Review: Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra at Sheffield City Hall

In the pre-concert talk, world-renowned young violinist Jennifer Pike spoke of her love of the understated emotion of Sibelius's violin concerto.
Jennifer Pike, solo violinistJennifer Pike, solo violinist
Jennifer Pike, solo violinist

This was captivatingly demonstrated in her pure, ethereal sound at the start of the first movement, lyrical slow movement and light, spirited playing of the third.

The warm sound of her 1708 Goffriller violin filled Sheffield City Hall in an unaccompanied encore.

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The Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra also performed Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances from ‘Prince Igor’ and Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, Pathetique. ‘Passionate’, the programme note suggests, would be a more apt title.

Conductor Denis Lotoev drew from the orchestra a moving range of colour and feeling.

The triumphant ending of the third movement march elicited applause, but still to come was the melancholy final movement with passionate string-playing, sonorous horns and the final pianissimo of the double basses giving way to a deep silence.