Concerts by the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra, consisting of students from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, are a regular feature of the Barbican music scene.
Under the baton of experienced guest conductors, the concerts give music students a chance to perform in public while providing audiences with first class performances at modest cost.
The generous programme on offer for this concert opened with Berg's Drei Bruchstücke aus Wozzeck. Berg completed Wozzeck in 1922 and shortly afterwards selected three extracts from the opera for a suite to be played in the concert hall. The 20 minute suite involves one scene from Act 1 and two scenes from Act 3, including the final section of the opera.
Under the baton of Sian Edwards, the suite's march sequences were vividly brought to life and the music's anguish and pathos were projected with subtlety and refinement. The solo string playing was exemplary. The soprano role of Marie was shared between two singers from the Guildhall School, Charlotte Beament and Inês Simões, both of whom sung with character and refinement.
Sibelius' Violin Concerto was performed by the Moscow born Anna-Liisa Bezrodny, who studied at both the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and at the Guildhall School and who is now a professional soloist. Bezrodny's approach to the score was rhapsodic, occasionally excessively so, with an unattractive use of portamento during the concerto's opening pages and a lack of rhythmic finesse in the finale. Her account of the Adagio was more naturally inflected, but not especially involving. The orchestral accompaniment was more consistently impressive, featuring careful control of both dynamics and tonal shading.
Concluding the concert was a performance of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony notable for its forward momentum and sharp attack. The march in the first movement had a clipped, militaristic feel and Scherzo was fast and pungent. Mystery and atmosphere were prevalent in the Largo, underpinned by the sensitive flute solos of Andre Ramos. If the finale didn't quite take the roof off, it nevertheless benefited from some superbly timed percussion and a general sense of dynamism in the playing.
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