THE mighty Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra filled the cavernous Middlesbrough Town Hall to the rafters with powerhouse performances from a varied programme. True to their roots, they opened with a work from their country's greatest living composer.

A ten-minute score for strings, Wojciech Kilar's Orawa opened with a lone violin lament, building up into to a bubbling mass of energy. Next up was pianist Ewa Poblocka, who gave commanding rendition of Chopin's Piano Concerto No 2. Supported sympathetically by the orchestra, her entry was sure-footed and her playing of the lyrical second movement executed with a featherlight delicacy. With flawless flourishes, she raced through to a thrilling and dramatic close.

Henryk Gorecki's Three Pieces in the Old Style was short and sweet, setting the scene for the highlight of the evening - Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. Conductor Antoni Wit set the house ablaze, extracting the full dynamic range of the work. The slow movement, with its haunting march, was lovingly shaped, while the conclusion was simply electrifying. Wit was a man possessed as he drove the orchestra relentlessly through its harmonic twists and turns with razor-sharp precision, taking it to a heady and explosive crescendo. He rewarded an ecstatic audience with two encores; a feisty take on Brahms' 5th Hungarian Dance and a zippy polka from Witold Lutoslawski's Small Suite.

It was one of those evenings that left you with a sensation of walking on air.

Published: 17/02/2005