BBC orchestra performance

A night at the orchestra

By Patrick Matbob

A live orchestral performance of classical music is an event unlikely to be seen in PNG for a long time yet. The number of people who love classical music in PNG is limited to the ageing westerners (no offence) and the odd locals like me who somehow have become exposed to it.

BBC orchestra with three soloist performing

I fell in love with classical music more than 20 years ago during the music appreciation classes at the National Art School where we would spend hours drowsing off in Port Moresby’s noon day heat to the warmth of Mozart’s concertos or Beethoven’s sonatas. The music was just as foreign to us as the names and some of us pronounced Bach as ‘Batch’ much to the amusement of our lecturers.

Since coming to UK last year, I have always loved listening to Classic FM especially when working late through the night. I enjoy the beauty of the music and find it inspiring and uplifting.

So it was with much joy, when I had my first opportunity to attend a classical music concert by the BBC National Orchestra and the Chorus of Wales at St David’s Hall in Cardiff.

It was raining on that cold Tuesday night and light snow was forecast but nothing could stop me and 14 other international students attending the event that we were booked for.

Arriving early at St David’s Hall we waited for our British Council organisers, Tanya and Linda who arrived with our tickets and we proceeded upstairs into the concert hall. We were lucky to get seats near the stage because for us, seeing the musicians perform was just as fascinating as listening to the music they produced. Some of the audience preferred the box seats high above the room where I imagined they would have had a wonderful view of the stage and the musicians - at a price.

The concert opened with the Te Deum or praise to God, this version by the late Welsh composer William Mathias in 1981. Led by soprano Camilla Roberts, mezzo-soprano Claire Bradshaw and tenor Wynne Evans, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Cardiff polyphonic choir rendered a grand opening to the night.

The words to the hymn were familiar to me having heard the Catholic Latin mass numerous times as a kid before it was changed following the Vatican II reforms to the liturgy in the late 60s.

In the midst of the performance, I found myself explaining the different musical instruments on stage to my other foreign friends who were also seeing an orchestra for the first time. I pointed out the strings section consisting of the violins, cellos and the massive double basses in centre stage, while behind them were the woodwind section with a flute, oboe and bassoons. On the right were the brass section with French horns, trumpets and tubas. The percussions at the rear included the timpani, snare and bongo drums as well as xylophone, cymbals, and bells. The choir was perched at the back above the orchestra.

After the first performance, there was a long applause. As my friend looked around puzzled, I explained that a lengthy applause was a sign of appreciation and was all part of the show. If there was a long applause, then it showed that the performance has been appreciated and the star performers, in this case the soloists, who had gone off stage, had to take the stage again to thank the audience. In some instances, the soloists may even do an impromptu performance just to show their appreciation to the audience.

It did not happen this time and I had a niggling feeling that lengthy applause may also have to do with the fact that the concert was being recorded live thus allowing technicians to fade in and out of performances.

Following the grand opening, the stage was quickly adjusted and a piano was brought on much to my delight. The pianist Llyr Williams, another Welshman took the stage and at a graceful wave of the baton, the strings flowed into the next piece in a beautiful heart-warming manner. The music was familiar and I desperately looked around for a program. I was sure it was a Mozart piece, which I happily confirmed later as his Piano Concerto No 23. Any music student studying an instrument would have certainly played a piece by Mozart and would be familiar with his style of endings which was typical of the composer. Mozart was a child prodigy who wrote his first piece at the tender age of five!

He remains one of my favourite composer in classical music and I have a collection of his and other composers’ works at home which I and my dear wife listen to mostly late at nights for fear of being ridiculed by my ‘modern’ teenaged children.

The pianist lived up to his reputation as one of Britain’s outstanding young artist with a string of accolades to his name as he gracefully hovered above the keys in accord with the orchestra. Like the piper, he led the orchestra through the piece moving from major to the minor keys, and swinging the mood from warmth to a grave wistfulness. The performance eventually ended a in a bustling finale and again drew a lengthy applause.

The Dragon Fire by Welsh composer Alun Hoddinott who was present at the concert was written specially for rhythm and percussions – particularly the timpani. It rivalled Mozart’s moods and conjured images of a mythical world dominated by these creatures which are also the symbol of Wales. It was entertaining to watch the timpanist darting between the different percussion instruments beating out the syncopated rhythms as part of the performance. What if he slipped, I thought, and wondered if this was an example of the Welsh humor.

The official performance ended with a majestic performance by the orchestra and choir of the Gloria by British composer William Walton who wrote it in 1961. This was a performance that included the choir, three soloists and the orchestra. Again the Gloria was familiar from the Catholic mass.

I couldn’t help thinking back to all the old fateful catechists back at home in the New Guinea Islands and Madang and East and West Sepik who could sing the Latin mass off by heart. When I was a kid, I used to mumble along having no idea at all what the words meant. If these old people were sitting in the hall tonight, there would be tears in their eyes.

The finale to the night was the Welsh national anthem which everyone joined in except us foreigners. For some Welsh audience, it was the first time for them to sing the national anthem in a concert with an orchestra. They were probably more used to singing the anthem at rugby matches and in the pub if Wales won which has been happening frequently in recent times.

As I wondered home, contentedly crunching the remnants of the light snow on the pavement, I knew this was a night I would remember for a long time thanks to the British Council.

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