sound collective reviews:
testimonials and statements of support
testimonials and statements of support
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Very many thanks again for a wonderful concert. It fulfilled all the criteria for an ace experience- imaginative programme planning, marvellous playing and singing and enthusiastic audience response. You gave us a new dimension for music at Little Missenden
sound collective have not only some of the most talented young players around, but they put on some of the most searching programmes too. Three cheers for sound collective and their dedicated conductor Tom Hammond
What a good concert -- some great music, assembled into a really interesting and bold programme, and beautifully played. Thanks so much.
It was a truly wonderful concert. I have never heard string playing like that before, or sensed the musical enjoyment of an orchestra in making music in the way sound collective played and responded to you. Every player was engaged with you, and your own total involvement and obvious enjoyment in making music with them was wonderful, both to see and hear the results. And it was evident from the reception you received that everyone felt the same wonderful enjoyment and involvement in a real and exciting musical happening.
It was a very enjoyable concert indeed, with much interesting music being performed and you deserved the good response of the audience.
Congratulations to everyone: it was a brilliant debut
Many, many congratulations on the first sound collective concert. It was an enormous relief to hear a concert properly rehearsed played in Britain! And also wonderful to see how much everyone enjoyed the chance to play something they knew properly. It was fab, and so important in these days of cuts and more cuts.
I thought it was a splendid show, and a great send-off for the orchestra. I was delighted with the playing of my piece, and indeed throughout the concert there was some quite exceptional work.
Congratulations on a wonderful concert last night. An imaginative programme beautifully played. It was terrific.
Congratulations. What a splendid performance tonight. I'm so pleased it went so well and was so well attended. It's a brilliant start to a new orchestra.
I don't know what makes me think this, but it is my guess that some of the music you performed was quite difficult to play. It was impossible to tell which bits were really hard, because everybody was technically on top of it all. Musically, I thought it was an astonishing achievement to present a programme of so much neglected or rarely performed repertoire, and still make musical sense of it all... It's not often I attend a concert of contemporary music and leave thinking it is a complete injustice that we do not hear more music by the composers represented. On the occasions that I do, it is almost always the result of an excellent performance.
I can safely say that sound collective's debut was one of the most enjoyable and worthwhile concerts I have ever attended.
It was such an enjoyable night. I felt inspired and touched by the music, and I'm really impressed by your performance...
My heartfelt congratulations to you all for such a lovely debut. I was very impressed by your concert and, as a listener, was made to feel very secure that all the composers were in good hands... I have only once seen such love between musicians and conductor...
I was able to attend with absolutely no idea of what the programme was. What I encountered was a thoroughly entrancing and entertaining evening's concert. Apart from the Dag Wiren 'main tune', I had not heard any of the evening's music. I was not surprised to find that I enjoyed the Nielsen and the Sibelius (and what a lovely soloist), but I was delighted by the Taylor symphony. It was nice to see the players enjoying their music.
press comments and statements of support for Tom Hammond
...fine support by the Helios Sinfonia and Tom Hammond... other recitals risked paling by comparison.
...ably conducted by Tom Hammond... dynamic and colourful... very convincingly played...
...Tom Hammond's economic gestures elicited suave, sophisticated playing..."
...a sterling performance... conducted with élan by Tom Hammond...
...sound collective is as excellent as it is enterprising, and Hammond a conductor whose range of sympathies and interpretative convictions ought to win plaudits.
...this self-taught conductor could well make a significant contribution to the music world...
...three cheers for sound collective and their dedicated conductor Tom Hammond.
...disciplined handling... as assured and finely prepared a premiere as one could wish for...
...Hammond's feel for emotional contrast... allied to a seamlessness of tempo that was as convincing as it was impressive...
Too many composers ooze obsequious gratitude from conductors whom perform their music. Yet, Tom Hammond has always shown a complete understanding of my music, having conducted several performances of the First Symphony and my overture 'The Needles' for which he gave the London Première. The insight he showed into these scores, with perfectly judged tempi, great attention to balance and a fine sense of overall architecture were quite remarkable. So many world premières are like final rehearsals. However I know that with the new Third Symphony, scheduled for first performance with Tom and sound collective in January 2005 will be a very special occasion.
Tom Hammond has been active as a conductor for several years, his performances marked out by a judicious choice of repertoire and evident interpretive conviction - not to mention a positive and genuine rapport with musicians. An account of Nielsen's First Symphony showed a real appreciation of its tonal and harmonic originality, Hammond persuasive both in highlighting of detail and in his grasp of formal logic essential in the symphonic domain. The recent debut of his sound collective chamber orchestra featured subtle and sensitive accompaniments to some of Sibelius' lesser-known works for violin and orchestra, as well as assured accounts of Nielsen's 'Little Suite' and Dag Wirén's 'Serenade for Strings' - affecting and enjoyable in equal measure. Future concerts from this ensemble are eagerly awaited. All in all, Hammond undoubtedly has the technical skill and artistic flair to make his mark on the new generation of conductors now emerging.
Tom Hammond seems to me a young conductor of great promise... his rehearsal technique is detailed and assured, and his conducting clear and communicative. He knows his scores well, and seems able to concentrate on just the right areas in rehearsal. He is also capable of communicating immediately with audiences.