String is in the air

REVIEW - Courtesy, Daily Echo

Bournemouth Chamber Music Society, Talbot Heath School

THE spirit of youth was very much in evidence when the young ladies comprising the Callino String Quartet accompanied hornist Richard Bayliss in a highly enterprising recital.

It is good to hear the music of English composer York Bowen making up for past neglect. His Quintet in C minor opens with a call from the horn in a powerful score with a strong current and a forceful finishing flourish.

The central movement is romantically inclined with the final Allegro containing inventive scoring for strings and an impressive rhythmic thrust.

Callino's line-up, Ioana Petcu-Colan, violin doubling viola, Sarah Sexton, violin, Rebecca Jones, viola and Sarah McMahon, cello, performed Haydn's jauntily cheerful Quartet, opus 77 No 1 with plenty of rhythmic emphasis, rich timbre and youthful vibrancy in a beguiling account.

Mozart's Horn Quintet, scored for violin, two violas, cello and horn, was memorably melodic with Bayliss giving the central movement ah immense degree of suavity and tackling the taxing but tuneful finale with enormous bravura.

Arthur Butterworth's Romanza for horn and strings is an absolute gem. The influence of Vaughan Williams is evident, as is the moodiness that seems to evoke a range of precipitations in a rugged landscape.

Mike Marsh