Times of London: Chi-chi Nwanoku's Chineke!...played two rarities with dazzling elan

Chi-chi Nwanoku

The Times of London

Richard Morrison

July 23, 2018

Concert review: Triple Concert at Castle Howard, Yorkshire  [5 Stars]

Glynn’s ingenious vision had three ensembles performing simultaneously three times, with the audience moving between them

For me, however, the highlight came in the Long Gallery, where Chi-chi Nwanoku’s Chineke! — here transformed into a nine-piece outfit — played two rarities with dazzling elan.

The first was Franz Hasenöhrl’s audacious arrangement for just six instruments of Strauss’s vast orchestral tone-poem Till Eulenspiegl. It shouldn’t work but, bizarrely, does. That was followed by the Nonet written by the black British Victorian composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Ardent and tuneful, it loses its way occasionally, but fully deserved this spirited resuscitation.

Ryedale Festival (ryedalefestival.com) runs to July 29