Westmorland Orchestra

Westmorland Hall, Kendal

THE Westmorland Orchestra fielded a large team of players for the recent Westmorland Hall concert when a battery of percussionists, additional horns and trumpets joined the regulars for a performance of Mahler’s First Symphony.

But first came Wagner’s well-known Prelude to Act 3 from his opera Lohengrin, and then Beethoven’s First Symphony. For some reason the string section sounded less confident in this work than in the Mahler; the sound was not uniform throughout the section.

Without doubt, it was the Mahler performance that would stay in the memory of the audience – and the players too no doubt. It was not a flawless performance, as I’m sure the players would be the first to acknowledge, but there were many fine moments. Perhaps the most thrilling was the opening of the final movement when, after a reverberant cymbal crash, the whole orchestra suddenly erupted into a blaze of sound.

Mahler certainly knew how to arouse his listeners and the many brass fanfares that are such a characteristic of Mahler’s style certainly worked their magic on the audience who enthusiastically applauded the brass section at the end of the concert.

But the symphony has its delicate moments, with many exposed solo passages for the woodwind in particular. How fortunate the Westmorland is in having so many fine players in this section. They were ably supported by the strings who played with conviction.

Clearly, a lot of work had gone into the preparation of this work and tribute must be paid to conductor, Richard Howarth, for so ably steering the orchestra through the performance.

Clive Walkley