Sunderland has a smart new concert venue: it’s called The Fire Station, the whole complex cost £18m and, as you might expect, it’s very red. Terracotta detailing on the outside, rust coloured wood panelling on the inside, the building (designed by Jason Flanagan, the architect behind Sage Gateshead) is a mid-sized, multi-purpose auditorium. It is tagged on to the disused fire station building that is now a live music and performance venue, as well as housing a bistro, bars and studios. Adaptability is the auditorium’s aim, yet despite the slim classical programming for this season, the new hall’s acoustics and sight lines work well for this sort of music. It seats up to 500, and while the stage would struggle to accommodate a full size symphony orchestra, it makes an ideal chamber venue.
The Royal Northern Sinfonia’s first Fire Station concert was, however, not without teething problems. A delayed start drew attention to the lack of a programme, printed or online. After the interval, leader Maria Włoszczowska was forced to list – rather gracelessly – what had been played, and what was to come. The lack of programme information meant a missed opportunity to give an insight into William Herschel’s fascinating life. Court astronomer of King George III, discoverer of both Uranus and infrared radiation and a prolific composer to boot, his Eighth Symphony, the “Sunderland” (composed while living in the area) opened the concert. Although only 12 minutes long, the work has bags of style and possesses a couple of really devastating earworms. Though the second movement felt too breathless, the Sinfonia were suitably responsive to the dramatic shapes of Włoszczowska, directing from the violin.
This was a highlight of a disappointing first half. Vivaldi’s Concerto “Alla Rustica” seemed to sap the ensemble’s energy, and a tepid, unbalanced episode from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio followed. The orchestra, nearly all standing on one level, struggled for ensemble through a selection of movements from Handel’s first Water Music suite. Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Trumpets was well-received, but one-dimensional.
The second half worked better. Corelli’s Christmas Concerto was touching and surprisingly dramatic, and Haydn’s Fire Symphony, with its relentlessly energetic mottos, found strings and winds united under Włoszczowska’s sharply angled vision of the work. But the vivacity of the Sinfonia’s Haydn failed to mask a lacklustre evening not befitting of an important, versatile addition to cultural life in the north-east.
