Alison Bellerby
Author's posts
“Remarkable” Rachmaninov provides the triumphant climax to SASO’s season
John Manning, music critic of the Herts Advertiser, was bowled over by Alissa Firsova’s thrilling performance of Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto on June 28th that brought SASO’s 2013/14 season to a triumphant conclusion. He writes: “Rarely can I remember being so excited and at the same time so emotionally drained…Not only did she thrill the …
‘Rising star’ returns to partner SASO in Rachmaninov
St Albans Symphony Orchestra (SASO) ends its season with a rousing summer finale on Saturday 28th June performing Beethoven’s sunny Symphony No 8 and Rachmaninov’s spectacular Third Piano Concerto (7.30pm, St Saviour’s Church, Sandpit Lane, St Albans). The Rachmaninov concerto is loved by audiences for its romantic sweep and the beauty of its ‘big tunes’, but also places extravagant …
"The whole concert was a delight…"
Geoff Ward, writing in the Herts Advertiser, awarded top marks to SASO’s ‘Orchestral Colours’ concert in May. The dynamic and enterprising conductor of the St Albans Symphony Orchestra, Bjorn Bantock, chose to showcase the various sections of the orchestra in the first half of last Saturday’s concert at St Saviour’s to great effect. As a result …
“The whole concert was a delight…”
Critic Geoff Ward, writing in the Herts Advertiser, says that he has never heard SASO play better than at its ‘Orchestral Colours’ concert in St Saviour’s Church on May 10th. He praises an “impeccable” brass performance of Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral from Wagner’s Lohengrin, the “full rich sound” in Strauss’s Serenade for Winds and …
SASO’s colourful spring bouquet…
St Albans Symphony Orchestra (SASO) is set to celebrate spring on Saturday May 10th with music exhibiting a palette of exotic orchestral colours – including Scheherazade, Rimsky-Korsakov’s magical portrayal of tales from the Arabian Nights (7.30pm, St Saviour’s Church, Sandpit Lane, St Albans). The 19th century Russian composer’s suite contains some of his most thrilling and inventive …
“Completely dazzling” – critic praises Mendelssohn and Strauss concert
John Manning, critic of the Herts Advertiser, found Charlotte Scott’s performance of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto at SASO’s March 8th concert “breathtaking” . He as also full of praise for the orchestra’s playing in Strauss’s epic Alpine Symphony which “did full justice to the work. Click here to read more from his review.
Grand scheme of things for Symphony Orchestra
Herts Advertiser critic John Manning was “completely dazzled” at SASO’s Mendelssohn and Strauss concert on March 8th. When it comes to doing things on a grand scale German composer Richard Strauss certainly knew how. His tone poem, An Alpine Symphony, demands an orchestra of epic proportions and includes an organ, wind machine. thunder sheet, double horns …
SASO seeks new heights with Mendelssohn and Strauss
St Albans Symphony Orchestra are set to perform one of their most ambitious programmes on Saturday March 8th, matching an all-time favourite violin concerto with a spectacular symphony composed on an epic scale (St Albans Abbey, 7.30pm). Award-winning virtuoso Charlotte Scott will be the soloist in Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto – a work packed with memorable tunes, …
“…a tremendous evening with some outstanding performances…”
SASO ‘Music from the Movies’ concert “proved once more that the Abbey and St Albans Symphony Orchestra’s traditional concert is the place to be on January 1,” according to John Manning, music critic of the Herts Advertiser. He adds that: “Anyone who was there will endorse the fact that it was a tremendous evening with …
Movie music to see in the New Year
Music critic John Manning praises SASO’s “outstanding” New Year concert of film music Although music from the movies may not be regarded as “classical” by some, it really follows in the long tradition of composers such as Hamlet and Mozart who wrote for the theatre. It is music designed to help entertain people and if anyone doubted this, …
