{"id":2656,"date":"2015-10-17T20:34:37","date_gmt":"2015-10-17T19:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eso.co.uk\/?p=2656"},"modified":"2015-10-17T20:34:37","modified_gmt":"2015-10-17T19:34:37","slug":"one-of-the-most-exciting-events-i-have-experienced-during-a-reviewing-career-approaching-half-a-century-birmingham-post-on-eso-elgar-pilgrimage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/festivalmontpeyroux.com\/eso\/one-of-the-most-exciting-events-i-have-experienced-during-a-reviewing-career-approaching-half-a-century-birmingham-post-on-eso-elgar-pilgrimage\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;[One] of the most exciting events I have experienced during a reviewing career approaching half a century&#8221; Birmingham  Post on ESO Elgar Pilgrimage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An extraordinary rave review from senior critic Christopher Morley for Donald Fraser&#8217;s orchestration of the Elgar Piano Quintet as heard in the final concert of the 2015 Elgar Pilgrimage<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2311\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2311\" style=\"width: 520px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/eso.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/donal_fraser_conductor.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2311\" src=\"http:\/\/eso.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/donal_fraser_conductor-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Composer, producer, conductor and arranger, Donald Fraser\" width=\"520\" height=\"780\" srcset=\"https:\/\/festivalmontpeyroux.com\/eso\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/donal_fraser_conductor-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/festivalmontpeyroux.com\/eso\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/donal_fraser_conductor-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/festivalmontpeyroux.com\/eso\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/donal_fraser_conductor-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/festivalmontpeyroux.com\/eso\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/donal_fraser_conductor.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2311\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Composer, producer, conductor and arranger, Donald Fraser<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;Two of the most exciting events I have experienced during a reviewing career approaching half a century involve symphonies Elgar never wrote&#8230;.This &#8220;War Symphony&#8221; (the title taking its cue from an entry in Alice Elgar&#8217;s diary) is a triumph in its recreation of Elgar&#8217;s rich orchestral sound-world, and though Fraser, unlike Payne, had all the material in front of him, he had the difficult task of making us forget the original medium and accept the new one&#8230;Fraser&#8217;s assimilat<span class=\"text_exposed_show\">ion of Elgar&#8217;s orchestral methods bears fascinating fruit and then some. His antiphonal use of brass, athletic horns in conversation with the heavier mob on the other side of the stage, is a highly effective resource; his deployment of percussion (quietly menacing timpani, skeletal tambourine) adds to the points being made, and the strings sing and cushion with gorgeous depths of tone&#8230;.The ESO certainly played with an enthusiastic awareness that they were making history, and the devoted, unassuming Kenneth Woods conducted with an easy flexibility that recalled the work&#8217;s chamber-music origins. This &#8220;War Symphony&#8221; deserves to be acknowledged immediately as a worthy addition to the Elgar canon.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.birminghampost.co.uk\/whats-on\/arts-culture-news\/review-elgars-war-symphony-english-10241432\">Read the whole thing here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An extraordinary rave review from senior critic Christopher Morley for Donald Fraser&#8217;s orchestration of the Elgar Piano Quintet as heard in the final concert of the 2015 Elgar Pilgrimage &#8220;Two of the most exciting events I have experienced during a reviewing career approaching half a century involve symphonies Elgar never wrote&#8230;.This &#8220;War Symphony&#8221; (the title &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/festivalmontpeyroux.com\/eso\/one-of-the-most-exciting-events-i-have-experienced-during-a-reviewing-career-approaching-half-a-century-birmingham-post-on-eso-elgar-pilgrimage\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8220;[One] of the most exciting events I have experienced during a reviewing career approaching half a century&#8221; Birmingham  Post on ESO Elgar Pilgrimage&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/festivalmontpeyroux.com\/eso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/festivalmontpeyroux.com\/eso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/festivalmontpeyroux.com\/eso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/festivalmontpeyroux.com\/eso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/festivalmontpeyroux.com\/eso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/festivalmontpeyroux.com\/eso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2656\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/festivalmontpeyroux.com\/eso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/festivalmontpeyroux.com\/eso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/festivalmontpeyroux.com\/eso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}