The London Mozart Players play with precision, warmth and power that belies their modest forces. A tidy lunch-break package with a powerful punch. A delightful discovery.
St John’s Smith Square 2016/17: Southbank Sinfonia play Shakespeare in Music
Southbank Sinfonia’s first concert of the St Johns Smith Square 2016/17 season was an inventive presentation that combined dialogue and speeches of Shakespeare’s plays with incidental music written for a range of RSC productions by a wide range of British composers.
North Devon Sinfonia wins BBC Two’s Great Orchestra Challenge
All Together Now was a joyous celebration of amateur music making that rejected cringeworthy cliches and tired TV tropes, trusting its audience to appreciate the very thing its programme makers sought to highlight.
As a TV programme it is a template for how to authentically introduce new music to an unsuspecting audience in such a way that long after the credits have rolled they’ll run off and find the music themselves on Spotify.
All the orchestras benefited from the passion and enthusiasm of conductor Paul Daniel and bassist Chi-Chi Nwanoku. Presenter Katie Derham appeared in her element too, geeing the players up, supporting them, and catching them when they fell.