The Deeside Orchestra

‘Time Pieces’ concert Sunday 20 November 2011

The Deeside Orchestra, formed 27 years ago, gave an enjoyable concert in the Birse and Feughside Church (Finzean) on the afternoon of Sunday 20 November. The theme for the concert was ‘time’ with a selection of items depicting different parts of the day.

The concert opened, fittingly, with ‘Morning’ from Grieg’s Peer Gynt, which depicts the rising of the sun. This was a good entry piece which allowed the brass section to wake the post-prandial snorers in the back row of the audience.

This was followed by the second movement of Haydn’s ‘Clock’ Symphony, the ninth of his 12 ‘London’ symphonies. The regular ‘tick-tock’ beat was well sustained by the low register instruments and the outbreaks of brass sounded really fortissimo in the Church.

The third piece was ‘Chanson de Matin’ by Elgar. The orchestra was well into its stride now and provided a lyrical performance with good dynamics.

Next, a rarely performed piece to judge by the difficulty the orchestra had in tracking down the only score in Britain. This was ‘The Clock and the Dresden Figures’ by Albert Ketèlbey (1875-1959), considered the light-music genius of the early 20th century. Ketèlbey’s forté was suggesting musical scenes and this piece again contained a very distinct and regular ‘tick-tock’ for the Dresden figures to party to. The percussionist did well to keep a very rigid tempo throughout the piece and then made the audience jump when the clock ‘ran down’, depicted by the sound of a loud rattle and then the Dresden Figures then had to scamper back. Guest artist Marie Shanks expertly provided the piano playing and she and the orchestra clearly enjoyed this piece.

As time marched through the programme we next had the first movement of Mozart’s ‘Eine Kleine Nachtmusik’. This was delivered with great panache by the string section of the orchestra.

The next piece was perhaps the most challenging – Dave Brubeck’s ‘It’s about Time’, a piece in three sections with different irregular rhythms having 5, 7 and 9 beats in a bar. The first section was the well known ‘Take Five’. The orchestra was well up to the challenge and gave a spirited and very rhythmic performance, with smooth string playing and a bout of ensemble hand-clapping. The audience was really impressed.

The final piece was a performance of ‘Dance of the Hours’ from Act 3 of La Gioconda by Ponchielli. It depicts the hours of the day and was used in the Walt Disney animated film Fantasia. It is one of the most parodied pieces of classical music; one section formed the basis of the 1963 song "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh" by Allan Sherman. Again the orchestra seemed to enjoy this piece, well depicting the moods of the different times of day. As the music played, the audience was also given a slide show of appropriate images provided by the members of the Deeside Camera Club.

The orchestra played to a capacity audience of all ages, with some sitting on the floor. The conductor, Glynn Hesketh, and the leader, Sharon Griffiths oversaw a good performance. With this programme the orchestra again demonstrated its ability to perform a wide variety of music successfully. Glynn helpfully provided brief introductions to each piece, complete with translations when needed.

The tea and home-bakes provided afterwards gave an opportunity for orchestra and audience to mingle and look back on another successful performance.

Congratulations to all the orchestra members and guests for an enjoyable afternoon. Book your tickets now for the orchestra’s Viennese Evening concerts on Friday 13 and Saturday 14 January 2012

Bob Naylor