Autumn Mists - Nov 2007

It was planned to open this concert with Rachmaninov's Isle of the Dead, but we reluctantly decided to drop this demanding work when we learnt that our final rehearsal session, in the theatre, would have to be shortened because of restrictions imposed by Kino management.

Instead, we opened with Sibelius's evocative tone poem Finlandia, and three movements from the first Peer Gynt Suite by Grieg: Morning, Death of Åse, and In the Hall of the Mountain King. Popular works to open what was evidently a popular concert, as evidenced by the near-capacity audience.

We were delighted to welcome back a former member of the Orchestra for the concerto. Alex Frank-Gemmill, also previously a member of the National Youth Orchestra, graduated from Cambridge with 1st class honours, and went on to do a Master's at the Guldhall School of Music and Drama. His scintillating performance of Mozart's 4th Horn Concerto clearly went down very well with the enthusiastic audience.

After the interval, the concert finished with Mahler's 5th Symphony, necessitating considerable augmentation of the SSO's normal forces - including Alex Frank-Gemmill returning for the obligato horn part in the third movement. The important harp part in the famous fourth movement Adagietto was ably played by John Hendry - helping us out not for the first time with his multifarious skills. His lack of visibility was noted in correspondence received after the concert - something else down to Kino.....

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