On the Sunday clocks moved forward the Platform rolled back the years to those halcyon Palm Court days, courtesy of Morecambe's Promenade Concert Orchestra. A full house (yet again) bathed in Spring sunlight and nostalgia amid potted greenery. How easy it was to dream of a spa band arena, Brucciani ices and sea breezes!
This penultimate concert of the season was arguably the best so far as it memorably illuminated the nature of 'light' music and threw a spotlight on the individual talent of orchestra members.
Conductor Howard Rogerson teased us to re-consider de
finitions of 'Light' and what he calls 'the real thing'. Elgar's Salut d'Amour was surely the latter; Hartley's transcription of 'The Irish Washerwoman' safely 'Light'.
But where should we class Gounod's 'Funeral March of a Marionette', for ever associated as it is with a certain Mr. Hitchcock?
And can we be content to term as merely 'Light' this year's number 100 in the Classic FM Hall of Fame, Massenet's 'Meditation from Thais'?
Each half of the programme was headed by Haydn Wood. 'A May-Day Overture' of 1918 was alone enough to illustrate we were listening to 'the real thing'. The beautiful 1933 'Prelude for Orchestra' confirmed this composer's deserved classic status.
No guest soloists were needed for this concert which featured instead two members of our resort's orchestra. Suzanne de Lozey's surprise Novelty piccolo solo in the first half allowed us the rare pleasure of appreciating this instrument in the hands of a gifted musician.
After the interval we were treated to what I have hoped for since the orchestra's debut, a solo from lead violinist, Julian Cann, whose performance of the Massenet 'Meditation' would have graced the Classic FM chart.
On May 17 it is Music from the Shows. Real? Light? Who knows!
