Westmorland Orchestra, Westmorland Hall, Kendal

IT MUST have been very gratifying for the players of the Westmorland Orchestra to have an opportunity to perform the works originally planned for 2015 when the December storms forced a cancellation of the scheduled concert. The orchestra’s May concert opened with the first of the postponed works: Respighi’s colourful Pines of Rome. This work is unashamedly programmatic. Each of its four movements has a descriptive title and the composer’s clever orchestration enables us to imagine, in the first movement, children playing; in the second, we enter the catacombs; in the third we hear the nightingale in the stillness of night and, finally the march of the centurions on the Appian Way. The combined forces of the orchestra and Burneside Brass Band produced a huge volume of sound in this final movement. The large battery of percussion, of course, made significant but not ‘over the top’ contributions and the whole orchestra captured the essence of this evocative score.

Following the Respighi, we heard Rachmaninov’s well-known Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in which the virtuoso piano part was played by the young Ukrainian pianist Slava Sidorenko. Slava is a multi-prize winner with a formidable technique. His performance of the technically-demanding solo part was breathtaking in its virtuosity and drew tremendous applause from the audience and the orchestra.

After the interval came the other postponed work, Brahms’ mighty First Symphony. There were many impressive moments in this performance and throughout one could detect the care which had gone into the preparation. Conductor, Richard Howarth’s precise direction ensured that the ensemble remained tight. In the last movement, for example, the strings’ pizzicato was precise and firm, a quality sometimes lacking in an amateur performance. There was some lovely quiet string playing and again beautifully played solos from sectional principals; the brass entries in the chorale section of the last movement sounded very secure.

The orchestra seems to go from strength to strength and the playing in all three of the society’s concerts this season has been consistently of a high standard.

CLIVE WALKLEY