Leeds Symphony Orchestra

St Margaret's Church, Horsforth

Friday June 27

Favourite orchestral classics for a summer evening (albeit a wet and chilly one) formed the LSO's concert conducted by Martin Binks MBE at this impressive Victorian church overlooking Horsforth town centre. Auber's once popular, but nowadays less fashionable, overture to his opera Le Cheval de Bronze (the Bronze Horse) reflected this conductor's advocacy of French opera in particular. Saint-Saens' symphonic poem Le Rouet d'Omphale (Omphale's Spinning Wheel) is also sadly overlooked by concert promoters and programmers, which is a great pity. The LSO played this engaging miniature with such rhythmic precision, delicacy and love under Binks' persuasive baton.

Binks has conducted almost as many operas across forty five years as music director of West Riding Opera as he has LSO concerts. The selected operatic excerpts fitted comfortably into this kind of popular programme. Baritone David Bainbridge, as Don Giovanni's servant Leporello, regaled his master's amorous conquests in the famous Act l Catalogue Aria, followed by the Don's seductive Act ll Canzonetta. Bainbridge's tone was firm if a little on the dry side in this first pair of arias; the singer found his best form in Figaro's Non piu andrai (Marriage of Figaro), Papageno's Bird Catcher's Song (the Magic Flute) and the Toreador's Song from Carmen.

Schubert's Unfinished Symphony has been aptly described by Binks as probably "the first great romantic symphony". This performance was impeccably paced and coloured; details were crystal clear and Binks' attention to tempo and dynamic shading heightened the mood of sadness and impending tragedy.

The atmosphere lightened in the second half with Malcolm Arnold's Four Scottish Dances; the whooping horns and the cross-rhythms of the lively opening dance were adroitly executed. The serenity and poise of the delicately played third dance led into a bustling final movement. Orchestral excerpts from Bizet's Carmen, Elgar's Nimrod from the Enigma Variations, and Walton's Coronation March Crown Imperial completed an enjoyable programme.

by Geoffrey Mogridge