A season opener with a bang from the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra

Clark Rundell
© Benjamin Ealovega

Clark Rundell (conductor)

Joanna MacGregor (piano)

Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra

Ruth Rogers (leader)

2.45pm, Sunday 8 October 2023

Brighton Dome

★★★★

John Adams (b.1947): Short Ride in a Fast Machine

George Gershwin (1898-1937): Concerto in F major for piano and orchestra

Charles Ives (1874-1954): The Unanswered Question

Leonard Bernstein (1919-1990): Symphonic Dances from 'West Side Story'

The Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra certainly opened their 99th season with a bang in an all-American programme, conducted by American conductor Clark Rundell. 

They kicked off with a tight rendition of John Adams’ exhilarating curtain-raiser, his Short Ride in a Fast Machine. It immediately offered the extensive percussion section a chance to shine, and they also featured strongly in the rest of the programme. The Adams is fiendish to play, with its insistent pulse and complex cross rhythms, perhaps explaining why Rundell took this at the slightest notch down in tempo, but the BPO rose to the occasion, with a particularly bright and shiny brass section, making for a lively start to their programme.

Joanna MacGregor
© Pal Hansen

The BPO’s Music Director, Joanna MacGregor then joined the stage with Clark Rundell for a brief but insightful overview of the programme, before taking to the piano for Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F. The Concerto followed a year after the huge success of his Rhapsody in Blue (1924), and takes a more traditional concerto format, whilst retaining the jazz and blues styles of its predecessor. Unlike the Rhapsody in Blue, Gershwin orchestrated the Concerto fully himself, and it certainly demonstrates his ability to create imaginative orchestral colours, also making use of frequent solos from within the orchestra. The BPO relished the rhythms, and the solos when they came were stylish, with a particularly louche turn from Principal Trumpet John Ellwood in the central Adagio, matched by Leader Ruth Rogers’ cheeky solo later in that same movement. MacGregor was clearly in her element here and enjoying herself, with dramatic virtuosic chase sequences, a particularly jazzy interlude in the opening movement, and thrilling cartoon filigree in the finale. Yet she also gave us poignant delicacy when alongside divided cellos in the second movement. Rundell steered the orchestra through the frequent episodic tempo changes, and the orchestra’s crashing conclusion brought the concert’s first half to an exciting finish.

After the break, trumpeter John Ellwood was dispatched upstairs to the balcony for Charles Ives fascinatingly enigmatic piece, The Unanswered Question. The strings play the part here of silent druids, ignoring or oblivious to the dialogue that ensues between the solo trumpet and a quartet of flutes on stage. Over the quiet, slow shifting and basically tonal strings, the trumpet poses a question, in fact ‘The Perennial Question of Existence’, with a simple but angular figure, clashing harmonically with the calmness of the strings. The flutes, the ‘Fighting Answerers’ respond, but become more frustrated and angry with each response, as the question comes back again and again from the trumpet - no fewer than seven times in all. The BPO strings maintained a calm pianissimo throughout, as Ellwood’s call had a searching fragility, and the flutes progressed well from confusion to frustration and anger, before giving up, leaving the trumpet’s final question unanswered. It’s a short piece, at just over six minutes, but Ives packs a lot in here, and Rundell and the BPO gave us a fine performance to ponder over here.

Uncertainty was then swept away in the BPO’s finale, Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. Here Bernstein takes us through the key moments of the show, focussing particularly on the gang conflict, with thrilling orchestration, and particularly making use of a large percussion section. Once they had got going, the BPO clearly had a ball here, and the drive and energy levels increased as the piece progressed. The strings produced a suitably warm sound for the ‘Somewhere’ moments, and everyone had great fun with ‘Mambo’. Tony and Maria’s ‘Cha-cha’ had grace and delicacy, and the brass section gave us a real big band sound as the ‘Cool Fugue’ led into the ‘Rumble’. Yet after the dramatic climax here, Bernstein then leaves us with distant strings and final poignant hints of ‘Somewhere’. If the final chords were a little nervy here, the overall effect of the journey from Rundell and the BPO was nevertheless powerful and impressive.

