Sage Gateshead

Tristan Gurney violin/director
Royal Northern Sinfonia

Strauss Capriccio Sextet, Op.85
Wagner Siegfried Idyll
Mahler (arr. Farrington) Symphony No.1 in D major

RNS returns to Richmond under its leader Bradley Creswick, with a superb programme.

First comes the sextet which opens Strauss’s opera, Capriccio, which brings the composer’s rich instrumental textures to a stylized recreation of elegant Rococo chamber music. It’s a miniature delight.

Next is Wagner’s famous and very recognisable  Siegfried Idyll , which threatens to drown the listener in a warm sea of gorgeousness. Lucky Cosima Wagner. Did any man ever give his wife a better birthday present?

After the interval, we hear the First Symphony by Mahler, famous for the enormous scale of his instrumentation. Yes, a chamber orchestra can play Mahler, but it does need to be a very good chamber orchestra.