Durham Sinfonia/Geoffrey Silver (From Durham Times)

Durham Sinfonia/Geoffrey Silver

2:27pm Friday 1st June 2007 in Arts

THE Durham Sinfonia's latest concert in Durham Cathedral was a performance of exceptional quality.

The only full-sized symphony orchestra in the city, it is made up of professional and amateur players who started their concert with a haunting performance of A Shropshire Lad by George Butterworth, a much under-rated composer who died at the Battle of the Somme in the First World War while serving in the Durham Light Infantry.

This was a particularly fitting item, as the concert was performed within sight of the chapel which honours Durham soldiers killed in action.

The second half of the concert was an energetic and capable rendering of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, which ably displayed the orchestra's considerable capacity.

But it was the Sibelius Violin Concerto with British soloist Geoffrey Silver that was the highlight of the evening.

Silver gave an exceptional performance, endowing this most difficult of concerti with a magical mysteriousness that had some members of the audience visibly in tears.

His exquisite tone and immaculate phrasing lent a polish to the piece that is frequently absent in the versions of better-known soloists, and his handling of the more acrobatic passages was nothing short of masterly. This man is a prodigious talent.

Under the sympathetic baton of Philippe Bach, the orchestra framed Silver's playing to perfection and the experience was a rare delight for all present.

The enthusiastic and lengthy applause at the end bore witness to the collective enjoyment he had generated on this very special occasion in this very special venue.

Susan Bennett