As if further proof were needed that the Manchester Camerata are flourishing under their artistic director Douglas Boyd, their participation in the Prokofiev 2003 celebrations could not have been more distinguished. In part, this is to do with an ingenious choice of repertoire: while a chamber group clearly cannot match the power of a symphony orchestra, they can outclass them in clarity and ensemble, and the Camerata know how to play this to their advantage. Ravel's Ma Mère l'Oye had a finely honed, limpid delicacy and a warm sense of intimacy. Boyd's easy, collaborative style drew effortlessly beautiful playing from the Camerata, and some especially gorgeous wind solos.
While Ma Mère l'Oye is ideal for a chamber orchestra, Prokofiev's Second Violin Concerto poses greater challenges. Some of its more powerful passages had to be scaled down, and the abrupt ending lacked the necessary string punch to make its proper impact. But on the plus side, a chamber ensemble can communicate closely with a soloist in a way that full-sized orchestras cannot always match, and the Camerata's rapport with violinist Anthony Marwood was totally convincing.
The slow movement's odd ticking accompaniment, ushering in a melody of devastating loveliness is a hallmark of Prokofiev's style in the 1930s: the juxtaposition of lyricism and mechanistic effects creates music of peculiar intensity. Marwood's tender, pliable playing was sympathetically matched by Boyd and the Camerata in a warmly communicative performance.
Perhaps inevitably, Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf seemed to suffer from lack of rehearsal time. Narrator Prunella Scales was surprisingly unmemorable, and the Camerata's tautly balanced sound flagged. Even so, it was irresistible.
The wolf's theme is still strangely spine-chilling, and the duck's plaintive cries from inside the wolf at the end have a sudden pathos that is also distinctly macabre. Predictably, this is the very part that makes children laugh: Prokofiev's Dahlian instinct for gruesome humour is just one of the qualities that have made Peter and the Wolf such an enduring classic.
