Review: Orchestra of Opera North ****

At Huddersfield Town Hall

“Ravel’s conception of tonality, line and rhythm mean that his music never disintegrates into moments of sensation,” wrote Yorkshire musicologist Wilfrid Mellers, and yet pianist Frédéric Chaslin managed to do just that in the second movement of Ravel’s G Major Concerto.

His inane rubati and pauses made it a thing of earth-bound schmaltz rather than the transcendent serenity Ravel strove so hard to achieve. By directing the Concerto from the keyboard Chaslin – conductor and composer as well as piano soloist – took a risk. The Orchestra of Opera North just about carried it off but were slightly tentative in its brilliant outer movements.

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They rallied to give a lustrous and sensual account of Debussy’s L’après midi d’un faune, and did their best with the stodgily orchestrated and unengaging neo-romantic Gypsy Dance from Chaslin’s own opera Wuthering Heights.

Saint-Saëns’s intentionally sensational Organ Symphony worked beautifully, with just a few ambiguous conductorial gestures threatening the flow.

Despite everything, the orchestra are in good shape, which augurs well for their new concert season at Huddersfield and Dewsbury.

Orchestra of Opera North, Dewsbury Town Hall, October 7, 7.30pm. 01484 223200.