Review: Ilkley Philharmonic Orchestra, All Saints Church, Ilkley, Sunday, March 9th, 2025 By Geoffrey Mogridge

MUSIC by Mozart, Dvorak, Handel and Haydn attracted a near capacity audience to All Saints Church last Sunday afternoon. Mozart’s ‘Haffner’ Symphony No 35 in D – so named after the wealthy Salzburg merchant for whom it was composed – launched the Ilkley Philharmonic’s Spring concert. Conductor John Anderson captured the forward momentum of the outer movements and the elegance of the adagio in this crisp performance of one of Mozart’s most exuberant symphonies.

Sally Robinson, leader of the Ilkley Philharmonic, then stepped forward as the soloist in the lovely Romance in F minor for violin and orchestra by Antonin Dvorak. This is quite short – just 15 minutes of emotionally intense music. The Romance was filled with sweetness of tone by all sections of the Ilkley Philharmonic: an enchanting backdrop for Robinson’s soaring solo line and yearning phrasing.

After the interval came a Suite from Handel’s Water Music arr Hamilton Harty. The most remarkable thing about this music is a dramatic entrance for the horns – at the time, their first use in an English orchestra.

Sunday’s concert ended with Joseph Haydn’s exhilarating and rapturous Symphony No 99 in E flat – the 7th of the twelve ‘London’ symphonies composed by Haydn between 1791 and 1794 and which unleashed a louder, bolder and more intensely dramatic sound.

Gone were the more sedate qualities of Haydn’s earlier symphonies written for the Court of Prince Esterházy. Symphony No 99 was premiered at the Hanover Square Rooms in London, on 10th February 1794 and directed by the composer who was seated at a forte piano. The instrumentation comprises two each of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets, plus timpani and strings. Haydn uses clarinets for the first time in No 99. This broadens the spectrum of woodwind tone colours and suggests the influence of Mozart.

London’s Morning Chronicle review of the premiere stated: “This is one of the grandest efforts of the art that we have ever witnessed. It abounds with ideas, as new in music as they are grand and impressive; it rouses and affects every emotion of the soul”.

Ilkley Philharmonic Orchestra’s finely judged performance of this great symphony, conductedby John Anderson, evidently vindicated that 1794 review. The warmth of audience response at All Saints Church last Sunday afternoon said it all.

Review: New Year’s Gala Concert, Ilkley Philharmonic Orchestra & Academy of Northern Ballet, King’s Hall, Ilkley, Saturday 4th January 2025

ILKLEY now joins an elite list of cities and towns worldwide in hosting a Viennese classical concert to celebrate the New Year. The renowned Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Clemens Krauss, began the tradition, on the 1st January 1939, in the glittering Golden Hall of the Musikverein with music mainly by the family of Johann Strauss.

John Anderson, founder-conductor of Ilkley Philharmonic Orchestra, intends to establish the tradition in the town’s splendid King’s Hall & Winter Garden – with one important addition. Last Saturday’s sell-out concert was embellished by nineteen talented young dancers from the Academy of Northern Ballet. The onstage dancers were bathed in moody stage lighting and a backdrop of projected images of famous Vienna landmarks with haunting views of the River Danube. This first ever Ilkley New Year’s Concert became so much more than a static orchestral event, decorated as it was with a dusting of theatrical magic.

Choreographer Amanda Gilliland had created intricate flowing movements for her dancers, beginning with Waltz of the Flowers from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. Johann Strauss’s Thunder and Lightening Polka included lively movement with umbrellas and projected lightening flashes. The elegant Annen Polka was danced by soloists Lauren Shaw and Kristian Shek as a charming Boy meets Girl comedy interlude.

Vivacious young soprano Rowena Thornton delighted the capacity audience with her touching performances of Puccini’s O mio babbino caro (O my beloved Daddy) and the lovely Vilja song from Franz Lehar’s The Merry Widow. After the interval Rowena morphed into the seductress in Heuberger’s delightful Im chambre séparée (a separate room) followed by the sultry Morocco nightclub singer in Lehar’s Giuditta, with her show-stopping waltz song Meine lippen, sie küssen so heiss (My lips give hot kisses). Such bonbons as Nicholai’s Overture The Merry Wives of Windsor, Johann Strauss’s Overture The Gypsy Baron, Cuckoo Polka, Lehar’s Gold and Silver Waltz and a delicately poised Frauenherz polka-mazurka by Josef Strauss found the orchestra on cracking form. John Anderson ‘rehearsed’ both orchestra and audience for the ‘La La La’ Chorus in the Egyptian March and the percussionist had some fun with the Feurfest (Anvil) Polka.

This thoroughly enjoyable programme ended in grand traditional style with the Blue Danube Waltz, danced by the Academy of Northern Ballet and, finally, the Radetzky March by Johann Strauss (Father). The audience went wild. Next year’s concert will be on Saturday10th January 2026!

Review: Ilkley Philharmonic Orchestra, All Saints Parish Church, Ilkley, Sunday, November 3rd, 2024

SCHUBERT, Weber and Mendelssohn were the composers featured in this refreshing programme devised by John Anderson, conductor and artistic director of the Ilkley Philharmonic Orchestra.

