Music
Oxford Philomusica
Sheldonian Theatre
Friday November 4th
2005
Oxford Philomusica kicked off their new season in emphatic style last
weekend with a programme that neatly paired two of Britain’s foremost
composers – William Walton and Edward Elgar. Perhaps in anticipation
of next year’s punishing schedule, regular maestro Marios Papadopoulos
sat this one out, leaving the baton wielding to veteran conductor Vernon
Handley.
First up was Walton’s highly passionate Violin Concerto, handled
with immense skill by Thomas Bowes. This is a work that Bowes has virtually
made his own. He discovered the piece as a teenager, and later, at the
invitation of Lady Walton, visited the Mediterranean resort of Ischia,
where the work was written. The result is an extraordinary fusion of
the player and the music, in which Bowes seems to engage totally with
the composer’s emotions and intentions. The first movement was realised
with an almost unbearable intensity; the second with playful flirtatiousness;
the third with an understanding of the Mediterranean atmosphere that
moved the composer to such lyrical beauty. And all this was combined
with Bowes’s own musicianship, technical mastery and tonal purity
to produce a performance of rare quality.
Anything that followed could have been an anticlimax, but with Elgar
on the menu such a possibility was quickly erased. His Enigma Variations
never fail to entertain, and the orchestra clearly relished the humour,
the passion and the vigour of this wonderful work. As always, the players
performed with that impenetrable bond that comes from working together
on a regular basis, and their account of the piece was infused with poise,
charm and warmth. Handley held all together with customary authority,
while renowned broadcaster Humphrey Burton entertained with his informative
introductions to each piece.
This concert showed the Philomusica to be in great shape, and clearly
ready for the challenges that await them in next year’s Mozart festival.
Nicola Lisle