It’s been an unrelentingly cold start to the year and the chill drove through into the start of March. It was going to take a special sort of concert to warm through St Peter’s Church, Berkhamstead… but, of course, that’s exactly what the Bridgewater Sinfonia managed to rustle up, under the clubbable direction of conductor Steve Joyce Myall.
The first half was a strong account of Brahms’ Violin Concerto, forging ahead under the bow of Nathaniel Anderson-Frank. Clare was involved in the ambitious second half performance of Mahler’s 4th Symphony, which scores its final movement with a high solo voice. The song Das himmlische Leben (The Heavenly Life) from Des Knaben Wunderhorn is an unburdened reflection on life on earth, which brings a particular glow to the previous, bucolic movements that the considerable and committed audience clearly appreciated.