Concert Programme and Reviews

Triumph by orchestra in school's new hall

A magnificent performance of Rachmaninov's Symphony No 2 crowned an outstanding concert given by Harrogate Symphony Orchestra on Saturday. It was the first public concert in King James's School's new Chaloner Hall and the event was treated to an almost capacity audience.

The concert began with Tchaikovsky's Fantasy Overture: Romeo and Juliet and this performance brought out extremely well the vivid and exciting contrasts between the "love" passages and the depiction of the fight scenes.

The cymbal crashes in the latter were most reminiscent of the clashing of swords and the vigorous string semi-quaver passages exhibited rhythmic unison at its very best. This section also showed its quality in very different exposed, slower and muted passage. The work began with a slight lack of perfection in ensemble as some of the wind instrumentalists were a fraction late in their opening chords but played later in a most solid manner.

Vaughan Williams's Suite for Viola and Small Orchestra is a rarely-heard work and consists of no less than eight movements in contrasting styles.

Despite being written in 1934 when the composes was aged 62, it contains little of the stylistic maturity, especially in terms of harmony, that encompassed his later music.

Nevertheless, this performance demonstrated a good understanding of the music's rhythmic features and the momentum was well-maintained, despite the piece's fragmentary make-up.

The soloist was Zoe Matthews, a third-year student at the Royal Academy of Music, and she showed immense promise in playing with a full but pleasing tone and exhibiting a wide range of tone colours. Particularly effective was the lyrical approach to the Musette and the effortless execution of the high harmonic at the end.

The performance of the Rachmaninov Symphony demonstrated a deep understanding of the work from both the conductor and orchestra alike.

Throughout the performance the melodic lines were played with a great deal of expression, particularly from the cello section and the woodwind soloists, including the rarely heard but plaintive cor anglaise.

The Scherzo was approached in an appropriately lively manner but also demonstrated beautiful warmth in the string playing.

The brass section were also in fine form and added to the texture effectively throughout.

The acoustics of the Hall were enjoyed by this writer. It was possible to hear all of the clarity in the music and the reverberation that was present did not detract from this. It is to be hoped, however, that more comfortable seating will be added in due course.

The other minor drawback to the evening consisted of a lack of understanding of the first of the six jokes that were amusingly included in the programme.

If anyone can explain 'What does a good conductor weigh? 28oz (not including the urn)' they would leave at least one person in a much less puzzled frame of mind.

Bryan Western and the orchestra probably reached new heights with this concert.

As he himself admitted in his introduction, the symphony heard in this programme ought not to be tackled by an amateur ensemble. However, he and they proved that convention is not necessarily wisdom and that the apparently over-ambitious can be translated into a triumph.

- Paul Dyson, Harrogate Advertiser