Royal Northern Sinfonia Ensemble, Kendal Town Hall

IT WAS Wednesday, January 11; concert day for the Kendal Midday Concert Club. Reports of inclement conditions on the north east coast and over the Pennines may have caused early morning palpitations in the hearts of some members of the club because an ensemble from the Royal Northern Sinfonia was coming. Would they make it? They did - of course! Leaving Gateshead at 7am, they battled across the backbone of England and arrived in the Auld Grey Town in good heart, with just sufficient time to rehearse their programme. On a bright, cold afternoon, a near-full house gave the players a warm welcome. It was a great pleasure to return to Kendal, they said; they were looking forward to playing - for the first time - two arrangements of works by Johann Strauss (Die Fledermaus Overture) and Brahms (Serenade No Op11). Was their journey worth it? Yes, definitely.

Hearing Strauss’s famous piece in the guise of an octet was a curious experience; the full orchestral version was just around the corner, not quite out of earshot. But Brett Dean’s arrangement is a convincing alternative and the eight performers ensured that Strauss’s sparkle, wit and melodic charm was fully preserved. Frequently, however - especially during the louder tuttis - Dean’s scoring was such that the three upper strings could not compete equally with the more powerful combinations of strings and winds found in the bass department.

The same was true in Alan Boustead’s weighty Brahmsian nonet - for now there was only one violin! But that criticism aside, this is an effective reconstruction, particularly in the quieter, more lightly-scored passages. The nine players illuminated the imaginative instrumentation with an intensity and careful musicianly portrayal of detail that captured well the varying moods of the six movements; there was sensitive attention to matters of balance between strings and winds and to the conveyance to the audience of their own enjoyment of the music’s energy, virtuosity, vitality and joy.

Brian Paynes