Stephen Bell Archives - The Real Chrisparkle

A packed house of all ages was buzzing for the Royal Philharmonic’s return to the Royal and Derngate for one of their Film Music Gala concerts, a uniquely entertaining offering, guaranteed to please young and old – in fact, it is a perfect way of getting young people into the habit of seeing how different it is to hear music performed by a live orchestra rather than just listening through your headphones!

The whole orchestra (as it seemed to me) were there in force, under the baton of conductor Stephen Bell, an avuncular and enthusiastic host who gives us individual introductions to many of the pieces of music performed. The last time we saw Mr Bell conducting the RPO was for their Last Night of the Proms concert back in 2011 – please don’t leave it so long until your next visit! Stephen Bell is one of those very inclusive conductors who makes sure that every element of the orchestra has their moment in the spotlight, reaching out with his baton at an awkward angle, maybe hopping on one leg to do so. His sheer enjoyment of his job is infectious and helps to make the evening go with a swing.

The programme started with a brilliant highlight – the Flying Theme and Finale to ET by John Williams; it’s such a rich and positive melody, sumptuously arranged, and a total joy to hear. Themes to Gladiator, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Jurassic Park followed, and then we had leader of the orchestra Duncan Riddell playing as a violin soloist for Williams’ moving Schinder’s List theme. Everyone automatically froze at the opening double bass notes of the instantly recognisable Jaws theme; then the main themes to Out of Africa and Robin Hood Prince of Thieves followed, and then the very different style of Ron Goodwin’s 633 Squadron drew the first half to a conclusion.

After the interval, we heard Vangelis’ Chariots of Fire theme; a piece of music I normally expect to hear played primarily by keyboard or synthesiser – it comes across very differently – much more substantial – when played by a full orchestra. Next was a blend of excitement and melancholy with the themes to Apollo 13, the Hymn to the Fallen from Saving Private Ryan and the familiar March from Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Mancini’s lilting and romantic Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany’s followed, and then Sir Arthur Bliss’ rousing March from the 1936 film Things to Come. The evening wrapped up with three different pieces from Star Wars – Princess Leia’s Theme, the Imperial March and the Main Theme.

A Film Music Gala works superbly well as an entertainment because each piece is relatively short and is designed to stand alone. It’s very different from an evening of classical excerpts where you often wish you could hear more from the work from which the extract is taken. But a film theme can last as little as a couple of minutes and is complete in itself. The audience at the Royal and Derngate on Friday had a whale of a time and didn’t want to let the orchestra go home! It’s not often you see a standing ovation at an orchestral concert – which only shows how superb the whole evening was.

Five Alive, Let Music Thrive!

The Royal Philharmonic’s Orchestral Season 2010-11 at the Derngate in Northampton came to a close on Sunday night with a Last Night of the Proms programme. An excuse for lots of short pieces of musical brilliance, rather like a Works Outing at Classic FM. The orchestra was conducted by Stephen Bell in a bright and breezy mood, encouraging a bit of audience singing during the well known Last Night numbers, but also doing his day job of keeping those RPO-types nicely in synch.

One of the best performances of the night came with the first piece, Franz von Suppé’s Light Cavalry Overture, where the drums and percussion played their parts with real zest and musicality. It was a wonderful start to the night. It was going to be a fun evening for the percussion, as they had lots of opportunities to make their mark on many of the pieces on offer. A good example of this was Strauss’ Champagne Polka, which had a very amusing “popping cork” sound effect!

Guest soprano was Rebecca Bottone. Normally one associates big-voiced opera singers with big-framed people, so that when they sing “they call me little Mimi” or something like that one has to suspend one’s disbelief somewhat. I have no idea how Rebecca Bottone gets such a full and beautiful voice out of such a tiny frame! Her performances were all superb, and included Song to the Moon from Rusalka by Dvořák, and O mio babbino caro by Puccini (which, as usual, elicited a slight tear on my part); but I wanted to pay particular compliments to her performance of Sempre libera from La Traviata which was sprinkled with fantastic coloratura effects, and also to say that it was wonderful, as always, to hear Rule Britannia decently sung.

One piece I was specifically looking forward to hearing was Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre, as it was one of the earliest pieces of classical music I remember as a child and it has always had a special place in my heart. I’ve heard this piece played slowish and fastish. When you play it slowish you get the full resonance from the violins and horns, and you wallow in its eeriness. When you play it fastish what you lose in musicality you gain in spine tingling thrill. Stephen Bell went for the slowish option, and it was very enjoyable. I did think at one stage that the sound got a little soggy but it was only briefly. I was always going to be hard to please with this one.

Other highlights of the evening were a superb performance of Barber’s Adagio for Strings – you know that bit where the violins get higher and higher and shriller and shriller – and then you suddenly get left in a vacuum – that was most effective and definitely gave you goose bumps; and a very lively and entertaining performance of the Liberty Bell March, where once again the percussion had a lot of fun clanging.

When it came to the final sequence of traditional Last Night pieces, they played two elements of the Henry Wood’s Fantasia on British Sea Songs: Tom Bowling and the Hornpipe. Of course the hornpipe got everyone happy clapping along, but the cello solo on the Tom Bowling was absolutely magnificent. I reckon from my programme that must have been played by Victoria Simonsen and she was a complete star.

Finally we got a very rewarding encore in the form of the Great Gate at Kiev from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, again another chance for the percussion to play at doorchimes to thrilling effect. The whole orchestra sounded crisp, powerful and triumphant.

Mrs Chrisparkle and I agreed that one aspect of a programme like this, that has 17 individual pieces of music, plus an encore, is that nothing lasts long enough really to get your teeth into, or to lose yourself in your imagination. Not a criticism, just an observation, and rather an obvious one too. The RPO have provided us with plenty of other opportunities to dig deep into more searching and challenging pieces though, and I know will continue to do so in the future.

So thank you to the Royal Philharmonic for a wonderful season, and we already have our names down for five concerts for the 2011-12 season which contains some thrillingly famous soloists and some great works to enjoy. Bring it on!