THE creation of the Sage Gateshead, conveyed in a gripping combination of music and film, enraptured an audience in the building's Hall One.

A composer with a love for building sites, Jonathan Dove donned his hard hat to soak up atmosphere as the building arose. Commissioned specially by the Sage to celebrate the opening of the building, Dove discovered the dramatic work of photographer Peter Brock. Suitably inspired, the resulting "Work on Progress: Twelve site visits for a piano and orchestra with film", is a sensory feast. In the first movement, The Plan, images of the blueprints seemed to grow on the screens as if emerging from the architect's mind. The clanging of metal and clamour of activity of the construction site was vividly brought to life, while the cranes danced a graceful ballet overhead.

Like the spindly yet muscular girders of the structure, the piano work of Rolf Hind held the framework of the composition together throughout, with the elegant lines of the shell reflected in shimmering string work.

In the last movement the most vital element of all was introduced - crowds seen milling around for the first time. To herald the New Day, the Northern Sinfonia, under the baton of Nicholas Kraemer, marshalled the additional forces of the Gateshead Children's Choir, a solo steel pan and the groups Folkestra and Jambone, for a boisterous climax.

Soprano Lesley Garrett then gave an exquisite rendition of Mozart's Exsultate, Jubilate. The evening was framed at the beginning and end by Mozart's Magic Flute Overture and the pomp and ceremony of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks - concluding with a spectacular pyrotechnic display from a barge on the Tyne. A memorable evening of pomp and purpose.

Published: 28/01/2005