If Schumann’s works lend themselves more than most to striking interpretive divergencies, it is probably because they constantly mingle poetic with heroic elements and either factor can be emphasized to the exclusion of the other.
Miss Odette Ray’s account of the A minor piano concerto last night, with the Bulawayo Municipal Orchestra under Hugh Fenn, took a lyrical rather than an assertive view of the work.
Schumann intended the work for performance by his wife Clara, and the femine conception was not inappropriate. Miss Ray was musical and sensitive enough to hold the interest throughout, and to persuade one to her view.
Fun….
The orchestra opened with Mozart’s Overture II Seraglio, where the slow speed of the middle section exposed some hesitant wind playing. The fast outer sections held together better.
The borrowings in a Slavonic Rhapsody by one of Fridemann would add up to quite a lis(z)t…..the main motif was an obvious inversion of the octave theme from the Sixth Hungarian Rhapsody. It was fun nonetheless, as were Moszowski’s Spanish Dances with Mr. Chalmers Park conducting.
Fine brass playing, fiercely vigorous string attack and a notable cello obligato by Mary Jordan made Suppe’s Overture Poet and Peasant orchestrally the best thing of the evening.
The concert was a repeat of a “prom” performance on Sunday afternoon.