The St Hilda's Festival Orchestra, playing in St Hilda's Church, West Cliff last month, gave yet another of its superb Favourite Classics presentations to an audience large enough to fill every possible seat in a church much respected for its setting and its acoustic.
The orchestra was formed in 1998 to accompany the St Hilda’s Festival Chorus in the presenting of the major choral works of the repertoire and the two have enjoyed a very happy association ever since.
The next joint appearance will be on the eveni
ng of 27 November with a joint performance of the magnificent Christmas Oratorio of Bach’s.
Additionally, a benefit concert to raise funds for further work on the maintenance of the church’s Ibach-Wagner piano is planned for later this year.
In September 2006 it gave its first solo concert under the title Favourite Classics when Kevin Moxon, a local trumpeter well known in the brass band world, played Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto.
In April 2008 it gave its second Favourite Classics Concert which featured Whitby born Mathew Dunn playing Mozart’s clarinet concerto.
In February 2009 it featured the renowned Jamie Walton playing the Haydn cello concerto.
That such a grand gathering, which on this occasion was graced by the presence of both the Borough Mayor and Mrs Chatt and by Whitby Town Mayor and Mrs Jennison; presented itself, was a measure of the high esteem in which the orchestra is held by the public.
The soloist in the Grieg Piano Concerto was Daniel Grimwood, playing entirely from memory, a gigantic work demanding much physical, technical and artistic ability.
He was impressively supported, under the direction of the conductor Stephen Maltby, by a large orchestra of some 46 players led by Tony Mason – several of them youngsters it is encouraging to note.
The programme opened with Grieg’s delightful Holberg Suite, written solely for strings and it closed with a stirring performance of Dvorak’s New World symphony which is a work of magnificent proportions, giving the brass and woodwind sections of the orchestra the chance to make a very memorable contribution to the music of the evening.
Ernie Marsden, St Hilda’s Festival Chorus, Sleights, by email
