WSO in demand beyond the boundary
REPUTE beyond its own ramparts is something Worthing Symphony Orchestra is starting to create.
The bar of excellence within its ranks has been additionally raised during the past two seasons by conductor John Gibbons and is now transporting them out of Sussex into a wider regional arena.
They were in line to help create a special one-off Swan Lake ballet performance in London this month. That project did not go ahead but, as a result of another offer, they will appear on October 25 at Northampton's Royal and Derngate Theatre to help celebrate the music of British film and concert hall composer Malcolm Arnold.
To outsiders, it may seem startling that Worthing's orchestra is of such quality that soloists from around the world go away from performances here having felt compelled to comment on the class of music making that greets them from rehearsal onwards to performance in the Assembly Hall. But the presence of orchestral musicians, some of whom will once again coming to the Worthing season after appearing in leading other orchestras, for instance in the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, is an instrumental factor.
Gibbons said: "Not only is our central Worthing venue acoustically stunning. The visiting soloists repeatedly remark on the quality of playing. It's to do with this that the WSO reputation is now attracting offers from outside the county. We'll be packaged up in Northampton for a special celebratory weekend as The Malcolm Arnold Festival Orchestra.
"We'll be performing Arnold's Fourth Symphony and his Flourish for Orchestra There will also be The Carnival of the Animals, and Russian virtuoso Boris Brovtsyn will be joining us to play Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto.
"It'll provide a stunning climax. Arnold Four is a fabulous symphony that combines great tunes — the first movement's second subject is surely one of 20th century's finest symphonic melodies. There is intoxicating West Indian drumming, there are nods at West Side Story, and there's a climax of Charles Ives-ian proportions. It's a work that demands to be heard live for its full impact to be felt.
"But meanwhile, our own season is starts this Sunday at the Assembly Hall. Legendary Turkish pianist Idil Biret returns to perform both Faure's exquisite Ballade for Piano and Orchestra, and the popular Second Piano Concerto by Saint-Saens. The French theme continues with the pizzicato movement from the ballet Sylvia by Delibes, Haydn's Symphony No. 85 "La Reine" opens the afternoon and Mozart's effervescent Symphony No. 31 "Paris" closes it.
"People can make a memorable musical day trip to Worthing with lunch on the seafront. I suggest trying the Indigo Restaurant at the Ardington Hotel, but there are lots of other places. Then a stroll along the promenade and a fabulous afternoon concert starts at 2.45pm. The weather in Worthing on Sunday is expected to be sunny until a light covering of cloud in mid-afternoon!
"Note, too, that for our second concert of the season violinist Nicola Benedetti returns to play Glazunov and Massenet while the orchestra perform Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 and Mussorgsky's Night on a Bare Mountain. That's on Sunday, October 11, at our usual time of 2.45pm.
Worthing SO box office 01903 206206. www.worthingtheatres.co.uk
Further details of the Northampton weekend of Malcolm Arnold at: www.royalandderngate.co.uk.
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Weather for Worthing
Wednesday 30 May 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 12 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: South west
