Chineke! Orchestra/Heyward review kaleidoscopic concert combines energy and complexity

"In the event, Charleston-born Jonathon Heyward put his own indelible stamp on a varied yet satisfying program. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's La Bamboula, a kaleidoscopic dance with roots in the West Indies, played to Chineke!'s strengths. The performed it with vigour and spirit, while Heyward kept its likable blend of late-Victorian tunefulness and proto-Hollywood glitz gossamer-light. You could see why Henry Wood programmed it at the Proms 16 times, making its subsequent 91-year absence inexplicable."

"Brass and percussion took centre stage for Valerie Coleman's Fanfare for Uncommon Times, a determined call to action written during the pandemic and in the wake of the death of George Floyd. Baleful horns, steely trumpets and a great wodge of trombones and tuba the last of these standouts throughout introduced pealing fanfares and a toe-tapping stomp glinting with vibraphone and xylophone."

"Heyward himself programmed James Lee III's Visions of Cahokia, a multihued triptych conjuring images of an ancient Native American settlement near modern-day St Louis. Sleigh bells and drumbeats lent momentum to all three movements, from the rhythmic arrival of the tribes in Cahokia's Dream to the concluding Chukoskomo a Chickasaw word meaning game or frolic. Peppered with a dash of Stravinsky, Lee's vivid, pictorial music combined directness with complexity, all of which Chineke! seized upon with relish."

Simon Rattle was originally scheduled to conduct, but Charleston-born Jonathon Heyward led Chineke! Orchestra through a varied, satisfying programme. The ensemble energized Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s La Bamboula with vigour and gossamer-light tunefulness. Valerie Coleman’s Fanfare for Uncommon Times foregrounded brass and percussion in a pandemic-era call to action, featuring pealing fanfares and vibraphone-glinted stomps. James Lee III’s Visions of Cahokia offered pictorial, rhythm-driven movements evoking Native American settlement and ritual. The evening closed with Shostakovich’s caustic yet colourful Tenth Symphony delivered with subtle shadows, ruminative opening textures and a tense, waltz-inflected third movement with intertwined encoded motifs.

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