Music / Fantasia, Musica da Camera. At Holy Covenant Church, Cook, March 21. Reviewed by GRAHAM McDONALD.

Musica da Camera reverted to being entirely a string orchestra for this first concert of the year under the direction of German violinist Daniel Röhn,  the third generation of a family of violinists, now living and teaching in Canberra.

He led Musica da Camera through a varied program of four works, conducting two and leading from the violin for two longer pieces, impressively without a note of printed music in front of him.

The orchestra for this concert was 12 violins, three violas, six cellos and two basses. The cello-rich mix of instruments does make the balance a little bass heavy at times, but better to have more resources than strictly necessary than not enough.

The program opened with Serenade No.1 by an obscure German romantic composer, Robert Volkmann. This piece was five short movements of a couple of minutes each, generally sounding more like late 18^th century music than mid-19^th. The music was pretty enough but not particularly exciting.

For the next work, Haydn’s Violin Concerto in C major, from around 1765, Röhn took the lead role with his violin, lifting the orchestra in a delightful display of solo playing and ensemble work. For the slower second movement the orchestra plays mostly pizzicato and this was tight and controlled throughout.

After a reset of the orchestra so that most of the violinists were standing rather than seated, Rohn conducted Two Elegiac Melodies by Edvard Grieg. These are two slow pieces of a few minutes each and while slow string pieces can sometimes pose a challenge for amateur orchestras, the orchestra pulled it off well.

The final work for the concert was Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis, written by Ralph Vaughan-Williams in 1910. This is a shimmering piece of music, full of glorious scoring. Again, Röhn led from his violin and the orchestra responded most satisfyingly.

Vaughan-Williams reportedly wrote this piece with the acoustics of a grand cathedral in mind. The closer and more immediate sound in the confines of Holy Covenant Church in Cook did not really achieve that resonant effect, but that is a minor quibble. For other music, such as the Haydn Concerto the immersiveness of being only a few metres from the musicians is wonderful, although any little glitches in the music do become more obvious when the audience is so close.

Overall, this was a most pleasant hour or so of music, and for me a memorable introduction to the skills and musicality of Daniel Röhn. We can only hope we hear more of him in the future and perhaps he could talk to the audience as well as play.