The brilliant success of Stratford's inaugural "Spring Sounds" festival over this Bank Holiday weekend can be attributed to several factors.
There has been enthusiastic support from an avid public, with packed houses, enlightened sponsorship, the sheer "wow" factor of David Curtis and his accomplished Orchestra of the Swan and, not least, the generous involvement of Tasmin Little. With strong family links in the town, she was busy both as artistic director and hard-working performer.
In Monday's festival finale she was the spectacular soloist in Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto, a lovely work but one which puts such demands upon the violinist, particularly in the non-stop moto perpetuo of the finale. Little came through heroically here, having been generous in her lyrical outpourings in the two preceding movements. Curtis and OOTS accompanied attentively, and with a well-honed sense of detail, with w oodwind particularly prominent.
But Little also had a presence as co-commissioner with OOTS of Japanese Spring by Roxanna Panufnik, the first of a cycle linking seasons with various locations, and designed to complement the Four Seasons of Vivaldi and Astor Piazzolla.
This tiny piece, receiving its premiere here, burgeoned with joyous exhilaration, Little's solo line trilling and dancing, and interacting zippily with various soloists from Curtis' orchestra.
Nature-music of a more portentous kind had come earlier with Vaughan Williams' Fifth Symphony, calling for the biggest orchestra I have ever seen on this stage, and its textures and balances acutely judged by David Curtis. Its magnificent Romanza resounded with resonances of past centuries, with an eloquently chanting cor anglais solo.
Korngold's Much Ado About Nothing Suite, delectably scored, made a suitable nod to Stratford's greatest son.
