Vienna Tonkunstler Orchestra – St George’s Hall
Bradford welcomed the fifth orchestra for its International Orchestral Concert Season from faraway Vienna.
Not quite the illustrious Philharmonic, but its near neighbour of 75 players: the Tonkunstler Orchestra.
Especially renowned for work with younger audiences, they have become Austria’s largest music education programme.
The orchestra’s command of the slavonic idiom was readily apparent in the opening work, Dances Of Galanta, which the young composer, Zoltan Kodaly, grew up with. It drew cheers from the well-filled hall.
Barry Douglas then attacked Rachmaninov’s 1st Piano Concerto with breathtaking command, which burst with such magical flourish that any hope of identifying a suggested Brief Encounter was overlooked.
A more restful second half, with Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, was exactly right for this beautifully-managed evening.
The conductor, Andres Orozco-Estrada’s smiles, said it all, and he rapturously gave us an encore – a Strauss polka, of course.
The orchestral season will continue on April 12, with the European Union Chamber Orchestra, featuring cello soloists Julian Lloyd Webber and his wife, Jiaxin. The Halle will perform slavic masterpieces, including Rachmaninov’s opulent Symphony, Enescu’s Rumanian Rhapsody music by Prokofiev, on May 10. Visit bradford-theatres.co.uk or call 01274 432000 for further information.
John Pettitt
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