Portsmouth's Solent Symphony Orchestra turns 30 with a special concert at St Thomas' Cathedral

They will be playing Wagenaar’s Overture: Cyrano de Bergerac; Konzertstuck for four horns and orchestra by Schuman, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.4. They will be joined by special guests, Cornucopia, a French horn quartet made up of professional players Fiona Brockhurst, Bridget Holton, Ieuan Davies and David Ansell.

And as always, the Solent Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by Steve Tanner, who has been there, steering the players since the SSO began in 1992.

It began after a group of like-minded musicians who were involved in Hampshire Music Service thought Portsmouth deserved its own orchestra.

Steve says: ‘There were a few of us in the pub, and we were going around all these different names, and then we thought, well we live near The Solent, Solent Symphony Orchestra – why not? Let's name it that.’

With Steve being a flautist, and the other founders including Helen Walton and Karen Morrison, he recalls: ‘I thought to myself, Helen's a good flute player, Karen's a good flute player – I'm not going to get a look in, so I think I'll have a go at waving my arms!’

With 25 years in the Royal Marines Band Service under his belt, before becoming a woodwind teacher for Hampshire Musical Service on his departure, Steve was by no means a total novice.

‘I did have a little bit of conducting experience while I was in the marines, and they would allow me to do a little bit here and there.

‘I know my classical music backwards, so that was a good thing to steer me round the right way.

‘As [esteemed former News arts writer] Mike Allen used to say, I don't sound like a conductor when I talk, but I don't know how conductors are supposed to sound! I knew the repertoire and what people could do, so they were quite happy for me to do it.’

The founders drew on their local knowledge to pull the orchestra together, and they held their first concert at Portsmouth Cathedral in March 1992 – opening with Fanfare for The Common Man. Steve adds: ‘It's lovely to see 30 years has gone that quickly...’

Among their most memorable concerts, Steve recalls: ‘When we did the 1947 version of Stravinsky's Firebird, that's a fantastic one, because that's the closest work to the original he wrote.

‘He wrote the original for an enormous orchestra – quadruple winds, three harps, and whatever else. That was really nice – it was lovely to play that version, and we got a Guide Award for that one as well!’

One of his other favourites was performing Shostakovich’s 12th symphony.

‘We had quite a number of basses in that one. It's such a strong piece, particularly in that section, and there were some players who wanted to play, so we thought why not? I think we had eight or nine – they were coming from everywhere, and it was great.

‘I've always loved Shostakovich – we've done a few of his, not all of them, because they're quite difficult to do, especially when you only have a couple of rehearsals before a concert – and we don't always get all the players there for them!

‘What I did like about that was that one of my pupils played the piccolo part in that and she made an amazing job of that. Shostakovich write such great piccolo parts throughout his works.’

The SSO’s first concert since the pandemic was also a memorable affair. Held last October it featured Thomas Luke, an Isle of Wight-based pianist, who won the keyboard section of the BBC Young Musician of The Year 2020 competition.

‘Thomas was due to play with us the March that we all got locked down. It was such a shame. We were so honoured that he still said he'd come through and do the Liszt piano concerto with us.

‘It was wonderful.

‘We often go along to Portsmouth Music Festival and listen to the final concert they have and we choose someone who's a possible candidate for a concerto award.

‘We've been doing this most of our time, which gives young players the chance to do concertos with us. He won that from us, and then he went through to the BBC Young Musician award finals.

‘He's a fantastic musician.

‘Over the years we've had some extremely talented youngsters playing concertos with us.’

And of course, he’s looking forward to their next concert.

‘This year, for the first time we've got a quartet of horns playing with us, two of them have played with us in the horn section of the orchestra.

‘They formed their quartet, and it's fantastic to have them joining us. They'll be playing what's a new work to me – I know it – but we have never done it as an orchestra. I'm looking forward to that.’

The SSO receives no external funding so relies on ticket sales to keep going.

Solent Symphony Orchestra are at St Thomas’ Cathedral, Portsmouth on Saturday, March 5. For tickets go to solentso.org.uk.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

Subscribe here for unlimited access to all our coverage, including Pompey, for just 26p a day.