Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham | 16 April 2026 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by William Ruff
Photo credit: Marco Borggre/Warmer Classics-Erato
Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia
Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham | 16 April 2026
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by William Ruff
“Music that distils the soul of Spain, played with brilliance and passion.”
Anyone yearning for a dose of Spanish warmth and colour but averse to passport queues and the thought of jet fuel shortages should have been in Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall to hear the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia. And anyone who thinks that Spain’s essence is sun, sangria and siesta would have had their horizons widened. Its classical music distils the country’s soul: its passionate flamenco rhythms; its echoes of a Moorish past; the colour and brilliance of its orchestration, all of which flows in the veins of the OSG’s talented musicians.
The central work in their programme was the world’s most famous guitar concerto: Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez. In fact, it’s so famous that we’re in danger of taking it for granted and not hearing beyond its surface melodies. The concerto is a meditation on memory, loss and the soul of Spain. This performance by star guitarist Thibaut Garcia was remarkable for how deeply it probed beneath the surface. The Adagio became a profound elegy, the cor anglais solo floating over hypnotic guitar argeggios before weaving a tapestry of immense pathos and beauty.
The outer movements brought intricate interplay between guitar and orchestra in music both playful and graceful, fading away as if ghosts from Spanish history have finished their dancing and disappeared into the warm summer night. Thibaut Garcia made this familiar music seem new-minted. Both he and conductor Roberto González-Monjas are clearly inspired by the work’s vitality, their approach vibrant and animated throughout. Thibaut was clearly taken aback by the warmth and enthusiasm of the audience response. He said that it was ‘amazing’ (and it was) so he sat down again to play two short, exquisite encores, prefaced by a very funny story which he told with a comedian’s timing.
There was much more in the OSG’s generous programme. They started with a new piece by the Galician composer Fernando Buide called Ruada, the name of a festive, night-time gathering full of dance and song. It’s a five-minute burst of ear-catching rhythms and orchestral colour, evoking the region’s deep-rooted musical traditions.
Manuel de Falla is the central pillar of 20th century Spanish music and he was represented by Three Dances from his ballet The Three-Cornered Hat, the story of a corrupt magistrate who attempts to seduce a miller’s wife, only to be exposed and humiliated at the end. This has become core repertoire for orchestras throughout the world but it was exhilarating to hear it played with the sort of authentic accent that the OSG brought to it. The performance was laced with vivid orchestral detail, nowhere more so than in The Miller’s Dance, in which the orchestra imitates some ferocious guitar strumming. Here was flamenco at its gravest, proudest and most powerful. There was much solo virtuosity answered by the whole orchestra with explosive, percussive force. You didn’t need the proud, agile miller in front of you on stage to see him in your mind’s eye.
Joaquin Turina was a close friend of Falla, born in Seville, the heart of Andalusia. His Sinfonia Sevillana isn’t so much a symphony as a musical portrait of Seville in three vibrant tone poems: a majestic, panoramic view of the city; a summer evening on the River Guadalquivir; a Festival in San Juan de Aznalfarache. This last movement erupts into a frenzied local folk dance with castanets and a huge array of percussion driving the music to a breathless, ecstatic conclusion, celebrating the unquenchable spirit of Seville.
Ravel’s Mother Goose suite came as a complete contrast: music of delicacy and played with exquisite refinement by the SCSO and their conductor Roberto González-Monjas. The ‘Tom Thumb’ movement was a particular delight, the oboe’s plaintive melody and the rustling strings evoking the boy’s anxiety.
The concert ended with Ravel’s Boléro, a piece with special significance for the city of Nottingham. It showcased impressive playing from all sections of the orchestra, providing an explosive conclusion to the OSG’s celebration of Spanish music. The concert over-ran by 30 minutes…but an audience that cheered as loudly as the Royal Concert Hall’s would surely have been happy to carry on all night.
Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia
Roberto González-Monjas, conductor
Thibaut Garcia, guitar