BRIDPORT CHAMBER ORCHESTRA AT ST SWITHUN'S CHURCH

The Bridport Chamber Orchestra was in splendid form last Sunday afternoon in St Swithun's Allington Church - Confident, polished and on top of their repertoire. Conductor David Hedges has refined their tone and led them to play with precision and accurate tonality.

From the very first chords of Purcell’s Chacony in G minor it was clear that our orchestra had raised itself to a new level.

This piece, all languorous chords over a ground base, was a suitable warm up for the fireworks to follow. In the same vein Corelli’s Christmas Concerto was reassuring in its familiarity and played briskly.

I especially liked the no-nonsense tempo in the final pastorale. Then the always reliable Alexandra Ennis treated us a brilliant performance of Bach’s E major violin concerto. Her mastery of its difficult solo line with all its ornamentation was indisputable, especially in the final movement. Yet her violin could sing out over the orchestra in the adagio.

Next came Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, surely the ultimate “feelgood piece”. Toes were tapping among the audience and heads were nodding as we enjoyed a competent, rhythmic performance. For all its familiarity, this is a serious, challenging work to play, and the orchestra were on top of it. The last work in the programme was the least familiar, and in some ways the most challenging.

Mendelssohn’s String Symphony number 7 was written when he was in his early teens, and in parts of it come across as juvenalia with repetitive motifs. But, too, it has dashing runs of fast passages. Here, at the end of a long and demanding programme, the orchestra’s timing and tone started to falter in places. Notwithstanding, this was an enjoyable concert.