Windblowers in the Community

NSWO - Concert for ORBS Sunday 10th October 2010 - Nottingham Evening Post Review

JUST imagine for a moment a huge pink collecting bucket as big as the Albert Hall emblazoned with the letters ORBS, the logo of Onco-Plastic Reconstructive Breast Surgery charity. Now imagine pouring into this bucket lots of musical ingredients: the Symphonic Wind Orchestra, their conductor Kieron Anderson, the Plumtree School Jazz Ensemble, and the saxophone of Alistair Parnell. Then throw in some dancers for good measure: ballerina Amy Daniels and the Keyworth School of Theatre Dance. Give these ingredients a good stir and out pours an evening of high-octane entertainment in aid of an important cause.

The programme was called Let's Dance and it certainly lived up to its name. There were Russian dances from Rimsky-Korsakov (his Dance of the Tumblers) and from Kachaturian and Tchaikovsky. There was Malcolm Arnold's first set of English Dances, Libertango from Venezuelan composer Piazzolla and the final breathtaking sequence from Riverdance. Throughout the whole varied and technically challenging programme the NSWO played with their characteristic pizzazz and razor-sharp ensemble – nowhere more so than the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story.

One of the biggest tributes one can pay to all these talented performers is that so many children – those performing and those listening in the audience alike – were clearly having a great time and discovering the excitement of live music-making. It may be invidious to pick out just one highlight from an evening packed with so much to enjoy but saxophonist Alistair Parnell's extraordinary virtuosity in Pequena Czardas left the audience open-mouthed in astonishment.

William Ruff