ASMF have been absolutely bowled-over with the outpouring of love and support from our audience members, regular supporters and those new to experiencing the Academy of St Martin in the Fields throughout Marriner 100. As the ASMF Orchestra and Chamber Ensemble took their performances to St Martin-in-the-Fields, Wigmore Hall and the Royal Festival Hall, in London, as well as to Lincoln Cathedral, for a special ‘homecoming’ in honour of Sir Neville Marriner – the feedback received has been truly affirming to the core of ASMF’s player-led work and purpose.
Read on to discover what the press had to say about this incredible series of events…
*5 STARS* Celebrating Sir Neville Marriner: Review – Fiona Maddocks, for The Observer, 20 April
“Works by Vaughan Williams and Handel, and Part I of Haydn’s Creation, played and sung with irresistible verve by the Academy chorus, Sarah-Jane Brandon, Benjamin Hulett and Matthew Rose, made you glad to be alive.”
“Mozart’s Symphony No 25 in G minor, led with massive attack by the Academy’s violinist-director, Joshua Bell, seemed to express the essence of life itself, in all its zest, sweat, fury, lyricism, joy. Hard to think the symphony is sometimes referred to as “little”. This performance had the energy to power the National Grid for a day, at the very least.”
“So it was fitting that, on what would have been his [Neville Marriner’s] 100th birthday, the ASMF offered the sort of glinting, spick-and-span performances that would have delighted him, in a concert that crowned an entire Marriner Day on BBC Radio 3 and launched a week of celebratory events in London and elsewhere.”
“For me, however, the evening’s high point was an impassioned performance of Vaughan Williams’s Tallis Fantasia, made more miraculous because the two orchestras — though spatially separated — kept together immaculately without a conductor. Marriner would have admired their musicianship and would also have loved the Englishness of it all: the ancient modal cadences echoing as twilight fell outside the church whose name he carried round the world.”
*4 STARS* Joy in Teamwork – David Nice, for Arts Desk, 17 April
“You always come out feeling better from even a merely good performance of the Octet; this was a great one. Full marks, too, for a lavish and informative Marriner 100 booklet.”
“It could have been a relaxed trip down memory lane, but the ASMF – as if alert to that danger – played with a stunning, edge-of-the-seat energy. The leader of the first violins, Tomo Keller, gave all the minimal direction the players needed, leaving it to instincts honed over decades to do the rest. And just as in the film, the Adagio from the Serenade for Winds was a moment of utter sublimity, thanks to the heart-breakingly beautiful sound of oboist Tom Blomfield and the combined winds of the orchestra.”
“It was a wonderful end to an evening which proved that Sir Neville’s creation has never been in better shape.”