Review: Minehead and Exmoor Festival Orchestra opener at Dunster.

A seductively warm evening in the ancient charm of St. George’s Church Dunster provided just the setting for the gently unfolding Pastorale of Antonin Dvorak’s serenade, the Czech Suite Op 13, with which the opening orchestral concert of the 47th Season calmly but assuredly began.

Generous viola sound ushered in a relaxed introduction to wind and string colours which lie at the heart of this composer’s ability to evoke nostalgia for a Bohemia most of us have never visited.

Dances based on Czech folk melody gave us four other movements, ending in high spirits with the Presto Furiant and the glamour and clamour of brass and timpani. This was a secure and well-paced performance from musicians who had met, under Richard Dickins’ persuasive baton, for the first time since 2009 barely 24 hours previously.

Trumpeter Mike Allen then gave a model demonstration of virtuosic ease in the three movements of Joseph Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto, a work notable in its time for exploiting the new powers of the instrument. Never have I heard the finale Rondo played with such good humour and at such high speed. The elegance of the slow ‘siciliana’ movement, however, is what haunts the memory.

After the interval we were treated to an authoritative performance of Beethoven’s Third Symphony (the ‘Eroica’), a work not previously played at this festival.

Richard Dickins’ account gave full expression to both the composer’s exploration of despair in the Marcia Funebre and his increasingly affirmative celebrations in the Scherzo and Finale.

This was a performance which demonstrated the revolutionary nature of a turbulent spirit, provoked by increasing deafness and the failure of Napoleon to live up to the reforming ideals which had originally attracted Beethoven’s dedication of this work.

This excellent opening concert played to near capacity audiences both at Dunster and, the following evening, at All Saint’s Church, Dulverton where, despite a few nervous blemishes, the highest standards were maintained.

By Keith Jones.