Review of Painswick Music Society's concert

THE Chamber Philharmonic of Europe's UK tour came to St Mary's Painswick with a group of string players along with a trumpeter and harpsichordist and gave us a concert in two parts: first music from the baroque period and then three romantics to make a nicely balanced afternoon.

They began with a Vivaldi concerto for strings in G minor which worked up from a slow start to a ferocious finale to show us what a few instruments can do. Then came for me the piece de resistance, Albinoni's St Marco Trumpet concerto whose deceptively subdued introduction hit us with its 'wow' factor of virtuoso playing by soloist Kirill Gusarov who made our spine tingle with his spectacular crescendos. More good things came with JS Bach's Violin concerto in A minor with its dance-like final movement and fine flourishes from the group's leader Michel Gershwin.

After the interval into the nineteenth/twentieth centuries beginning with Holst's suite written for his pupils at St Paul's school. A year's lessons in one entertaining performance with well-handled dynamics, changes of mood and precise string playing, a model for the young members in the audience. Then on to the (almost) final piece, Grieg's popular Holberg suite with nice changes from the crisp opening allegro via a suitably subdued andante religioso to a humorous finale complete with some not-quite endings to keep us audience on its toes.

Then the pieces de resistance. First Krilli Gusarov's rollicking trumpet encore and then the whole group with an amazing mixed collection of interwoven popular classics with changes every few bars to keep us on our toes to see what was coming next: it brought the house down. A memorable afternoon.

John Parfitt