Review: New Year’s Gala Concert, Ilkley Philharmonic Orchestra & Academy of Northern Ballet at King’s Hall, Ilkley, Saturday 4th January 2025
By Geoffrey Mogridge
Ilkley now joins an elite list of cities and towns worldwide in hosting a Viennese classical concert to celebrate the New Year.
The renowned Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Clemens Krauss, began the tradition, on the 1st January 1939, in the glittering Golden Hall of the Musikverein with music mainly by the family of Johann Strauss.
John Anderson, founder-conductor of Ilkley Philharmonic Orchestra, intends to establish the tradition in the town’s splendid King’s Hall & Winter Garden - with one important addition. Last Saturday’s sellout concert was embellished by nineteen talented young dancers from the Academy of Northern Ballet. The onstage dancers were bathed in moody stage lighting and a backdrop of projected images of famous Vienna landmarks with haunting views of the River Danube. This first ever Ilkley New Year’s Concert became so much more than a static orchestral event, decorated as it was with a dusting of theatrical magic.
Choreographer Amanda Gilliland had created intricate flowing movements for her dancers, beginning with Waltz of the Flowers from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. Johann Strauss’s Thunder and Lightening Polka included lively movement with umbrellas and projected lightening flashes. The elegant Annen Polka was danced by soloists Lauren Shaw and Kristian Shek as a charming Boy meets Girl comedy interlude.
Vivacious young soprano Rowena Thornton delighted the capacity audience with her touching performances of Puccini’s O mio babbino caro (O my beloved Daddy) and the lovely Vilja song from Franz Lehar’s The Merry Widow. After the interval Rowena morphed into the seductress in Heuberger’s delightful Im chambre séparée (a separate room) followed by the sultry Morocco nightclub singer in Lehar’s Giuditta, with her show-stopping waltz song Meine lippen, sie küssen so heiss (My lips give hot kisses).
Such bonbons as Nicholai’s Overture The Merry Wives of Windsor, Johann Strauss’s Overture The Gypsy Baron, Cuckoo Polka, Lehar’s Gold and Silver Waltz and a delicately poised Frauenherz polka-mazurka by Josef Strauss found the orchestra on cracking form. John Anderson ‘rehearsed’ both orchestra and audience for the ‘La La La’ Chorus in the Egyptian March and the percussionist had some fun with the Feurfest (Anvil) Polka.
This thoroughly enjoyable programme ended in grand traditional style with the Blue Danube Waltz, danced by the Academy of Northern Ballet and, finally, the Radetzky March by Johann Strauss (Father). The audience went wild.
Next year’s concert will be on Saturday 10th January 2026!
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