Celebrating a decade of performances at the Concourse, Chatswood, Willoughby Symphony has returned for live performances with their annual Last Night of the Proms, conducted by Guy Noble .Noble clearly had a terrific time , his conducting was crisp ,clear and precise and the Orchestra was in fine form. ,Because of Covid it was a smaller audience (all masked) but the audience ,Willoughby Symphony Orchestra and Choir (plus artists of Pacific Opera) had a thoroughly enjoyable time. The concert was screened as part of the Australian Digital Concert Hall program.
First was the flurrying, darting Overture to The Thieving Magpie by Rossini .Quivering and jaunty,the strings are like a bird that circles, jumps and leaps with the Orchestra pulsating underneath.
Then we heard Handel’s Zadok the Priest in a richly layered performance and its floating , pulsating melody that develops into a crashing wave of sound by the Willoughby Symphony Choir. Zadok the Priest has been sung at the coronation of every British monarch since its composition in 1727.
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This was followed by a lush, exultant performance of Ralph Vaughan William’s Serenade to Music and the Orchestra was joined by members of Pacific Opera .It is an arrangement of How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice – a musing on music and the music of the spheres .The harp(Emily Granger)rippled , the music tumbled and flowed and voices and melody entwined creamily, becoming melodically and lyrically darker as the singers progressed. Continue reading WILLOUGHBY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA LAST NIGHT OF THE PROMS