Maidstone Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Brian Wright
Violin: Mathilde Milwidksy
Mote Hall, Maidstone
29 November 2025
Entitled “Happy Holidays!” this pot-pourri of seasonal jollies marked a slight change of direction for Maidstone Symphony Orchestra. And it brought in a good audience including, pleasingly, a number of children.
The most substantial item was Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy. We’re all used to the famous violin concerto so it was a nice change to hear this delightfully accessible work played live by Mathilde Milwidksy. It was a good idea to bring the harp (Tamara Young – excellent) forward for this work so that the Andante cantabile is celebrated as the duet that it is. Wildwidsky played with unshowy charisma and a fine sound especially in the scherzo. And her account of the Allegro guerreiro ended in a definitive, appropriately warrior-like fusillade of double stopping. For her encore Wildwidsky played the Bach Sarabande in D minor with moving elegance and it was good to hear a complete contrast
Also in the first half we got Johann Strauss II’s overture to Die Fledermaus which made a resounding opener with MSO adeptly catching the characteristic Viennese two-beats-and-a-sniff rhythm in the waltz sections as the overture dances through all those melodies and stories. And I admired the power and control in the accelerando.
The second half provided lots of Christmas and New Year sentimental cheesiness in which everything from Waldteufel’s Skaters’ Waltz though to the Radetzky March was smilingly and slickly well played – even Delius’s Sleigh Ride became fun. And it was a pleasure to hear the whole of Prokoviev’s Lieutenant Kije Suite (rather than just Troika), complete with double bass solo, tenor clarinet, saxophone and cornet.
The hightlight of the second half for me, though, was the Blue Danube Waltz in which the shimmering opening and the brass tune at the start promised lots of warmth – and delivered it. And congratulations to the second violins and violas for whom this is fifteen minutes of exhausting “vamp.” I had to play it myself in a concert the next day so I know what it’s like. I admire your stamina, guys.
It may have been a bit early for Christmas concert but this cheerful concert certainly lifted spirits and provided escapism, on a damp, dismal night.
