Music / “The Four Seasons” By Antonio Vivaldi, performed by Canberra Sinfonia. At Wesley Uniting Church, September 28. Reviewed by GRAHAM McDONALD

THE trouble with performing “The Four Seasons” is that everybody knows what it is supposed to sound like and it is so well known that any glitches in performance are inescapably obvious.

The Canberra Sinfonia is a new ensemble in Canberra, just over a year old with the idea of developing “a chamber orchestra for emerging musicians to bridge the gap between amateur and professional performance opportunities in Canberra”.

For this performance the group was two each of first and second violins, two violas, two cellos, bass and harpsichord in addition to the violin of guest director Harry Ward.

While only 23 years old, Ward has been performing for a decade and this concert may well have been some of his beginning steps in directing such ensembles. His playing throughout was assured and confident while keeping an awareness of what the rest of the players were doing and cueing as required.

When there are only 11 musicians on stage, playing some dynamically complex music, there is no room for any tentative bowing from the fiddles. When everyone was playing in the louder sections it all worked well. It was the quieter parts, when the lead violin played solo and the other strings were required to produce pianissimo accompaniment, that things got a bit scratchy and out of tune.

It was noticeable the harpsichord was inaudible most of the time. Harpsichords are generally not particularly loud, but this one is remarkably dull with none of the percussive clatter of the mechanism that can add sparkle to baroque continuo playing.

Concertmaster Helena Popovic worked hard all the way through to lead and encourage the other players. While not anywhere near perfection, this was certainly not a disagreeable performance. A few of the players needed, perhaps, to be listening more closely to what the rest were doing, but this will be something that comes with a little more experience in ensemble playing. We can look forward to their next year’s program.