Huddersfield Philharmonic Orchestra

Huddersfield Town Hall

REVIEW: by William Marshall

HAVING been confirmed as its new principal conductor, Nicholas Smith presided over one of the Huddersfield Philharmonic’s most assured, mature performances for a long time.

It was a demanding programme, but there was always plenty of power in reserve. Towards the close of the concert, the blaring fortissimo at the start of the final movement of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony pinned the entire Town Hall audience back in their seats.

It is sometimes the case that opening items at concerts by amateur orchestras are a warming-up exercise, in which elements such as string tone take shape and tuning issues are sorted.

But on Saturday, the opener, Mussorgsky’s dramatic, not to say melodramatic Night On Bald Mountain was excellent from the off. The confident opening statement by the heavy brass seemed like a statement of intent for the whole concert.

The Mussorgsky was followed by an equally famous work, Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. The soloist was the young pianist William Green, still a student, but obviously possessed of immense musicality as well as technical skill, ensuring him a bright future either as a soloist or on the podium.

He might not have injected the big, swooning theme towards the end of the work with as much schmaltz as many people would have liked, but that could be seen as a plus point. Overall, he performed the often bewilderingly elaborate piano part with a great deal of clarity.

The second half consisted of the Shostakovich Symphony No 5, one of the works of this composer that must always be interpreted in the light of his dangerously fraught relationship with Stalin. This was the work which supposedly rehabilitated him in the eyes of the Soviet state – in which case it must have been even more stupid than we thought, because the symphony is so obviously laden with grim irony and foreboding.

Its character and depth were brought out well by Nicholas Smith and the orchestra. There was some excellent work from the wind sections, including lovely solos from woodwinds, but the string section too rose to the challenge of a large amount of stark, high tessitura writing that could so easily have exposed weak tuning and ensemble. It only did so on very few occasions and the orchestra and its new conductor delivered a highly-rewarding performance of a deeply dramatic and troubling work.