars Vogt’s piano contributions were an important element in maintaining the balance. The orchestra responded well to Nelsons’ demands for changes of pace and the overall togetherness produces, at times, a spine-chilling intensity. Baskets of flowers were duly presented to soloists in recognition of a truly memorable performance.

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (Eroica) is a milestone in the composer’s maturity. The work is full of creative energy, indeed, and with Nelsons in charge, the last movement was an outpouring of creative energy. Having recognised individual contributions by Marie-Christine Zupancic (flute) and Rainer Gibbons (oboe), Nelsons acknowledged the sustained, accurate responses of timpani player, Peter Hill.

In the absence of orchestra leader, Laurence Jackson, Philippe Honore took responsibility for leading a memorable evening. Fittingly, Lena Zeliszewska, his deputy leader, was awarded the bouquet that had been destined for Nelsons. What an evening to remember.

Clive Peacock