Out of the ashes of the tumultous 60′s in Northern Ireland rose the wonderful Ulster Orchestra. Since it’s inception in 1966 this orchestra has become one of the major symphony orchestras of the world and has maintained the unique aspect of being almost entirely an ‘all Ulster’ outfit whilst at the same time attracting the most talented musicians from abroad to joining it’s ranks.

Last night I went along for one of the BBC’s Concert for Sonorities. This is one of BBC 3′s invitation series – they are free to attend and always promise the audience something really special. I think this is a great innovation, particularly in the current economic climate, for people to experience some great music for free, a good marketing ploy as well as it surely encourages the public to become those much valued subscribers.

In a three item programme the first piece was a composition by Belfast-born Queens University Composer-In-Residence Micheal Alcorn – ‘Synapse’. A very interesting work for which the composer drew on neuroscience as his theme; the chemical transmission of  neuron signals from one to the other took the form of a dialogue between percussion, strings and brass based on a single scale.  I have to say that my ‘ear’ always looks for a melody when I am listening to music – no melody as such in this piece but definitely a work which had you wondering what was coming next…and from where. The composer was there to acknowledge the well deserved applause for this innovative work.

Solo violinist Hebe Mensinga was the first of the two guest soloists presenting works from influential Dutch composers. She performed the Violin Concerto by contemporary classical composer Klaas de Vries.  Being a string player myself I was looking forward to this part of the concert but it was not until the final movement of the piece that I found myself enjoying it. Hebe’s playing was excellent given that the first section of the piece was more ensemble rather than solo – the piece is very indicative of the Rotterdam School-style of music that de Vries played a major role in establishing. The final movement was  more to my liking, almost daring to be lyrical. The aspect I liked the most about this piece though was the strings accompaniment played thoughout completely sans vibrato; I cannot speak for anyone else there but to me, in some of the earlier parts, there were some distinctive ‘celtic’ sounds in the orchestral accompaniment.

This concert highlighted works from three ‘living composers’ with the final piece, ‘Dances’, by Louis Andriessen and performed by Dutch soprano Marije van Stralen.

My favourite kind of soprano voice is of the ‘smoky’ kind – think Kiri Te Kanawa and Marilyn Horne; Marije falls into this category with ease and listening to her sing was a sheer joy. This work was originally written for choreography but translates wonderfully for performance by soprano and chamber orchestra. This is a work which deserves more exposure in the concert repertoire and, despite not being on a similar ‘grande scale’, can certainly stand alongside others of the same genre such as Elgars’ Sea Pictures. Marije ,I feel, can make this her signature piece as did Dame Janet Baker with the Elgar. I would buy the CD!

Last night’s performance was well planned; presenting a programme of ‘lesser known’ contemporary works can often dangerously tax audience endurance - been there done that – but this was not the case last night. The Ulster Orchestra is proof once again that Northern Ireland is producing world class entertainment.

 

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