Ulster Orchestra sends spirits soaring with help from Chloe Van Soeterstede and Nadege Rochat

The concert titled ‘Soaring Spirits’ began with a spirited performance of the Phaeton Symphonic Poem by Camille Saint-Saens, with the Ulster Orchestra under the direction of the impressive French conductor Chloe Van Soeterstede, principal guest conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra no less, on her first visit to Belfast.

The Cello Concerto, written in 1919, was the composer’s last major work, and when his wife and soul-mate Alice died the following year Elgar ceased composing.

The Swiss soloist Nadege Rochat, also new to Belfast, and the conductor showed an affinity for this monumental work by Elgar, and the performances grew in strength right to the final breathtaking moments.

The soloist also performed a remarkable encore, from the Latvian composer Peteris Vasks and titled ‘Pianissimo’, during part of which she sang as well.

This was a haunting piece, and surely a first for the Ulster Hall.

It was also apt that Elgar’s Cello Concerto with all its post-WWI sadness and reflection was played eight days before Remembrance Sunday when his poignant Nimrod is always a musical centre-piece of the annual commemoration ceremonies.

The second half was devoted to the 5th Symphony by Sibelius, premiered at his 50th birthday celebrations in Helsinki on December 8, 1915.

However that was not the end of it, and it took Sibelius almost another four years of modification until he completed the work in its present form.

The music is intense and craggy, with some of the chill of Scandinavia.

However, the Ulster Orchestra has a reputation for excellence in this genre since the days of its former outstanding principal conductor Jan Paschal Tortelier, who once told me that the orchestra played Sibelius better than almost any other ensemble he had directed.

Certainly on Friday evening the conductor and players rose to the occasion with a powerful, detailed and thundering climax which indeed sent the spirits soaring, to deserved acclamation from the large audience.

The Ulster Orchestra’s next Ulster Hall concert is on November 15 at 7.45pm featuring the maestro clarinettist Michael Collins.

The same concert will take place on the previous evening in The Diamond in the Ulster University in Coleraine.