Schubert’s lively Rosamunde Overture was the rousing curtain raiser to a sparkling candlelit concert. The Concerto in F for Bassoon & Orchestra by Carl Maria von Weber provided the centrefold. Weber’s writing for the solo bassoon, especially the Adagio movement, has an operatic flavour. Soloist Rosemary Anderson created lovely singing phrases and she revealed the humour in Weber’s jaunty finale with its rapid changes of gear and virtuosic staccato passages.

Mendelssohn’s ‘Scottish’ Symphony No 3 in A minor was inspired by the same visit to Scotland that produced the elemental force of his ‘Hebrides’ Overture. The ‘Scottish’ Symphony evokes space, nobility and grandeur in its forty-minute duration. This is actually Mendelssohn’s 5th and final Symphony although it was the 3rd to be published – hence the numbering. His earlier ‘Reformation’ Symphony is now No 5 simply because it was the last to be published.

Mendelssohn specified that the four movements must be played without breaks for coughing. The composer’s instruction was faithfully observed by John Anderson and the Ilkley Philharmonic. A storm tossed 1st movement segued into the lively folk dance inspired 2nd movement. The ruined Chapel of Hollyrood Palace, a scene of half-light and shadows, was Mendelssohn’s inspiration for the 3rd movement. Restless syncopations of battle infuse the fast and furious finale. John Anderson united the thematic strands into a cogent whole; realised by his orchestra with tonal splendour and latent power unleashed – to the delight of the All Saints audience.

Ilkley Philharmonic Orchestra’s New Year Gala Concert in the King’s Hall, on Saturday, January 4th, 2025 at 7.30pm, will be a first for the town. John Anderson and his Orchestra will be joined by nineteen dancers from the Academy of Leeds based Northern Ballet and soprano Rowena Thornton; for lollipops by the Strauss Family, Tchaikovsky, Puccini, Lehar and Nicolai.

Review: Ilkley Philharmonic Orchestra, All Saints Parish Church Ilkley, Sunday 9th June 2024

ILKLEY’S new community orchestra established in 2023 by conductor John Anderson is steadily developing a distinctive programming style.

The current strength of 35 players precludes the big beasts of the orchestral repertoire. Audiences are instead offered opportunities to explore the highways and byways of classical composers: notably Beethoven, Schumann, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Haydn and Mozart. Proceedings were off to a thrilling start with Rossini’s Overture to his opera Semiramide.

A rarely performed Sinfonia Concertante in E Flat for Four Winds, thought to be by Mozart formed the centrefold of an enticing programme. Section principals Chris Garbutt (oboe) Gina Cockshott (clarinet) and Rosemary Anderson (bassoon) were joined in front of the orchestra by guest soloist Simon Twigge (horn) and conductor John Anderson for the Sinfonia Concertante. Today’s performing version is a reconstruction of what is thought to be a “lost” Mozart work. Doubts however persist as to its authenticity not least because the three movements are all in the same key of E flat. All of Mozart’s concertos, except those for french horn, are composed with one movement in a related key. Nonetheless, the Sinfonia Concertante made for a delightful listen; played here with a tangible sense of enjoyment by the four soloists and Ilkley Philharmonic Orchestra.

There is of course not a shred of doubt about the provenance of Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ Symphony No 6 in F, played after the interval. The four movements are headed: cheerful Impressions awakened by arrival in the countryside, scene by a brook, merry gathering of country folk, a storm and shepherd’s thanksgiving after the storm.

Beethoven’s love of nature shone through the Ilkley Philharmonic’s rustling strings and woodwind bird calls but above all in his depiction of a raging storm. John Anderson and the Ilkley Philharmonic conveyed the elemental fury of the storm with braying woodwind, blaring brass surging strings and thunderous timpani. A welcome deluge of applause followed the orchestra’s expansive performance of the shepherd’s song with its infinitely extendable opening motiff.

Review: Ilkley Philharmonic Orchestra, All Saints Church, Ilkley, Sunday,
March 3, 2024

Rossini’s Overture to the Barber of Seville, Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D and the famous ‘Clock’ Symphony of Josef Haydn formed a delectable programme for Ilkley Philharmonic’s winter concert.

The arrival on Ilkley’s thriving musical scene of John Anderson’s second new orchestra is restoring repertoire generally passed over by the larger symphonic ensembles. The programming of a Haydn symphony is a case in point, on which more later.

Gioachino Rossini’s bustling curtain raiser does not contain a single theme from his most famous opera. Rather the piece is a showcase for this composer’s trademark orchestral crescendo. Ilkley Philharmonic played with verve and the wind sections in particular covered themselves with glory.

Violinist Andy Long who is an associate leader of the Orchestra of Opera North, made his entrance to play the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. This is one of the fastest and most technically demanding of romantic concertos, for both soloist and orchestra. Leopold Auer, to whom Tchaikovsky dedicated the work, disputed that he had described it as ‘unplayable’.

Andy’s seemingly relaxed demeanour belied his virtuosity and lyricism as he scaled the stratospheric heights of this much loved concerto. John Anderson and his orchestra were admirably responsive partners. A pity that the irritating ring tone of a mobile phone twice broke the spell cast by Andy’s 1st movement solo cadenza.

Haydn’s symphonies are gloriously optimistic. No 101 in D is one of the second group of his six London symphonies. The ‘Clock’ moniker is derived from an incessant tick-tock beat in the 2nd movement. John Anderson and the Ilkley Philharmonic gave a stylish performance, like a blast of fresh air through this ancient church. An appreciative audience rose to its feet.