TSO stars turn on country charm

VIRTUOSI TASMANIA Harp Trombone Strings Riversdale Estate, Cambridge March 16

THE pleasant environs and intimate acoustic at Riversdale Estate was marred initially by noise from the adjacent kitchen.

Things settled down, however, for a highly enjoyable performance from these accomplished members of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

The popular Adagio in G minor by Remo Giazotto is still wrongly attributed to Tomasi Albinoni. Jonathon Ramsay played this arrangement for trombone and strings admirably, the work seeming more effective than usual at a slightly faster tempo in a piece that can sound rather maudlin.

Meriel Owen (harp) and strings followed with a fresh, alert performance of Handel’s delightful Concerto for Harp in B flat major, Op.4, No.6, HWV 294, a transcription of the original organ concerto.

Lucy Carrig-Jones and Jennifer Owen (violins), David Wicks (viola) and Jonathan Bekes (cello) gave detailed, affectionate phrasing to the first movement of Beethoven’s String Quartet No.10 in E flat major, Op.74, Harp, with sensitivity in the slow movement and a surge of energy in the Presto 3rd.

The two Debussy encores for trombone and harp were a bonus indeed, with some especially controlled, soft trombone from Jonathon Ramsay.