The latest offering of the National Sinfonia Orchestra is electrifying. From the opening bars of our National Anthem, to the haunting rendition of Lord Kitchener’s Rainorama, arranged for traditional symphonic and steel orchestras by composer Gary Gibson, the audience is captivated. Sanch has been associated with the National Sinfonia even before its inception in 2004.

Formerly called the National Youth Orchestra of Trinidad and Tobago, it flourished under the baton of Kerry Roebuck, who subsequently migrated. For over ten years, I recorded annual performances and rehearsals at the ballroom of Holiday Inn, now Crowne Plaza and at Queen’s Hall, monitoring progress. This culminated in my release on CD of the ensemble’s 2005 recital.

The Sinfonia has since increased its diversified repertoire while improving immeasurably with new charismatic maestro, Jessel Murray. This year’s concert is by far its best effort. I attribute the resounding success to continued hard work, coupled with a combination of better playing technique and higher quality of instruments. These facets complement the inevitable synergy that evolves from musicians becoming more and more comfortable with their conductor’s style.

The other renditions include a scintillating interpretation of Greig’s Piano Concerto in ‘A’ Minor, featuring St. Vincent-born concert pianist Sean Sutherland on Steinway concert grand. Donizetti’s O Mio Fernando from La Favorita features local soprano Michele Dowrich. The world premiere of Gary Gibson’s avant garde neoclassical composition Caprice, Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain and Tchaikovsky’s Marche Slave complete the set. The entire presentation is just over 74 minutes long.

Soundreaction recorded the session. Equipment included my customised passive mixer, designed by engineering guru, ‘Professor’ Keith O. Johnson. Outputs from one pair of precision-calibrated Cardioid and a second pair of reference Omnidirectional powered DPA microphones were mixed in this console.

The resulting stereo signal was amplified by a Classé CP 60 preamplifier before being channelled to the balanced inputs of a Model One HDCD® processor. The converted 24-bit digital bitstream was stored on an Alesis Masterlink recorder. Line conditioning and interconnects were provided by Audience high-resolution aR6T and au24e components, respectively.

As an ongoing commitment to the fledgling Sinfonia, Sanch has produced a commemorative CD. This artefact will make a wonderful Christmas present. If you favour the Sinfonia in the same manner in which you sustained the Narell/Relator collaboration, University of Calypso, success is guaranteed. Over 1000 copies of this production have been sold since its release four months ago. Thank you so very much.

Simeon L. Sandiford
Executive Producer of The Rainmakers