MacGregor and the BPO have an eclectic and varied programme ahead of them this season (my preview is here), and if they continue on this form, the season promises to be a great success.

Clark Rundell & the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra
© Nick Boston

Brighton Festival - Lunchtime Concerts, Part 2

And so to catch up on some more of the Lunchtime concerts from the Brighton Festival.

Pianist Ashley Fripp (Thursday 17 May) began with a delightful performance of Haydn's Sonata in D major, Hob. XVII:D1.  He followed this with Liszt's Vier kleine Klavierstücke, a late set of miniatures, and not ones I previously knew.  They are less obviously showy than the more well known Liszt repertoire, and Fripp brought great sensitivity to their more introspective style.  The rest of the programme was given over to Rachmaninov - first of all the challenging Ten Preludes, Op. 23.  The 10 came some time after Rachmaninov's mammoth single Prelude in C sharp minor, and he followed these later with thirteen more to provide a complete set of all the major and minor keys.  Whilst some are less challenging than others to play, they all require great skill to bring out inner melodies and balance the dynamics, particularly when playing the set together.  Fripp managed this beautifully, a highlight for me being the contrast of the almost dance-like, dramatic third Prelude in D minor, followed by the exquisitely lyrical and romantic fourth Prelude in D major.  He ended his programme with the Humoresque from the Sept Morceaux de Salon, Op. 10 - lighter in style, but suitably effervescent to complete a very enjoyable performance.  

Next, cellist Tim Lowe was accompanied by pianist James Baillieu (Friday 18 May).  The meat of their programme was Brahms' F major Sonata, a passionate and dramatic piece, composed over twenty years after his first sonata for the instrument.  I really enjoyed Lowe's playing here, and Baillieu proved himself a very skilled partner too, as achieving the right balance, particularly in the dry acoustic of the Pavilion Theatre, is not straightforward at all.  Another new piece to me, Sibelius' Malinconia, Op. 20, preceded the Brahms - this was composed following the tragic death of the composer's infant daughter, and it is an intensely moving, even painful piece.  They topped and tailed the programme with two sets of variations - they began with Mendelssohn's rousing Variations Concertantes, and ended with the less well-known Variations on a theme by Rossini, composed by Martinu.  Both these works gave Lowe ample opportunity to demonstrate his technical command.  

The Eidos Trio, William Stafford (clarinet), Ilya Movchan (violin) and Konstantin Lapshin (piano) have been playing together since 2008, when they got together at the Royal College of Music.  They opened their concert (Sunday 20 May) with Milhaud's Suite, and technically their performance was spot on.  However, what concerned me here immediately was a lack of communication between the players.  There was barely a moment of eye contact between any of the three players, and there was certainly no real sense of fun - not even in the third movement, entitled 'Jeu'.  Unfortunately, this continued throughout their programme for me, and increasingly I felt frustrated by the fact that, despite their obvious skill and musicianship, the audience was not really being brought into their world through the performances.  This is particularly important in this less familiar, and somewhat challenging, repertoire, and was a great contrast to other musicians in this series who went out of their way to communicate with their audience.  However, there was still much to admire here.  The Trio by Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007) was composed in 1996.  An opera composer predominantly, he was also the partner of Samuel Barber, and wrote the libretto for his opera, Vanessa.  The trio is an interesting piece, and again, there is humour in the music here too, which once again didn't come across.  However, in the more melodic moments, particularly for the clarinet in the final movement, there was some subtle playing here.  The Largo by Ives is quite a lyrical, nostalgic piece, yet still containing typically quirky Ivesian detail.  They completed their programme with the lively Khachaturian Trio, and finally here the Eidos Trio came alive.  Perhaps it was the folk-inspired melodies and rhythms, or maybe they were beginning to relax a little more, but here I began to feel they were actually enjoying themselves a bit, and consequently the audience responded accordingly.  So overall, strong musicians that need to work on performance communication for me.