Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra, Middlesbrough Town Hall

ON AN evening of bitterly cold weather, the audience in Middlesbrough Town Hall was transported to more exotic climes as the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra launched its evening programme with all the energy of Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances.

This music has an interesting history: according to the programme notes, Borodin worked in a fragmentary manner, as composing was a part-time occupation for him, and he died before completion of this opera, based on an epic poem about the conflicts between Prince Igor’s army and the marauding Polovtsians. After his death, Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov completed Prince Igor using much of Borodin’s material.

The Polovtsian Dances is a strongly rhythmic piece, and this was powerfully brought out by Michel Tabachnik’s conducting. Tabachnik is a neat lively figure, who leads with a decisive, highly visible style which is interesting to observe.

This was followed by the Violin Concerto in D Minor Op.47 by Sibelius, with a spellbinding performance by the violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky, who has already built up a formidable reputation, performing all across Europe and the USA. Looking like a young revolutionary with his curly hair and Cossack shirt, he gave a spectacular performance of this heart-stirring music.

After the interval we were treated to the highly "listenable" Symphony No. 3 in C Minor Op.78 by Saint-Saens, the "Organ Symphony". A beautiful composition, it draws in the full symphony orchestra augmented by organ and piano with two pianists. It is a generous, richly orchestrated work, quite moving in its splendour.

The next in this series of concerts is scheduled for February 17 when the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra will feature pianist Noriko Ogawa in a programme including work by Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky and Sibelius, under the baton of Vladimir Altschuler.

Irene MacDonald