THE VAST acoustic space of Durham Cathedral was emblazoned with a riot of musical colour when Orchestra North East appeared - depicting a series of contrasting images, from seascapes to a rural idyll and a macabre witches’ dance.

A programme entitled Calms and Storms, under the baton of Timothy Henty, opened with the Sea Interludes from Benjamin Britten’s opera, Peter Grimes.

A freezing Dawn on the Suffolk coast was evoked with shimmering effect, while hinting at darker undercurrents that well up in the opera. The thunderous storm was driven forward with surging rhythms.

Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra featured a warm introduction, before the entry of soloists Andrew Watkinson and Garfield Jackson, who maintained a flowing dialogue throughout.

Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique was a tour de force with Henty exploiting the enlarged orchestral forces to full effect.

Based on the composer’s own infatuation with an actress, the work tells the story of an artistic young man overcome by passion. He takes opium to relieve his pain, but ends up overwhelmed by hallucinatory visions.

Henty set the scene with an expansive first movement, with bright passages from flautist Margaret Borthwick and well-integrated playing by all sections.

Glittering playing from harpists Venera Bojkova and Sarah Paterson added lustre to the ballroom scene, with the strings under guest leader John Ryan giving the waltz carefree lilt. The tranquillity of the pastoral scene was broken only by rumble of thunder from timpanist Andy Booth who, along with a beefed up percussion section, gave a sensational display of athleticism in the Hero’s ensuing march to the scaffold.

The witches’ macabre dance of death in the Hero’s nightmare was suitably demonic, with the final movement taken to a thrilling climax.

Gavin Engelbrecht.