Review of Across the Atlantic by The Orchestra of Opera North at Huddersfield Town Hall by Ron Simpson - **** (4 stars)

The Orchestra of Opera North’s final concert of the Kirklees Concert Season featured four works with much in common, writes Ron Simpson.

All were composed in the United States in the 20th century; all had connections with popular music, dance, or both; all called on resources outside the conventional symphony orchestra, saxophones, perhaps, or a massive percussion section.

The Finnish/Ukrainian conductor Dalia Stasevska, making her debut with the orchestra, had an evident rapport with the musicians. Expressive and dynamic, she also possessed an almost military precision as, for instance, she guided the orchestra through the complex rhythms of Bernstein’s symphonic dances from West Side Story.

Sofya Gulyak with the Orchestra of Opera North. Photo by Justin Slee

In Bernstein’s centenary year he provided an exhilarating opener. Occasionally a great song surfaced – Somewhere, initially given a soulful treatment on viola as the theme for hope and peace – but most of the music was from dance themes in the musical.

The orchestra is always well at home with a bit of Broadway pizzazz and so it was here in the finger-clicking Prologue and, especially, the wildness of the Mambo with hard-hitting brass and percussion. Bernstein knew how to give an orchestra its head and then bring things down to a gently tragic finale and, under Stasevska, the orchestra followed him perfectly.

If anything, Rhapsody in Blue made an even greater impact. Probably the most successful fusion of jazz and classical music, Gershwin’s ground-breaking piece premiered in 1924 and exists in two forms: for jazz band and symphony orchestra.

This performance made the case for the latter, with the orchestra totally on top of the material, from Colin Honour’s consummate delivery of the opening clarinet solo (trill, slide, evocative melody) onwards. Pianist Sofya Gulyak, winner of the 2009 Leeds International Piano Competition, was particularly expressive in the lyrical passages and achieved a nice nonchalance of phrasing in the quasi-improvisatory sections.

Such a superb first half proved difficult to follow, though John Adams’ The Chairman Dances – apparently unstoppable motor rhythms, subtle slow climaxes and sudden changes of orchestral colour – delighted in its own way. However, Rachmaninov’s symphonic dances, composed in the States in 1940, lacked the vitality of the earlier pieces, though there was plenty of fine woodwind playing to enjoy and a thrilling finale featuring the enhanced percussion section.

Once again the Orchestra of Opera North introduced a conductor unknown in the region who proved a major success and completely attuned to the orchestra – we await her return.

This concert is repeated at Leeds Town Hall on April 7.