Sinfonia Viva. Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham. 19 January 2025, 4✩✩✩✩. Review: William Ruff.

Photo of Sophie Rosa by Sebastian Siwko.

Sinfonia Viva.  Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham. 19 January 2025,

4✩✩✩✩. Review: William Ruff

“Sinfonia Viva dispel winter gloom with Eastern European elegance”

Sinfonia Viva’s annual Sunday afternoon concerts (lasting roughly an hour) now seem to be securely woven into the fabric of Nottingham’s musical year.  This year the twenty-four players, under the leadership of violinist Sophie Rosa, played three works for small string ensemble.

They started with Bartók’s Romanian Dances, the product of the composer’s field trips in search of the folk music of eastern Europe.  Bartók was hugely influenced by the melodies and unconventional rhythms he encountered and decided that such music had to reach a wider audience – hence this set of dances, originally written for piano but also (as on Sunday) in a version for small orchestra.  The first piece is a dance which must have caught Bartok’s eye because it involves flower-festooned sticks; the second is for dancers wearing sashes or waistbands, and the third is for dancing on the spot. The remaining three are gypsy fiddle melodies.  Sinfonia Viva played them with great gusto, making the most of the earthy rhythms and capturing the character of each dance.

Next came a piece by Dvorak’s son-in-law, Josef Suk: Meditation on the Old Bohemian Chorale ‘Saint Wenceslas’, composed in 1914, at the outbreak of war. It was written as a sort of protest against having to open concerts with the Austrian anthem.  Instead this piece was intended to provide something that celebrated the spirit of Czech nationalism.  It’s a beautifully tender work that’s both heartfelt and brimming with nostalgia.  It would have meant a lot to its original audience, inspiring pride in their Czech heritage.  Sinfonia Viva’s performance was proof that music can travel far through time and space and still move its listeners.

The final work on the programme was Dvorak’s Serenade for Strings, one of his sunniest compositions, capturing the optimism of a young man standing at the threshold of a happy professional and family life.  Dvorak was one of the greatest tune-smiths in the whole of classical music.  His melodies seem to have no end, the lilting rhythms often suggesting Czech folk dances – and throughout the five movements there’s an atmosphere of relaxed beauty.  The emotional range is wide: calm tranquillity in the opening movement leading to a wistful waltz, a light, bustling scherzo, a heartfelt slow movement and then the fizzing, inventive finale which ends as the Serenade began, in an atmosphere of sumptuous nostalgia. 

Dvorak’s Serenade is a big work to perform without a conductor but, under violinist Sophie Rosa’s direction, there was a remarkable degree of unanimity when it came to phrasing.  There were just a few places (mainly in the second movement) when ensemble wasn’t quite as crisp as it could have been.  And the final chord of the fourth movement could have done with a second ‘take’, if this had been a recording rather than a live performance. 

Audience enthusiasm didn’t manage to persuade Sinfonia Viva to provide an encore (making the concert just 48 minutes long).  Still, it’s hard to think of a way of absorbing more musical sunshine on a cold, grey January afternoon.

Sinfonia Viva, directed by Sophie Rosa