The Academy on tremendous form

It was an enterprising programme of music which the Academy of St Thomas fielded for Saturday’s concert, beginning with Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No 2. Whereas his Chamber Symphony No 1 is scored for a small ensemble of 15 soloists, and stretches the limits of tonality, in the second Schoenberg reverted to tonal music, using a much larger orchestra. It’s two movements, the first quite short , the second much longer , contain complex music, yet conductor Christopher Adey achieved clarity of texture and drew warm and colourful playing from the orchestra in a performance which made the work’s structure admirably clear.

Timothy Brown no stranger to the Academy’s concert was the distinguished soloist in Richard Strauss’s youthful first large concerto giving a flawless performance, the solo in the andante sounding particularly fine.

By addition we heard a rarity the Idyll for horn and string quartet by Glazunov, the accompaniment arranged for string orchestra by Christopher Adey and played sensitively by the Academy’s strings.

Dvorak’s Symphonic Variations doesn’t perhaps have quite the high profile of some of his other orchestral works but it is a fine orchestral showpiece and the Academy with all departments in tremendous form certainly lived up to their fine reputation.

Frank Cliff