It might have been cold outside, it might have been colder inside but Lavenham Church on the evening of Sunday 26 November was full of sparkling wonderful music to warm everyone's heart. Jill's performance of Schumann's Piano Concerto was heart stopping (luckily no one's did) and the Steinway Grand Piano brought in specially for the concert did more than justice to the piece. The orchestra rose to the occasion and accompanied Jill all the way from 1st chord to the last chord. But of course everyone came to hear Jill and she was magnificent, notes just dripped off her fingers like a waterfall of sound. It is a scary piece for the orchestra as there are all sorts of entries that are not always obvious, lots of counting rests and some very interesting and unusual rhythms.
Beethoven’s 6th Symphony, the Pastoral, is a wonderfully original work which is quite taxing, particularly for the wind players but the orchestra managed it all with aplomb. The bird calls (a nightingale, a quail and a cuckoo) all rang out beautfully and Beethoven's peasant musicians fell asleep at the appropriate time while the famous storm with everyone playing full pelt was skillfully executed, luckily Storm Ludwig managed to pass through the Suffolk countryside without a hint of damage.
We started the evening with Schubert's jolly Overture in the Italian Style which set the evening up well even though the audience had to be encouraged to clap at the end - it is one of those pieces with several false endings and clearly no one in the audience wanted to be shown up by clapping before the end.
It was quite a challenging concert to put with several players falling ill with covid just before the concert and one finding his return flight from Cuba was cancelled so he could not actually physically get to Lavenham in time. We had to pull a few strings to get replacements in but luckily they all managed it. Lavenham had a very popular Farmers Market and a Christmas Market on the same day as the concert so parking was a nightmare for players turning up for the rehearsal. Getting the piano into the church and then tuned while working around the Christmas Fair in the church and the normal Sunday service on the day of the concert was an interesting exercise in logistics. Performing in Lavenham Church comes with its own rewards though, the acoustics are excellent, its a really beautiful venue and all the volunteers and church people that work there are always very very helpful which makes it a lovely venue.
So - a great night out!