Page 60 - Coverage Book_Aurora Orchestra Autumn 2020

Beethoven.

The latter’s Seventh Symphony, that 1812 paen to what feels like life force itself, needs from its players founts of
energy, virtuosity and a cool head to ensure rock-solid rhythmic assurance. It’s all about rhythm, obsessive,
driven, steamrolling us with its power. Here its workings were under the spotlight in an elucidating introduction
from the conductor Nicholas Collon and the BBC’s presenter Tom Service, aided and abetted by the players
demonstrating extracts. Revelations emerged even for those who thought they knew the work well. That rhythm
in the first movement: is it actually saying “Beet-ho-ven, Beet-ho-ven…”? As for the allegretto second movement,
it’s hard not to imagine Napoleon’s hapless conscripts heading for the doomed Russia campaign. For the last
movement, the whole orchestra abruptly broke into song: this impossibly repetitive finale turns out to be based
on one of the Scottish folk songs the composer had been arranging.
The Aurora Orchestra is better placed than most to adapt speedily to socially distanced concerts without
audience: maybe it’s just another challenge to add to those innovative presentations that they love to invent and
habitually surmount with aplomb. Collon took rapid, fleet-footed tempi - without which some parts of this
“apotheosis of the dance” could risk sounding, as Thomas Beecham put it, “like a lot of yaks jumping about”.
Grass would have had scant chance of growing under the feet of these musicians, who each had room to
breathe, move and play out. It was in many ways an absolute tour-de-force, displaying sky-high musicianship,
memory and nerves of steel. Occasionally, too, they remembered they were on camera and managed a smile
while playing at full tilt. The performance simply flew, and we, from our socially-distanced sofas, could fly with it.
My personal choice, nevertheless, would be to let these free-spirited strings use expressive vibrato a bit more
often - it would sound even
better.