Orchestra showed the versatility of music despite clash of genres

Thames Valley Festival Orchestra — An Evening of Symphonic Prog Prog Rock, featuring the music of Jethro Tull, Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd and Queen, arranged by Dee Palmer

Dorchester Abbey

Saturday, September 20

ONE of the exciting things about music is the way it can morph into new forms. “Progressive rock” was the name given to the likes of Genesis, Pink Floyd and Yes for their use of interesting rhythms, longer compositions and the influence of classical music.

The packed audience in glorious Dorchester Abbey witnessed this metamorphosis and revelled in the way Dee Palmer had arranged and amplified a programme of rock music for classical orchestra, with all its colours and variety. A high octane start, with Jethro Tull’s bangers: Locomotive Breath Medley, Aqualung and Elegy, led into a series of Genesis hits, followed by others from Yes. Then, after the interval, Pink Floyd and full-on, crowd-pleasing Queen.

Stephen Ellery is surely one of the most energetic and interpretative conductors around. He was certainly the only soul in the respectful gathering able to move vigorously to every track. From time to time, he stepped off the podium and joined the estimable Thames Valley Festival Orchestra by playing solo saxophone with style.

The orchestra, led by Guy Haskell, threw itself with gusto into every track, superb soloists taking the erstwhile vocal lines in different sections of the orchestra (although these could be slightly underpowered at times, in competition with the many instruments).

There was of course a flautist for the Jethro Tull arrangements and an electric guitar for Pink Floyd, as nods to the originals, but many instruments would never have graced the prog rock stage, and certainly not in such numbers.

For me, one of the highlights was the Genesis section: Los Jigos Medley with the percussionist working his socks off and the brass section soaring (as they often did in this superb acoustic setting).

Follow You Follow Me was searingly beautiful in an orchestral arrangement. The rebellion of Pink Floyd’s original Another Brick in the Wall was orchestrally preserved in the thumping anger of this arrangement.

Palmer gave the strong, repeated main theme of Yes’s Owner of a Lonely Heart to a variety of instruments, passing it round as if to emphasise the universality of the sentiment.

The huge orchestra was at its glorious best for me, predictably, for Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. This filled the abbey with drama as it built, and the audience was spellbound.

Many congratulations to organiser and orchestral founder, Jasmine Huxtable-Wright, for another hugely enjoyable and memorable evening.

Jane Redley