/  2008  /  2007  /  2006  /  2005/4  /

Birmingham Post
Orchestra of the Swan, Town Hall Birmingham
7 February 2008 4 * * * *

At the end of Tuesday afternoon's concert from the Orchestra of the Swan, Simon Chalk, principal second violinist, personally thanked every member of his section, and this generosity of spirit sums up the whole warm-hearted atmosphere of this event.

 David Curtis, OOTS conductor, encourages his players (a mix of the youthful and the vastly experienced) to listen to each other, and nowhere was this approach more vindicated than in the finale of Mozart's Jupiter Symphony.

In a public pre-concert conversation, Curtis and I agreed that Mozart could be trusted to balance his own textures in this glorious display of contrapuntal technique, and the resulting performance was exhilarating. Earlier movements were lovingly shaped, with beautifully turned string filigree, and a clarity which was welcomely matched by the sunlight eventually streaming through the Town Hall's elegant windows.

Sarah Williamson was the soloist in Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, phrasing subtly nuanced, tempi perfectly set, and her ornamentation of melodic lines entirely in keeping with the operatic conventions of the period (from which Mozart was never far away).

Prokofiev's Classical Symphony was the bubbling pipe-opener to this much-enjoyed programme, one generously supported by sponsors Opus Land.

Christopher Morley