Plenty to Bite Into

Derby Concert Orchestra celebrates Christmas,
heard by MIKE WHEELER

I do like Christmas concerts that aren't too heavy on the glitz and tinsel. While the mood was festive, Derby Concert Orchestra, playing as well as I've heard them, made sure there that, alongside the sugar plums, there was plenty to bite into as well (Derby Cathedral, Derby, UK, 10 December 2011).

In Night on Bald Mountain DCO and conductor Jonathan Trout captured as much of Musorgsky's original roughness as Rimsky-Korsakov allowed to survive in his re-working of the score...