News and Reviews

Review: sinfonia ViVA After:HOURS concert
Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham - 24th November 2009

Special ground rules applied. You could take a drink into the hall. Cheering your approval was welcomed. And you were encouraged to clap between movements – which is actually an old custom in classical music.

There were elements of all this when sinfonia ViVA launched the first of four late-night shows promoted by Nottingham Classics. What counted most, however, was the largely contemporary material.

The rhythmic Loops and Verses from John Adams' Shaker Loops opened the session. They segued directly into the music of baroque maverick Antonio Vivaldi. The Winter concerto from his Four Seasons featured the mercurial violin of ViVA leader Benedict Holland.

Adams' American colleague Philip Glass scored his Third Symphony for 19 string players, each of them virtually a soloist. Cool beginnings, plenty to warm us thereafter. At the work's heart was a mesmeric chaconne: variations on a theme in a low register.

Having just given a full-length programme, the orchestra displayed both flair and stamina. Youthful conductor André de Ridder, with his natural manner, made an ideal presenter.

And what the exercise proved beyond doubt is a keen and sizeable audience for this type of afters.

Review by Peter Palmer