Huddersfield Philharmonic Orchestra

Archive Reviews
- 2004/2005 season -

November 2004 - Tchaikovsky, Dohnanyi, Prokofiev
February 2005 - Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Strauss
April 2005 - Revueltas, Rodrigo, Mahler

Saturday, November 13th, 2004

"Verve and panache"

Concert review by David Hammond, Huddersfield Examiner

Coffee is not the only good product to come from Venezuela. Young South American conductor Natalia Luis-Bassa is providing an inspiration to the Philharmonic, and received a deservedly warm ovation at the Town Hall on Saturday.

In a somewhat out of the ordinary programme, Martin Roscoe was the distinguished guest soloist in Erno Dohnanyi's Variations on a Nursery Song. He used his vast experience and technical skills to deliciously characterise and satirise the music of famous composers - Schumann, Strauss, Beethoven, et al - in the wonderfully varied takes on Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

In this piece, the over-majestic, symphonic-style opening hilariously gives way to a simple tinkling of the piano keys, with pianist and orchestra then combining to bring out the delightful humour, contrasts and details which follow.

The evening had opened, by contrast, in sombre vein, with Tchaikovsky's Francesca da Rimini, a fantasy based on Dante's Inferno, where the Russian composer's angst was tellingly conveyed in a vivid performance, with melancholy woodwind solos, a sad and wistful melody from strings and a dark, exciting climax.

There was excitement, too, in the composer's Marche Slave, where the jolly woodwind tune leads on to the dramatic, heroic passages which were built up with verve and panache.

The account of Prokofiev's colourfully-orchestrated Romeo and Juliet Ballet Suite movingly delivered its passion and pathos, with lyric harp, mood-setting saxophone and piercingly shrill piccolo making their mark before the emergence of that serene and beautiful theme which tells of love persisting beyond death.

Saturday, February 12th, 2005

"Phil meets epic challenge"

Concert review by William Marshall, Huddersfield Examiner

Would the Phil's talent be equal to its ambition, in presenting a concert that included one of the great epics of the 20th century orchestral repertoire and one of the most technically demanding concertos of the 19th century?

In addition to Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra and the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, the programme also included Wagner's Rienzi Overture and a suite from Prokofiev's Love for Three Oranges, both of which, particularly the latter, were calculated to test every section of the orchestra.

The answer to the opening question is that the Huddersfield Philharmonic, under Nicholas Cleobury, acquitted itself exceptionally well. Apart from the occasional and fleeting lapse in tuning, this was a concert of very high quality.

The Tchaikovsky, of course, was largely dependent on the talent of the guest soloist, and Jack Liebeck scored a triumph, being more than equal to the immense technical demands of the concerto.

He did not produce a big, muscular tone but played with mellifluous subtlety. It was, in fact, a thoroughly violinistic performance and Liebeck's stance on stage had a hint of the gypsy fiddler about it.

For Strauss's immense Zarathustra tone poem the orchestra faced a concerto-like challenge of its own. Perhaps the ending was not quite as celestial as we might have hoped but this was an excellent rendition of a mighty work and all sections made fine contributions, as did the conductor, who is plainly a man who knows what he wants from the orchestra and, for most of the time, he gets it.

Saturday, April 23rd, 2005

"Quite amazing"

Concert review by Patric Standford, Yorkshire Post

Conductors of non-professional orchestras are faced with challenges generally unfamiliar to the jet-setting CD luminaries.

Apart from perhaps earning a living in other ways, their conducting, when they do it, must persuade both orchestra and audience that achieving high standards is paramount - and to do this the conductor must not only see clearly the goal, but know how to persuade players to attain it.

Conductors of this kind may be quite good, extremely good or excellent. Natalia Luis-Bassa is none of these. She is quite amazing.

Her direction of Mahler's 1st Symphony maintained to the end its highly charged energy, its skilfully graded dynamics, its well judged tempo changes and overall structural phrasing magnificently.

The Ländler was gracefully Austrian and the finale ablaze with neatly balanced fire, and her direction was authoritative throughout. Despite original intentions, Mahler's abandoned movement was not included (wisely - composers usually know best!)

There was however the bold vividly coloured poem Sensemaya by the neglected Mexican Silvestre Revueltas, written not long before the composer's early and tragic death in 1940, a rhythmically lively and aggressive piece about the killing of a snake.

There was also a performance of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez by another Mexican, the 26-year old guitarist Morgan Szymanski, neat and stylish if a little unbalanced in places, and with some awkward amplification.

Overall, Luis-Bassa brought the orchestra to the peak of its form in a magnificent and enterprising programme. It should not be long before this young Venezuelan conductor is in considerable demand.