Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra celebrate their 100th birthday with an exciting new 2024-25 season

Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra have launched a typically ambitious and exciting 100^th season, building up to their official centenary in 2025. With Joanna MacGregor at the helm, the orchestra will also hopefully be building further on the strides they’ve made in the last few years both in terms of expanded repertoire and drawing in new audiences. Remarkably, MacGregor is only the fourth Music Director/Conductor of the orchestra, which began in 1925 as The Symphonic String Players, then became the Southern Philharmonic, before taking their current name in 1958. Their founder Herbert Menges conducted the orchestra for 47 years, followed by John Carewe and then Barry Wordsworth, before MacGregor took the baton in 2019.

 

Jess Gillan
© Robin Clewley

What’s on offer in this season? Well, there are some big-name classical music stars, including saxophonist Jess Gillam, percussionist Evelyn Glennie and conductor/percussionist Colin Currie, and conductors Sian Edwards and Geoffrey Paterson from recent seasons also return. But it is the ambition of the repertoire that stands out. Two giants bookend the season, with Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring to open and Messiaen’s monumental Turangalîla Symphony to end as the BPO’s Centenary Gala concert in April.

 

Ruby Hughes

So, in a little more detail, alongside The Rite of Spring, Dutch pianist Aidan Mikdad will perform Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 at the season’s opening concert (2.45pm, Sunday 22 September, Brighton Dome), with MacGregor at the podium. Then Alpesh Chauhan conducts what promises to be a great programme, with Jess Gillam performing Glazunov’s Concerto for Saxophone, and soprano Ruby Hughes joining the orchestra for Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. Ruby Hughes sang some Britten and Weill songs with Joanna MacGregor at the BPO season launch, and I look forward to hearing her pure, bright soprano voice in the soaring lines of the Górecki (2.45pm, Sunday 13 October, Brighton Dome).

 

Joanna MacGregor
© Pal Hansen

In November, the Brighton Philharmonic Strings move over to the Corn Exchange and take up the Saturday night slot, which has proved successful in recent years, particularly bringing in different audiences. In a film inspired programme, The Madness/Lightness of Being, they will perform music by Hermann, Schnittke and Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov’s Silent Music for Strings. Joanna MacGregor conducts, plays piano and the concert also includes her arrangements of music by Piazzolla, including Oblivion and Libertango (7.30pm, Saturday 16 November, Brighton Corn Exchange).

 

Dame Evelyn Glennie
© Philip Rathmer/Brigitte

December brings Dame Evelyn Glennie, to perform James MacMillan’s Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, and conductor Geoffrey Paterson conducts the orchestra in Peter Maxwell’s glorious An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise (complete with bagpiper!) and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherezade (2.45pm, Sunday 1 December, Brighton Dome). The BPO Brass Quintet will also perform alongside MacGregor in their popular version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, directed by Richard Williams. They are joined by Alistair McGowan as narrator, following his performance of The Soldier’s Tale with the orchestra last year (6pm & 8pm, Saturday 14 December, St George’s, Kemptown). 

 

Gwilym Simcock

To welcome in 2025, the orchestra are joined by the Gwilym Simcock Trio for Blue Notes, a jazz-infused programme of music by Duke Ellington and Wayne Shorter, as well as music by Gwilym Simcock and a solo set from the trio (7.30pm, Saturday 25 January, Brighton Dome). Then conductor Ben Gernon conducts Elgar’s Enigma Variations, followed by Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, with the Brighton Festival Chorus and baritone Cody Quattlebaum (2.45pm, Sunday 9 February, Brighton Dome).

 

Colin Currie
© Andy Catlin

Another highlight of the season promises to be a celebration of the music of Steve Reich, culminating in his Reich/Richter, a shining, vibrant piece written to accompany Gerhard Richter’s abstract film Moving Picture (946-3). There is also music from Terry Riley, Yoko Ono, Lou Harrison and John Cage. Colin Currie conducts, and also plays claves (tuned wooden sticks) in Reich’s iconic and mesmerising Music for Pieces of Wood (7.30pm, Sunday 23 March, Brighton Dome). 

Sian Edwards

And then for that final Centenary Gala. Messaien’s Turangalîla Symphony is truly mammoth, requiring a huge orchestra, and encompasses so many influences in its epic exploration of love, life and death, including birdsong, gamelan and the other-worldly ondes martenot, played by Cynthia Millar. There’s also a demanding solo piano part, which Joanna MacGregor will perform, with Sian Edwards conducting (2.45pm, Sunday 13 April, Brighton Dome). Messiaen described the work as ‘a love song: a hymn to joy’ – a suitably joyful way, then, for the BPO to celebrate 100 years of music making in Brighton.

 

Tickets on sale now, and check out their LoveMusic scheme, with late release of best available seats, and £1 tickets for children and teenagers. Details on the BPO website here, tickets sold through Brighton Dome here.