Audience Reviews

Concquering the Antarctic-Review 7/2/2012

Rian Evans-The Guardian

The City of London Sinfonia's commemoration of the centenary of Robert Scott's ill-fated Antarctic expedition - they reached the south pole, but perished on their return - had a particular resonance for Cardiff. Scott's ship, the Terra Nova, set sail from the Welsh port, carrying coal as backup fuel, and was met there on its return by Scott's widow Kathleen and son Peter.

Scott's diaries and letters, found on his body and incredibly affecting, were read aloud by Hugh Bonneville during the first half of the evening. Extracts from Vaughan Williams's score for the 1948 film Scott of the Antarctic set the scene. Bonneville's delivery was shipshape and, while amplification detracted from the intimacy, the realisation that Roald Amundsen's Norwegian team had beaten them to the Pole drained us all.

Cecilia McDowall's new piece, Seventy Degrees Below Zero, followed. Working with poet Seán Street, McDowall sets Scott's farewell letter to Kathleen, with string-writing that offers a contemporary equivalent of Vaughan Williams. It was also imbued with Brittenesque colouring, by virtue of Robert Murray's tenor and the horn lines. In the final setting, To My Widow, passion and pain struck home.

Herbert Ponting's photographs of the expedition then formed a background for Vaughan Williams's Sinfonia Antarctica. More sparingly used, the stunning images might have added their unique atmosphere at the outset; with the Symphony, it spelled overkill. Under Stephen Layton, the CLS's strong playing, evoking the music's ultimate desolation, would have said it all.

Tiddly Prom  Part of The Welsh Proms Cardiff

Dave Owens, South Wales Echo

 
IF there is one word to describe the Tiddly Prom, it's delightful.

Staged as part of the wider Welsh Proms, this show created especially for the little ones hooks you in from first moment to the last.

The Tiddly Prom, or Bert's Magical Musical Allotment to give it its proper title, is produced by Arts Active - the education, community and Audience Engagement department of St David's Hall and the New Theatre.

Pis performed by seasoned actors Richard Berry (as the eponymous Bert) and Helen Woods (as Bert's bessie mate Cherry) and the duo are joined by the Tiddly Prom Brass Trio.

We join Bert on his allotment as we find out how his garden grows through the seasons with silly songs, lots of laughs and a little unscripted mayhem - as both actors interact and improvise to great effect with an entranced audience of under-5s.

The fact that they hold the attention of easily distracted pre-schoolers - not known for their ability to sit anywhere for any length of time - for the whole of the charming 45 minute show is testament to the magical story both actors weave, the fun nature of their rollicking songs they perform and the fact the whole show cracks along at a rapid fire pace.

The musical accompaniment from the brass trio is wonderful, while the educational value of the show - as we learn about the seasons and how our garden grows, is equally as valuable.

Tiddly it may be titled, but massive is the impression it will leave on your child.

Orchestra of Welsh National Opera 21/1/2011

Rian Evans/Guardian

In this programme, spanning three and a half centuries and from Bach to Kurtág, the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera could have made no stronger a statement of their credentials. If only the company's choice of operas could be as bold.

The orchestra always relishes the occasions it gets out of the pit, but their conductor and music director Lothar Koenigs had them flung even further and wider than usual around St David's Hall in the disparate instrumental groups required by György Kurtág for his ... quasi una fantasia ... . For Kurtág, it is the spatial relationships - between the piano, taking centre stage, flanked by a cimbalom and timpani, and the other variously dispersed players - that form the crux of the matter. It was not simply the tension bristling across the divides that held the interest, but the nature and quality of soundscape created.

Peter Donohoe, who took the piano part in the Kurtág, was also the soloist in Bartók's Second Piano Concerto, and his usual ebullient, forceful, style helped the contrapuntal exchanges emerge with striking clarity. Koenigs's choice of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony reverted to safe territory. Nevertheless, it was delivered with bite and energy, as well as notable pianissimo control of the opening of the Allegretto.

Some of the orchestra's renewed dynamic must be credited not just to Koenigs, but to violinist David Adams. His inspired leadership of the 10 players in Bach's Brandenburg Concerto, No 3 in G, BWV1048, which opened the evening, made it a vibrant counterpart to the Kurtág and thought-provoking, too.

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