Leader
Margaret Whittall

Conductor
Mark Fitz-Gerald

Soloist
Melina Mandozzi

The Kensington Philharmonic was on exuberant form among the history paintings, stained glass armorial crests and marble putti of Chelsea Town Hall. Very rarely does one get so close to an orchestra: the excited throng of well-wishers waving from the gallery, children watching their mothers perform and tanned elderly gents with silver hair ushering young ladies down the corridors.
      The evening began with a lovely lyrical rendering of The Merry Wives of Windsor Overture; the orchestra’s playing perfectly captured the surging comic brilliance of Nicolai’s opera. Despite the weary faces of children exhausted by heat, it was impossible not to feel bucked and revitalized after the opening which restored good spirits like a strong aperitif. We were transported to a Viennese river bank full of bird song and strolling couples.
      The Kensington Philharmonic continued its admirable tradition of fine virtuoso playing coupled with music that is not so well known. The violin soloist Melina Mandozzi treated us to Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No.2 The programme notes state that Wieniawski was a ‘musical Christiano Ronaldo from another age…commanding vast fees…impetuous…brazen…egocentric’ and the music proved as wild and tumultuous as this nineteenth century celebrity. Mandozzi, whose evening dress had gone missing with her suitcase, had quickly replaced it with a lilac satin gown, that gathered around her feet like pools of melted wax. I was worried that she would trip and held my breath as she adjusted her dress before launching into this notoriously difficult concerto with its dark, excitable theme. Her playing was inspired, her face looking rapturous and then stern as she handled the ‘devil’s staccato’ and furious gypsy arpeggios shooting right up the violin neck. Her whole body, not just her bowing arm, became an expression of the music, stiffly alert to rapid staccato strokes and then followed by relaxed orchestral sweetness.
      The spirit of restlessness continued with a triumphal rendition of Brahms Symphony No 4 in E Minor, a work full of turbulence, partly created by the two heavyweight sparring partners of wind and strings that introduce two different themes in the second movement. The clarinets were played with wonderful sweetness introducing a brooding and reflective feeling into the powerful argument. A big fan of the French horn I was explaining my love of them to a female violinist in the interval, she told me that for her it had to be violins every time and that French horns were essentially ‘a boy thing.’ Conceding there is something inherently comic in the French horn (with its suggestion of Breughel peasants at all night roisterings) even she had to agree that their beauty and mellow sadness is one of the Symphony’s highlights.
     The Kensington Philharmonic Orchestra’s next concert will be on Sunday 22nd November with the soloist Jonathan Ayling playing Dvorak’s Cello Concerto op.104
Daniel Jeffreys