Review: BBC Philharmonic at Sheffield City Hall
Tchaikovsky’s Fantasy Overture: Romeo and Juliet opened the concert at Sheffield City Hall, with warm expansive playing by the BBC Philharmonic under conductor Ben Gernon.
The orchestra’s principal horn, Alberto Menendez, was the soloist in Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 4. Menendez’ playing, whilst beautifully light and fluid, with some exquisite soft phrases, felt rather muted and lacking in Mozartian joie de vivre.
The orchestra certainly did justice to the moods of Beethoven’s great Symphony No.3, ‘Eroica’, written as the composer struggled to come to terms with his deafness, with a
sombre second movement funeral march and playful scherzo.
The last movement contained moving solos from flute, oboe and clarinet and ended strong and triumphant.