Review: Orchestra’s slow burn turn into an inferno (York Guildhall Orchestra, Alessandro Taverna; York Barbican)

The orchestra was on fire from the start: a slow burn at first, in the sweetness of the cello quintet led by Sally Ladds, immediately followed by a blaze of trombones, as William Tell’s revolution crackled into life.The orchestra’s Sibelius odyssey has now reached Symphony No. 3 in C. The cellos – again, on top form – tellingly introduced the Russian-inspired opening, and the upper strings responded resolutely, with a glowing chorale bringing the movement to a dignified close. The woodwing choir showed its true colours in the atmospheric Andante, and the steady accumulation of tension made the closing scherzo exceptionally invigorating.

Sibelius’s Karelia Suite was the only disappointment of the evening, partly because of uneven voicing in woodwinds and horns, but in any case its potential serenity was spoilt by a spate of unmuffled coughs. Some order was restored by the rhythmically crisp final march.

Alessandro Taverna was the sensitive pianist in the Beethoven. His avoidance of bravura for its own sake was intoxicating. Even at speed, notably in the last movement, his phrasing was delicately nuanced, even intimate. His rubato-laden slow movement had kept the orchestra guessing, but revealed Beethoven’s gentler side. His sensual account of Debussy’s Clair de Lune, as encore, was bewitching.

Martin Dreyer (The Press, York)