RYO was delighted to return to St John’s Smith Square, in London,  for its May concert. The programme was full of popular and attractive music, and showed off the orchestra’s continuing development and maturity.

The concert started with the delightful overture to The Merry Wives of Windsor by Nicolai. This contains an abundance of wonderful melodies and is the perfect opener for a summer’s afternoon.

The orchestra’s principal cellist, Jennie Brown, then took the stage as soloist in Bruch’s Kol Nidrei. This is a lyrical and deeply expressive work, subtitled Adagio on Hebrew Melodies. Its colours are dark, but it has a direct emotional appeal.

Saint-Saens Danse Macabre has particularly captured the orchestra’s imagination not only for its own powerful descriptive character, but as the theme music for television’s Jonathan Creek.

The final work was Schubert’s last Symphony, the ‘Great’ C major. Completed only shortly before he died, this is the crowning glory of his symphonic works. It is conceived on a grand scale and is a real test of stamina for orchestral players. The musical rewards are high however, with an abundance of the romantic melodies and colourful harmonic shifts and twists that characterise the best of Schubert’s genius..