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