Review of Mr McFalls Chamber Orchestra Performance at All Saints Church, 9th July 2006

Mr McFall’s Chamber, an ensemble whose accomplished members play with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, gave a rich, enjoyable concert 
at All Saints Church in Newcastle on a cool Sunday afternoon. The program had a Spanish/Latin American focus (to be expected, as it was part of a Hispanic music festival), but with a heavy Parisian accent; the musical choices, ranging from pleasurable to powerful, all tended to emphasize sensual sound, or sounds about sensuality. Several of the composers weren’t familiar to me – I noted the Cuban Fabio Landa, whose Pequeña Suite Cubana started the concert with a ravishing, Ravelesque quality, and two lively Cuban piano dances by Ignacio Cervantes. There was some Piazzolla, of course – extremely well played and enjoyable; but more noticeable were the local composers, the songs, and the saw.

Locals included Sergio Camacho’s Four Names for the One Moon, whose fascinating, fragmentary beginning showed a lot of promise; and Agustín Fernández’ Botanic Spider, which was definitely the ‘powerhouse’ work of the afternoon. I’m not just saying this because he’s a colleague of mine – no, honestly – but it was a truly powerful piece with a massive impact: the intellectual intricacies of the first movement set up a seriousness that was fulfilled by a final movement whose power recalled for me such works as Wolpe’sPassacaglia. Leavening all that intensity were four cabaret songs, wonderfully performed by Taylor Wilson; she had chosen dramatic longer songs by Jobim, Weill and Brel, and delivered them with a dark, throaty quality that thoroughly sold the tragic, erotic ‘wrist-slashers.’ There was also an unexpected cameo for musical saw – I was, perhaps pardonably, distracted by trying to figure out exactly how Su-a Lee (normally the group’s cellist) was producing those sounds. The result was campy, but quite wonderful, especially as the first violinist had such a good ear for playing along with the saw.

My strongest final impression was of the easy confidence of these artists; their flexible approaches to programming, and assured skills at making a variety of musics sound very good indeed, were carried off without effort or fanfare. There should be more chamber groups in the world that are both this dazzling and this intimate; if there were, we’d all probably enjoy chamber music the way it was enjoyed a century ago.

Paul Attinello