CHRISTOPHER SMITH Transporting us from a dull, dank December evening, the NPO offered us glimpses of other worlds, their sights and sounds, their colours and their rhythms that expressed tender emotions and thrilling excitements.

CHRISTOPHER SMITH

Transporting us from a dull, dank December evening in St Andrew's Hall, the Norwich Philharmonic offered us glimpses of other worlds, their sights and sounds, their colours and their rhythms that expressed tender emotions and thrilling excitements.

Under its conductor, Julian Webb, and its leader Benjamin Lowe, the Orchestra began with the Hebrides Overture.

The gentle ripples soon – perhaps a little too soon – swelled to mighty waves in Mendelssohn's reminiscence of his summer in Scotland in 1829. With trumpet calls to echo heroic conflicts from bygone days, all the instrumentalists contributed to this vivid evocation that helped set the Romantic fashion for tone poems.

Phillip Dyson was the soloist in the ever-popular Piano Concerto by the Norwegian Edvard Grieg.

From that ear-catching opening drum roll that announced his arrival, he adroitly balanced drama with dance and drew out depth of tone when it was required in a grand gesture.

A programme of 19th-century favourites that had attracted a large and responsive audience concluded with the New World Symphony. Once again we did not have to wait long for towering climaxes. But Dvorak was often better served by quieter, more reflective treatment. Then the brass became mellow and the reeds had every opportunity to develop their attractive character in the plaintive melodies that carry so much of the true emotion of this Czech composer's tribute to America.

Christopher Smith