Review: Settle Orchestra summer concert at Christ Church, Skipton on June 24.

 

SETTLE Orchestra’s conductor, Xinjie Yang, chose a delightful programme for the final concert of the season.

It was also her last concert with the orchestra as her post-graduate studies at the Royal Northern College of Music are coming to their end. Throughout the programme she showed her musicianship combined with clarity and her command of the scores.

In Beethoven’s overture Fidelio the orchestra sounded a little tentative to begin with but settled to produce some good playing from all sections.

Dvorak’s violin concerto is not played frequently which is a pity because it contains both some lyrical and exciting moments.

Soloist Anna Tulchinskaya gave an assured performance, with varied and warm tones, tight rhythms and a good grasp of the technical intricacies.

Xinjie provided superb accompaniment, listening well and always knowing just what the soloist wanted, no easy task with a work that requires plenty of rhythmic give and take. Balance is always difficult to assess in a very resonant acoustic and the orchestra was a little overpowering at times, especially from the woodwind, but overall the players played with sensitivity and skill.

After the interval came Schubert’s eighth symphony, the Unfinished. The lower strings were in fine form for this, playing most expressively and really setting the scene for the whole work.

There were a few problems with tuning in the wind and brass sections, hardly surprising on such a warm evening, with the temperature rising in the building also. This did not detract from the generally excellent performance of this piece, which seemed particularly well-suited to the orchestra’s abilities and musicianship.

For the final choice in this programme we were treated to four of Dvorak’s less known set of Slavonic Dances, a nice light-hearted ending to the programme. The conductor had a good feel for the contrasting moods of these works and the players responded with their usual flair.

This was a most enjoyable concert for a summer evening, reminding us of how fortunate we are to have such an excellent amateur orchestra in our area, with talented and enthusiastic players led so musically and clearly by Anne Heaton.

We must wish Xinjie all the best in her career and will look forward to the appearance of the next young conductor from the Royal Northern College of Music. 

The autumn concerts are on November 18 in Settle and 25 in Skipton and will be a joint venture with Langcliffe Singers (marking their 40th anniversary) to perform Brahms German Requiem.