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                                                                        NICOLAOU ENSEMBLE

                                                                        All Saints’ Church, Orpington

 

There can scarcely be anything more heartening for a grizzled old reviewer of nearly 60 years experience to witness a fantastic burgeoning of musical talent from the very young, and that was exactly what it was my honour to attend  when the Nicolaou Ensemble gave a fundraising concert in Orpington’s wonderful, and packed All Saints’ Church.

Situated on the site of an ancient Norman church, this exhilarating, airy building with a generous acoustic from its wooden fabric was the perfect venue for this exhibition of so much musicality from a compact string orchestra ranging from little dots to senior students of the Andreas Nicolaou School of Music.

Actually their platform manner was awesome. Always a complete awareness of where they were required to position themselves at any given time, moving smoothly into their stations; all standing, apart from the solitary young cellist, playing from memory, and keeping a trained eye upon the leader; and bowing acknowledgements in confident unison.

But this aplomb would be nothing without the musical excellence of these youngsters, with full, rich tone many adults fail to achieve, accurate intonation, unanimity of bowing, and an empathetic awareness of each other.

The programme covered all periods, and here are just a few highlights: Fritz Kreisler’s Liebesleid, given with such a natural sense of rubato; Seiber’s Three Hungarian Folksongs delivered with vigour and a strong unanimous cutoff at the end; sleazy, idiomatic phrasing in a Gershwin sequence, trills crisply executed, and, if I have to name just one out of these gifted youngsters, cellist Albert Yang projecting expressive solo lines.

This was an event designed to secure sponsorship for the Nicolaou Ensemble to travel to Vienna to perform in the 18th Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival in July. Andreas Nicolaou, founder of this remarkable school, now run under the aegis of his gifted and resourceful daughter Joanna, was a contemporary and friend of Gwyn Williams at London’s Trinity College of Music, and Stephannie Williams, widow of Simon Rattle’s popular principal violist at the CBSO, was here to present a donation from the Gwyn Williams Bursary Fund in order to assist these brilliant young players towards their trip.

Christopher Morley

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