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CBSO VIOLAS CENTRE STAGE

                  CBSO Centre *****

Tucked away somewhere between the soaraway brilliance of the violins and the august nobility of the cellos and basses, orchestral violas might be thought of as leading a retiring life, modestly content with their discreet status.

Nothing could be further from the truth, as this delightful matinee concert revealed. The CBSO viola section has a huge fan club, as a packed, whooping CBSO Centre demonstrated, responding to this wonderful display of viola capabilities we enjoyed.

 

Liberated from the confines of orchestral textures, the players brought us ruminations deep and soulful on the C string, tingling harmonics in the ethereal upper reaches, shimmering tremolandi and deft pizzicato, all delivered with wonderful empathy between the players in this enthralling exploration of works by York Bowen, Dale and Richter.

 

Three of Bartok’s Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm throbbed and pulsated, swaying and stamping, while Engano’s arrangement for viola septet of Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dance no. 1 was given with clarity, poise and point, energy and bite, with a remarkable range of sonorities we would never have dreamt possible.

 

Everyone’s hair was let down (though covered with Santa and elf headgear) in the delightful encore, former CBSO violinist David Gregory’s arrangement of Jingle Bells, complete with obligatory percussion. One of the players admitted to me afterwards that she found manipulating her sleigh-bells more demanding than any of the viola music she had been playing.

 

Completing the Christmas spirit at the end of this delightful concert was a bucket collection in aid of the Gwyn Williams Bursary for young string players (Gwyn had been a popular CBSO principal viola, and indeed a colleague of several of these performers). It raised nearly £500.

 

Christopher Morley

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