CBSO/Natalie Clein * * * *
at Town Hall, Sutton Coldfield
Review by Clare Mackney
It's rare nowadays, but the opening of this Gala Concert saw orchestra and audience on their feet for the National Anthem - Sutton Coldfield Philharmonic Society values its traditions, and none more so than its long association with the CBSO.
The society clearly appreciates youthful talent too, and 27-year-old Alexander Shelley's stylish conducting was well received, his masterful reading of Schumann's First Symphony demonstrating substance behind the elegance.
The introductory Andante did not quite settle (woodwind a little compromised, perhaps because of its location well behind the proscenium) but CBSO strings were on top form, sunny and rhythmically tight in the first Allegro, exuberantly light-hearted in the finale.
The real magic came in the central two movements as Shelley and his players raised goose-bumps with the eloquence of the Larghetto, switching gear flawlessly for a forthright Scherzo.
Cellist Natalie Clein may have won BBC Young Musician of the Year back in 1994, but she still cuts a girlish figure in her simple black concert wear and gold trainers, an image reflected in her extrovert approach to Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme.
The opening theme and first variation were delivered with unconstrained, honeyed warmth and the second variation was all waggish humour, but Clein's control was absolute, communicating real feeling rather than mere pyrotechnics through the cadenzas and virtuosic finale, reinforced by some lovely exchanges with solo flute.
Apart from the steely tension which fuelled the first movement's m agnificent crescendo, Beethoven's Symphony No 8 was almost all brightness and light. Defiance was reserved for the encore, which closed the evening w ith the Overture to Mozart's Marriage of Figaro.
