Rhythm and film

A capacity audience greeted the end of season Rhythm & Film concert given by Todmorden Orchestra at Todmorden Town Hall.

In the first part Nicholas Concannon Hodges directed two concert pieces from U.S. composers, each taking a postcard pitch at pre-Castro Cuba and 1930’s Mexico. Copland’s El Salon Mexico and Gershwin’s little heard Cuban Overture were difficult pieces. The tricky rhythms of the Gershwin on occasion tripped up the fifty-strong orchestra. As to the spirit of the music that came across splendidly with the Copland deeply enjoyable and provoking affectionate smiles especially for the work of the four French horns and the contributions of the clarinet and trumpet leaders.

An extremely polished, delicately coloured, jazzy and zippy Deltour Harp Concertino from soloist Maxine Molin-Rose proved quite a discovery. It did nothing but please. The orchestra which was extended to include a drum-kit did not put a foot wrong.

After the interval, Moross’s The Big Country was majestically emphatic making the audience wonder if that thunderous brass playing would shake the peeling plaster-work on the left-hand side of the gloriously ornate ceiling. The orchestra’s star moments included magnificent playing from clarinet and trumpet principals. Mr Killian’s trumpet ought to be let loose on the theme from Dynasty.

There were other highlights: the sway and swing developed in Nothing Like a Dame, the superbly poised piccolo solo at the heart of the ET music, leader Andrew Rostron’s warmly bathed silvery solo in Schindler’s List, and the triumphant romp from Pirates of the Caribbean. Also memorable was the lustre and unsentimentally paced strings in Maria from West Side Story and the Hollywood shimmer in John Williams’ Flying Theme.

It is no wonder that the conductor spent time at the end walking round the stage and getting principal by principal and section by section to stand for the applause.