Winchester Symphony Orchestra (From Daily Echo)

Winchester Symphony Orchestra

3:50pm Wednesday 25th March 2009 in

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IT was brave of the Winchester Symphony Orchestra to mount a single-composer programme and to choose Brahms as that composer - one who shuns dramatic, colourful effects for serious, mature working of quite abstract materials.

However, when over seventy players packed the stage of New Hall they were rewarded with an equally packed auditorium.

There was colour to enjoy in the opening Academic Festival Overture during which all sections of the orchestra were able to settle in before the more subtle challenges to come. Energy marked this opener just as strong commitment and concentration marked the later third symphony.

Casual listeners may not be aware of the considerable challenges of Brahms’s syncopations and cross-rhythms and it was a mark of thorough preparation that the whole evening's performance demonstrated such security of ensemble in such a large band and much credit is due to conductor Nicholas Wilks. The piano writing has been described as awkward and unwieldy demanding 'more physical strength than elegance and technical accomplishment'. Yet these attributes were wonderfully displayed by the gifted Mr Owens who was more than a match for the virtuoso part.

His brilliant control and interpretative insight were never at the expense of the overall ensemble. He followed the other players sensitively and they and their conductor followed him despite the work’s often illogical design.

DEREK BECK