Conductor: Garry Walker
Soloist: Elena Urioste (violin)
For their first concert in this season’s Kirklees Concert Season, the Orchestra of Opera North played to a full house. This was hardly surprising, given that the programme included Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1, always near the top of Classic FM’s Hall of Fame, in addition to Rachmaninov’s best loved symphony. But there was no free-wheeling, no relying on the popularity of the works, about the performances, especially the Rachmaninov.
At the end of the performance, someone at the back shouted “Encore!”. This was an ironic commentary on Garry Walker’s clearly exhausted state, having driven and coaxed the orchestra for more than an hour through a constantly changing symphony where climaxes burst suddenly upon us and poetic melodies linger. The extended first movement features mighty brass climaxes alongside lyrical clarinet passages, then the scherzo explodes upon us with no warning, with the horns prominent throughout. The almost manic contrapuntal section required wonderfully precise work from the strings amid the clash and clatter of percussion.
The third movement was much more the Rachmaninov we are accustomed to, with its long romantic melody for clarinet (Oliver Casanovas Nuevo immaculate) and the naked emotionalism of the string sound, but it was the final Allegro vivace that proved the stamina as well as the musicianship of the orchestra. From what the programme calls “the festive gaiety” of the opening (splendidly theatrical and surprisingly modern for 1907) onwards, climax after climax breaks upon us like ocean waves.
It was a remarkable performance and at the end Walker gave each section its individual bow – very appropriate because, apart from Casanovas Nuevo, no individual stood out, but each section contributed mightily.
The first half, looking at it retrospectively, seems a bit overshadowed, but this was not what we thought at the interval. Elena Urioste delivered an immensely stylish account of the Bruch First Violin Concerto, wonderfully elegant in the famous adagio, dominating the finale with total mastery and rounding the whole thing off with a spectacular Presto.
Garry Walker’s somewhat iconoclastic approach to programme building saw him dancing his way through the Strike Up the Band overture for starters, George Gershwin having fun with eccentric percussion and Rhapsody in Blue-style clarinet. And it includes one of Gershwin’s loveliest tunes, Soon, appearing first in fragments, then in fully orchestrated completeness.
Reviewed on 25th September 2025
