Sunshine, Strings and Standing Ovations

The concert Here Comes The Sun on Friday 12th June at the Charis Centre in Crawley was a celebration of Summer and the first time that Ensemble Reza played at this venue. The evening was a huge success on both counts. All agreed that the Charis Centre is an excellent venue with adequate space, (players, audience and parking), good acoustics and adequate accessible facilities.

Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet commonly known as the “Sunrise” Quartet, opened the first half of the programme. From there we were taken on a walk in the countryside with bird song and rambling brooks in the opening movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, transcribed for 6 string players. The third and last item in this section continued the summer theme with two Nordic folk melodies and dances by Edward Grieg.

The dances set the tone for the second half of the programme where we felt the heat and laziness of summer, heard insects and bugs, were transported to the Deep South, Nashville, Greece, Brazil, France and treated to sultry evocative rhythms. The variety from piece to piece was enhanced by the players’ abilities to pick up other instruments such as banjo, accordion, ukelele and mandolin.

The final piece “Here Comes the Sun” (Beatles) and the encore Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days Of Summer with full audience participation brought this successful concert to a happy close.

Review by Nina Booth