Ulster Orchestra: A small sliver of romance at Valentine's night concert
The Ulster Orchestra’s Concert on Valentine’s Night on Friday last, and titled Highland Journey, seemed to have little connection with romance, though the very different compositions by Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and Bernstein featuring the tragic fate of Romeo and Juliet would hardly have been suitable.
Perhaps the programme should have been that of the previous concert on 31 January , titled Young Romantics.
Going back even further to the concert of 6 December named The Star-Cross‘d Lovers, this one did feature Prokofiev’s well-known tribute to the doomed young couple.
However all was not lost on Valentine’s Night in the Ulster Hall, and one lady splendidly carried two red roses, thus paying tribute to the special occasion, unlike the majority of the rest of us.
There was perhaps some musical romance in Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade, with shades of Tchaikovsky and much else, and also an element of romance in his life story.
According to the Programme Notes his mother was a farmer’s daughter and his father a medical student from Africa who returned to Sierra Leone and was unaware of his son’s birth in Holborn in 1875.
This mixed-race boy born out of wedlock overcame the unfortunate but unsurprising prejudice about his background, to become a first-rate composer.
The performance of his Ballade, rarely -enough heard in Belfast- was both accessible and impressive, with a fine performance by the players under the baton of the distinguished conductor David Danzmayr on a welcome return visit to Belfast.
Welcome too was the outstanding soloist Steven Osborne who brought out all the riches of Mozart’s sublime Piano Concerto No 27.
This is indeed inspiring music and belongs to that elite group of works which most people recognize, without necessarily being able to name them.
The second half featured the Scottish Symphony by Mendelssohn who was also featured in the previous concert.
This Symphony is a favourite inside and outside the concert hall, and even if some people struggle to find a strong connection with Scotland-apart from the composer’s love of the landscape- David Danzmayr inspired the players to remind us, particularly in the second movement, of the enervating air of Scotland wild.
The Ulster Orchestra is metaphorically on the move again with its next concert on 28 February titled “The Great Outdoors”.