However, I had noticed that there were compelling reasons for attending this concert. One might even say 5000 reasons, a figure which represented in Euros the prize money awarded in the 2007 International Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition to Ewa Strusinska, the new conductor of the SPO. Fourth Prize is no mean achievement (none of the Brits made it this far!). We could believe that Ewa would bring out the best in the orchestra. We were not disappointed.
A source close to the orchestra had told me how good they were sounding these days - "They play for each other".
This is an amateur orchestra. The players perform for the enjoyment of what they do. (A recent rehearsal took place with a substitute conductor - good grounds for some of the musicians taking the night off, perhaps? Wrong! It was a full turnout.) Amateur in this sense equates with enjoyment. Certainly in performance we saw this communicated from Ewa who was relishing every moment. It is rare to see a conductor smiling in performance. Ewa was positively beaming. The orchestra has a strong string section - nearly two dozen violins alone, who have the self confidence needed for this repertoire. This enthusiasm has spread through the orchestra. The last movement in the Dvorak Eighth Symphony opens with a solo trumpet, a call to arms or a hejnal. At one time this might have been embarrassing. Not on this form it wasn't. The orchestra is the Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra. There were times when I felt proud that they were bearing the name of my city.
A source at the Victoria Hall tells me that the Yuli Torchinsky, leader of the BBC Philharmonic, was at the concert. He was not playing, merely observing his son Dmitri playing the Sibelius Violin Concerto. It was only after the performance that we realised just why this was. Dmitri was making his concert debut with a live audience. Quite a few members of the orchestra did not know this, we just observed the look of incredulity on their faces at the news. Dmitri's playing had given the impression he was a seasoned concerto performer. Certainly there must be easier concertos to debut with.
The concert had opened with Mozart's Magic Flute overture. Current fashion seems to be to perform this with smaller numbers, but I'm sure Wolfgang would have enjoyed the fullness of sound generated.
The Victoria Hall, Sheffield is the "Methodist Cathedral" in the city. To mark the 300th Anniversary of Methodism, a string quartet by Charles Wesley the Younger was played by the massed strings. An interesting idea, playing the encore straight after the interval.
Make no mistake, this is an orchestra to take seriously. People will no longer be going out of a sense of duty, but because they want to hear a high standard of music making. The Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra can now deliver.
For details of the orchestra's next concert, click here.
Some members of the audience had an idea what to expect, having heard the November concert; others had yet to experience the Glorious Ewa effect. The concert began with the Borodin. We were treated to a precision in the horn solo that some professional orchestras would, at times, envy. The work ended with a delicate flute solo. An impressive orchestral opening.
The soloist in the Rachmaninov, Alexandra Dariescu, is another young female musician with a great future. Still in her early twenties, Alexandra Dariescu has travelled the world doing recitals since her debut as a soloist with the Kisinev Symphony Orchestra at the age of nine. She has been heard on many radio broadcasts, and is the winner of no less than 27 competitions, including the 2005 Eastbourne Young Soloist of the Year. Her performance brought out the tingle factor all right.
And so to the second half and the Tchaikovsky 4th Symphony. A loud work in places? Certainly. Yet it was the delicacy displayed in the first movement which lingers long in the memory.
There had been a rehearsal in the afternoon, and it would have been natural to expect some flagging as the concert drew to its close. However the intensity was there in the final movement. Tchaikovsky incorporated a Russian Song into this last movement; "In the fields there stood a birch tree". Anyone ever going to Poland will see that the birch tree is ubiquitous. No wonder Ewa felt at home in this movement and gave the orchestra free rein.
The audience were ecstatic at the end. A few I saw were on their feet, others were clapping and stamping their feet. One comment was "I wouldn't have missed this concert for the world."
And the comment of the Beecham spectator?
He declared this performance to be no less exciting.