Westmorland Orchestra Concert

Westmorland Hall, Saturday 19th May 2007

The Westmorland Orchestra’s final concert in its 62nd season on Saturday May 19th began in fine form. The players of the brass section blazed their way through Franz von Suppé’s Overture Light Cavalry, suitably accompanied by crashing percussion. Suppé’s overtures - the operettas for which they were written have long since been forgotten - may not be considered great music but the composer could certainly write good tunes and knew how to orchestrate his ideas.

The overture was followed by a performance of Sibelius’s much-loved Violin Concerto in which the soloist was the brilliant young virtuoso Amir Bisengaliev, born in Kazakhstan.  Only twenty-one, it was immediately obvious that here was a young man with an amazing technique and a fine sense of musicianship. His technically-assured playing dazzled the audience. He had no difficulty in mastering the notoriously difficult solo part, and in the more lyrical sections of the work produced a beautiful quality of tone. However, there were some tentative moments overall in this performance: the orchestra seemed less than secure in the support it gave to the soloist and I suspect that this may have been due to the limited amount of time available for rehearsal of soloist and orchestra together. Such a complex work as the Sibelius Violin Concerto requires more than the one combined rehearsal that is the norm on such occasions and tribute must be paid to conductor, Barry Sharkey, in holding the work together.

After the interval the orchestra gave a competent account of Brahms’s Symphony No. 2 in D. This is a lyrical, sunny work, in contrast to the gloom of the composer’s first symphony, and gives orchestral players many opportunities to indulge themselves in Brahms’s expansive melodic lines. Barry Sharkey drove the first movement forward at a fairly brisk pace and sometimes the orchestra was a little slow to pick up the tempo.  The string sound was warm, but on occasions needed more weight and intensity.  As we have come to expect from the orchestra, there were many fine individual solo contributions from section leaders, particularly in the lovely third movement, and the brass fanfares of the finale brought the work to a rousing and enthusiastic conclusion.

Once again, we in South Lakeland must be grateful for the dedication and skill of conductor and local players in making fine music available to us.

Clive Walkley