Barlines at Dartington: Concert no 1

Shostakovich: Cello Concerto no 1
Dvorak: Symphony no 8
Soloist: only Karine Georgian!
Conductor: Diego 'Dieu' Masson
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The Dartington Festival Orchestra, house band of the Dartington International Summer School, has a somewhat polyvalent existence. A ragamuffin collection of freelancers, teachers, students and musicians of varying degrees of spuriousness, it exists primarily to:

a Accompany various choral courses during the last 3 weeks of the school
b Work as the pit band for the opera course at the end of August
c Provide cannon fodder for the advanced conducting course classes (6 students chosen for their all-round musical skills rather than nascent dictatorial qualities)

All this involves 6 hours' rehearsal a day (6 days a week), covering a range of repertoire. But the high point of all this work is the opportunity to perform a couple of concerts each of the 3 weeks the orchestra is in residence. And the first of this season was a belter, featuring a powerfully committed performance of Shostakovich at his most bleak by one of the world's most powerfully committed cellists. The concerto is not so well known - apparently, Ms Georgian herself had only performed it once before (I remain to stand corrected) - but from its opening falling minor second figure, to its mechanical percussion conclusion, via a cadenza in which the soloist duels with (and beats off) a furious bass drum, and a scherzo where she dances with a trio of beserk bassoons, the piece never stops probing at the scary crevices of the musical imagination.

Next up: er, Gounod!
(And Daphnis and Chloe.)