Geoffrey Mogridge was in the sell out audience at the King's Hall on Saturday evening, 10th January, for the Ilkley Philharmonic New Year Concert which featured the Academy of Northern Ballet.
A packed King’s Hall eagerly greeted the Ilkley Philharmonic Orchestra, leader Sally Robinson and conductor John Anderson, at the start of their annual New Year Celebration.
This one, like the inaugural 2025 event had a generous dusting of theatrical magic.
Dance students from the Academy of Northern Ballet in Leeds had returned by popular demand and Cameron Mitchell, an Opera North tenor, was waiting in the wings.
The Overture to Light Cavalry by Franz von Suppé showed the Ilkley Philharmonic on cracking form. Some of the audience were clapping in rhythm with Suppé’s catchy march tune heralded by trumpet fanfares.
John Anderson then welcomed Cameron to sing in German, Franz Lehar’s most famous song from his operetta The Land of Smiles. Dein ist mein ganzes herz or You are my heart’s Delight revealed the attractive lyric qualities of his voice. Cameron returned to unleash more heroic power and ringing high notes in Celeste Aida from Guiseppe Verdi’s epic Egyptian opera, and Nessun Dorma from Puccini’s Turandot - guaranteed to bring down the house.
Nineteen richly talented young dance students from the Academy of Northern Ballet, directed by award winning choreographer Amanda Gilliland, were accompanied by the Ilkley Philharmonic in a Suite from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. The music was delicately choreographed by Amanda and enchantingly lit by the King’s Hall’s technicians. The dances included, a Czárdás, Spanish and Neopolitan Dances, Dance of the Cygnets and the glorious Act l Waltz.
Orchestra and conductor intensely conveyed a sense of impending tragedy in the heart rending Intermezzo from Leoncavallo’s verismo masterpiece I Pagliacci. Cameron Mitchell stepped out from between the crimson velvet curtains as a heartbroken Canio for his poignant aria Vesti la Giubba or On with the Motley, delivered with overwhelming passion. ‘Laugh you Clown, at the grief that poisons your heart’.
The Academy of Northern Ballet returned in the second half for two of the greatest symphonic waltzes of Johann Strauss ll - Roses from the South and the Blue Danube. Both are suffused with a mood of longing. A fleeting quality so beautifully conveyed by the expressive dancers on stage and in the orchestra’s performances conducted with aplomb by John Anderson.
Ilkley Philharmonic’s 2026 New Year Concert ended in rousing, happy clappy style with The Radetzky March. Another resounding success for the orchestra and its intrepid founder conductor.
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