Rousing start to new season 

"The Northern Sinfonia opened the Lakeland Concert Society's new season with as all-Beethoven programme. 

From the ferocious precision of the opening chords and subsequent relentless urgency of the Coriolan overture it was clear that this remarkable band of musicians was on top form. 

Characterised by full-blooded, sonorous tone, excellent dynamic control, pungent, rhythmic silences and an awareness of the overall architectural shape this was a memorable performance that went directly to the angry Romanesque heart of the piece. 

Paul Lewis, the imposing but physically economical soloist in the 4th Piano Concerto, has no undesirable, dramatic or theatrical gestures, but he does have a cultured musicianship, a profound imagination and  a wondrous technique. His partners, always finely balanced, played with consummate style so that, overall, a sublime performance resulted. 

The reading of the so familiar 5th Symphony  was, in many ways, a revelation. 

A first movement characterised by a driven motion and taut, vital rhythms was succeeded by a second movement's, blend of the poetical, the mystical and the dynamic, the effects of which were lifted by the occasional highlighting of  ‘new’  details of scoring. The scherzo and finale revealed the Sinfonia in all its glory: exciting virtuosity of every kind in all sections eventually brought the concert to its triumphant close.

Thomas Zehetmair, the Sinfonia's   magisterial conductor, was a delight to watch as he constantly searched for the soul of Beethoven's music."

Brian Paynes, Westmorland Gazette, 5th October 2007