July sees two of Southampton’s classical music societies join forces for a programme of Walton and Elgar.  The performance uses an item not usually associated with an orchestra, an anvil!  The percussionists for Belshazzar’s Feast not only have to play but dance as they swap from one instrument to another as the choir praise the gods of different elements - gold, silver, brass, iron etc.  Of the four percussionists, only one gets to play the anvil, and not in the ‘being in Basingstoke’ sense…

We talked to Craig Lawton, our very own anvil player, who talks about forging (see what I did there?) an interest in this music.

I discovered Belshazzar's Feast whilst reading music at Taunton's College. I think we looked at it as part of the syllabus, or because our music teacher, Jane [Higgins], was very keen on the piece and its orchestration. I remember finding an old score of it, and once listening to it and following score became inspired by the sound-world Walton created. It's hard to describe what I love about the piece – there's so much! The drama, colour, orchestration, contrasting texts, but mostly those hair-raising, spine-tingling moments it creates; from the organ pedal entry to the double-chorus finale!

I was privileged to be called back to play timpani for this piece when the college performed it after I left. It's great fun because it keeps you on your toes!  It's a real thrill working in a large percussion section when there is so much going on and it's energetic music. I'm really looking forward to being able to play it again on a different instrument (and probably sing along too)!

And the Enigma Variations?

This has special memories for me. I've played the whole work on timpani at University in Southampton and caught everyone's attention when towards the end the timpanist is asked to play with two penny pieces! I don't think the other players had seen this before. I've also conducted the Finale which is good fun. I use the organ arrangement of Nimrod often at Remembrance time and other sombre services - though it does have a lot of positive energy too.

So with the iron of the anvil and the ‘brass’ of the two pennies, it is almost a heavy metal concert. Suffice to say with the wonderful music and the balletic movements of the percussion section it truly is a feast of the senses.