Fantastique - Horsham Symphony Orchestra Concert review by John Sherlock

This summer is a busy one for Horsham’s Symphony Orchestra and its partner second orchestra (known as H2O). After HSO’s triumph at The Capitol on Saturday, they’ve another concert coming up on July 5th in the Parish Church, featuring the Brahms 2nd Piano Concerto (with James Sherlock as soloist), and then H2O will be on show with local choir Big Notes on July 8 in the Drill Hall for “Crescendos and Cake”. If you love good music, check out their website and book tickets.

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A highlight of Saturday’s Capitol concert was Toril Azzalini-Machecler’s performance of the delightful Marimba concerto by Emmanuel Séjourné. As well as hearing Toril’s sizzling playing, it was a chance for us to enjoy the sound of the HSO strings: the orchestra part is for strings only. There was incredibly skilful interplay between soloist and orchestra, with some brilliant ‘pizzicato’ (plucked instead of bowed strings). Toril further enchanted us all with a short encore – Daino’s arrangement of Sibelius’ “The Spruce”.

The concert opened with Tchaikovsky’s Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture – its sombre beginning conveying the mysterious spiritual yearning of Friar Laurence before the music expresses the conflict and ‘illicit’ love of this famous story. In the second half we heard Berlioz’s amazing Symphonie Fantastique: another story-telling set of musical movements brilliantly narrated by HSO. This time the shout out should definitely go to the percussionists who revelled in Berlioz’s splendid orchestral writing. The brass were extraordinary as well, as was the magical dialogue in the third movement between cor anglais and off-stage oboe.

I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat it: we are astonishingly fortunate to have such a talented group of musicians in our midst!