200th Performance Of The
Classical Spectacular Concerts
Thursday 23rd - Sunday 26th November 2006
Raymond Gubbay’s ever popular Classical Spectacular’s at The Royal Albert Hall were back for another season comprising six concerts across four days, with evening concerts on Thursday and Friday and matinee plus evening performances on Saturday and Sunday.
This year’s main acts to feature alongside the Band of the Welsh Guards were the resident Classical Spectacular Orchestra the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) with The Royal Choral Society and The London Philharmonic Choir and The Muskets and Cannons of the Moscow Militia.
The concerts were to be led by the ever popular Anthony Inglis. This season’s solo artists were soprano singer Natasha Marsh and tenor John Hudson with David Garrett featuring on violin as the only instrumental soloist.
The concerts started with a trio of performances. Firstly the RPO took us through Richard Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries, a piece fit to start any classical spectacular, then it was the turn of the Choir with the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves by Giuseppe Verdi before The Band of the Welsh Guards stormed in with Entry of the Gladiators. After rapturous applause it was time to welcome Natasha Marsh and John Hudson to the stage for a duet from Giacomo Puccini most renowned opera La Boheme.
The first half finale was the epic Bolero by Maurice Ravel featuring soloists from almost all sections of the orchestra. Special mention must go to the percussionist on side drum who maintained the same rhythm from start to finish - some fourteen and a half minutes in all - requiring immense concentration. The highlight was the principal trombone who was ‘depping’ for the resident principal trombone and was clearly a lead player himself as he eased through this exceptionally taxing and high solo without knocking one over in all six concerts, stunning!
The second half started as always with the Moscow Militia slow marching on to the March from the movie The Great Escape complete with hand clap from an intrigued audience. The RPO bought us back to the classics with the Jean Sibelius’s Finlandia, a very stirring piece of music. Then it was the turn of the Choir accompanied by the RPO in George Fredric Handel’s brilliant Zadok the Priest. Special praise was given to the three trumpets who played with a sense of brilliance and with strident tone.
The second half soloist was the talented violinist David Garrett who was quite the showman as he masterfully and easily breezed through the very tricky Czardas by Vittiorio Monti. David was often seen looking at the audience as he was all fingers and elbow through the semi quaver passage, before sitting down to play the more lyrical and quieter middle movement. The conclusion was at a rapid tempo which he completed down on one knee which bought the house down leaving the audience wanting more from this phenomenally gifted violinist.
Tchaikovsky’s 1812 was the finale piece which was bought to life with the Cannons and Muskets of the Moscow Militia before the encore started featuring Natasha Marsh and John Hudson performing Rule Britannia which left the audience out of their seats waving British Flags with a real sense of patriotism. Then came the Can-Can girls for Orpheus in the Underworld before Land of Hope of Glory rang out throughout the Royal Albert Hall ending with dozens of Red, White and Blue balloons being dropped from the mushroom covered roof top of this truly magnificent concert hall.
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