It’s a pleasure to visit Lewes and navigating its quaint, faintly pastoral streets with the intention of seeing a 32-piece orchestra play selected works from the catalogues of Georges Bizet, Joaquin Rodrigo, Debussy and Rimsky-Korsakov lent an extra historical thrill.
The Kantanti Ensemble, however, isn’t concerned with history. Blithely unfettered by classical music’s reputation for staidness, they provided a kaleidoscopic and emotive journey that felt instinctively fresh in its execution, while honouring and retaining the original sentiments contained within the music.
With the theme being Pictures From Spain, and beginning with rousing extracts from Bizet’s Carmen, there was no shortage of drama.
The fluidity of the violins, the deft multi-instrumentals of the percussionists, punctuated by the rich tonal depth drawn from Claire Stevens’ piano, Anna Thomas’s flute and Grace Warren’s alternately joyful and dolorous oboe, the Kantanti Ensemble elicited a frenzy of whooping and stamping from a diversely aged audience.
Guest leader and solo violinist Molly Cockburn played with an adroit, spritely and mischievous virtuosity. Guitarist Jonathan Wiseman, taking front and centre for excerpts from Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, displayed if not outright Iberian passion then alacrity, and considerable technical skill.
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