Orchestral concert enjoyed by audience on a sunny afternoon

We enjoyed a very enjoyable run from Teesside through the dales to Leyburn on a beautiful, sunny afternoon and I must admit I was impressed by the handsome building, this being my first visit to the Garden Rooms.

The spacious concert hall was well filled and The Richmondshire Orchestra is a large one of about 50 instruments. It is a very fine orchestra, under the baton of Martin Budgett producing a rich sound with a delightful tone, and we were treated to Beethoven’s ‘Leonore’ Overture.

It was a beautiful performance by the orchestra. I wasn’t familiar with the music, but I found it very moving, enriched by Alastair McLachlan’s excellent programme notes.

The Leonore Overture was followed by Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations – a lovely cello piece, beautifully performed by Jeremy Harbottle. To say this young musician is multi talented is to understate the case.

He achieved grade eight in piano and cello aged only 14, won the Darlington/Northallerton Rotary’Young Musician award in 1997 and his ATCL piano performance diploma and numerous other first prizes in the Middlesbrough, Stockton and Saltburn music festivals from around that time. He graduated from Imperial College London with a degree in chemistry, and was awarded the Ash Music Scholarship to study cello at the Royal College of Music.

He currently teaches cello, bass guitar and singing privately and at MacMillan Academy, Middlesbrough, and is principal cellist of the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra and the Cleveland Chamber Orchestra. In addition to all this, he conducts The Angrove Singers, Vox Choir, the Stokesley Choral Society and the Nunthorpe Singers.

More Tchaikovsky followed. He was finding it impossible to compose the symphony, which was intended as a tribute to Grieg. I am assured that the symphony was a great success and the concert-goers loved it and cheered it at the first performance. Wonderful music, and the audience in Tennants Garden Rooms loved it too.