Concert Review: Orchestra Of Opera North Ryedale Festival

If I had been asked to programme this concert, I could have done no better than Mozart (Overture to the Marriage of Figaro); Brahms (Violin Concerto in D Major) and Tchaikovsky (Symphony No. 4 in F Minor). That, my friends, is the way to attract an audience for a classical music concert.

The bonus, of course, is the setting. St Martin-on-the- Hill, Scarborough, may not be the most comfortable of venues, but it is probably the most impressive in Scarborough with its Pre-Raphaelite windows and art works.

Fresh from her triumph at the Proms, Bomsori Kim, the Korean virtuoso, dazzled the audience with her playing of the Brahms Violin Concerto. This is Brahms’s only violin concerto and with its three movement structure, was written for his friend Joseph Joachim. Bomsori was sweet and melodious with the slower sections, then dynamic and suitably dissonant with the quicker ones. The playing was highly articulated with excellent support from the orchestra. Looking around at the faces of the audience, the word ‘spellbound’ would not be too strong a description.

After the interval, Conductor Jonathan Bloxham was eager to drive the Tchaikovsky as well. As with all Tchaikovsky’s music we were spoilt for melody as one hummable tune followed another. And I had not realised what an equal opportunities composer he was: all sections of the orchestra were given a featured spot and invited to show what they could do. From soaring strings to thrilling brass, from delicate woodwind to sonorous timpani, the package worked to realise Tchaikovsky’s vision of music that reconciled inner conflict with external optimism.

The evening opened with Mozart’s delightful Overture to the Marriage of Figaro. Light and playful, it was the perfect vehicle to draw the audience into a relationship with the orchestra. It also highlighted, for me, the importance of even minor details in ensuring an enjoyable evening. For example, the brass section may have been seated at either extreme of the playing area for practical reasons, but the stereoscopic effect was a master-stroke.

Some audience members expressed disappointment that the main players (not the soloist) were not elevated above the seating level of the pews. Initially I agreed, since I could hardly see any of the strings, but soon I felt a certain intimacy, almost as though the players were one of us. Bomsori Kim, for example, was so close to denizens in the front row that she exchanged a few words before beginning to play.

Thank you to Ryedale Festival for bringing another superb evening to the music lovers of Scarborough.