Page 182 - ASMF Marriner 100 Coverage Book

possibilities, for a hand-picked ensemble of top players and set about making that happen with

determination, wit, panache and a modicum of refined ruthlessness. His global impact on

orchestral standards was immense, even if his ultra-polished style began to sound dated as the

period-instrument movement took hold.

So it was fitting that, on what would have been his 100th birthday, the ASMF offered the sort of

glinting, spick-and-span performances that would have delighted him, in a concert that crowned
an entire Marriner Day on BBC Radio 3 and launched a week of celebratory events in London

and elsewhere. Though the ASMF is now in the hands of a much younger generation — the

violinists Joshua Bell and Tomo Keller and the conductor Jaime Martin directed here — you

sensed Marriner’s ebullient spirit and perfectionist instincts still hovering in the air. More than

that, in fact, in Mozart’s Symphony No 25, which was given a virtuosic performance that
sounded very close to the one Marriner himself conducted on the soundtrack of the

film Amadeus.

A short but action-packed new work by Errollyn Wallen, Parade, demanded a different sort of

virtuosity, not least from listeners attempting to untangle what came across as joyous but
jumbled aural mayhem. No such worries in the final item: a kind of edited-highlights romp

through Haydn’s Creation with the specially reassembled Academy Chorus relishing every

hurtling fugue and three characterful soloists (Sarah Jane Brandon, Benjamin Hullet, Matthew

Rose) adding to the festive atmosphere.

For me, however, the evening’s high point was an impassioned performance of Vaughan

Williams’s Tallis Fantasia, made more miraculous because the two orchestras — though

spatially separated — kept together immaculately without a conductor. Marriner would have

admired their musicianship and would also have loved the Englishness of it all: the ancient

modal cadences echoing as twilight fell outside the church whose name he carried round the
world.

★★★★☆

Available on BBC Sounds. Further Marriner 100 concerts: asmf.org

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