The Orchestra of the Swan styles itself as an ensemble of possibilities, clearly believing them to be infinite. And so it should; self-belief is all. With Stratford-upon-Avon as its base, the ensemble targets places that get too littlemusic, and its Take Note! series offers contemporary work for strings alongside established masterpieces, with the composers at the Civic Hall to introduce them.
Howard Skempton's Concertante for Solo Violin and Strings, premiered in 1998, was conceived as a foil for Bach's Third Brandenburg Concerto. After the unassuming but restless lines of the first movement, the opening of the second, the cellos' lament, sounded almost dour, although it became more nostalgic with David Le Page's solo violin. The dissonant intervals of the finale cut jagged lines that clawed at the air and left an uneasy peace. Skempton did not signal the end of the movements; they just happened, with the music suspended, any emotion dissipated and thus unresolved.
Yet the effect was benign compared with the dark brooding of Julian Philips's new piece, given its premiere here. Dance Fragment is the first of a series and marks a change of direction apparently influenced by working on a ballet with the choreographer Michael Korder. This was a dance of the imagination: slow, highly chromatic, tortuous and anguished, with the successive attempts of three solo instruments to break out of the music's oppressive grip doomed to failure.
The Orchestra of the Swan may not yet have the refinement of sound of a longer-established ensemble - Elgar's Introduction and Allegro suffered in that respect - but its commitment goes a long way to making up for that. Under the baton of David Curtis, Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony, dedicated to the victims of fascism and war, was given a stirring performance. This arrangement of the String Quartet No 8 by Rudolf Barshai, founder of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, demands tenacity. It was a tribute to the conductor and players that a far-from-easy programme should have elicited such a warm reception.
