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| Alpesh Chauhan © Marcello Orselli |
Sibelius’ Finlandia was given a rich, expansive reading here, with incisive energy from visiting conductor Alpesh Chauhan. The string sound was full, and Chauhan shaped the music’s sweeping waves with command. Whilst the opening brass onset was a little unsure, the brass then gave us appropriate weight and a broad but bright sound, and the woodwind chorale moments were well-balanced. Chauhan built to a suitably triumphant finish, making for a strong opening statement.
Jess Gillam
© Robin Clewley
Jess Gillam then gave us a joyous rendition of Glazunov’s short but sweet Concerto for Alto Saxophone, Op. 109, written in 1934 for Sigurd Raschèr. With just strings accompanying the soloist, they opened in secure unison, before Gillam entered with lyrical, smooth lines. Chauhan mostly controlled the dynamic balance well, allowing Gillam leeway for some highly sensitive pianissimos too. Then Gillam picked up the pace with playful rapid runs leading into the faster section. Yet even in the fast, virtuosic sections, Gillam always maintained a pure tone, particularly gentle at the top. Layered string textures built to the cadenza, with again some very sensitive, quiet playing from Gillam. Then she set the fugue off at a healthy pace, followed by tight playing from the strings as each section joined in. Rapid articulation from Gillam built to highly virtuosic finish.
For an encore, Gillam returned with the soprano saxophone to play an arrangement with orchestra of Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen’s Shine You No More. Sørensen is a member of the Danish String Quartet, and this piece has become a popular encore piece for a variety of soloists – I last heard it from violinist Thomas Gould at the 2023 Proms. It is great fun with an opening reel for the soloist, throbbing rhythmic strings, and following a quieter, mournful central section, it dances away to a showstopping finish. Gillam dazzled with fluid virtuosity, and the strings, with a sprightly solo from leader Nicky Sweeney, gave spirited support.
Ruby Hughes
© Thomas Dashuber
Górecki’s Symphony No. 3, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, Op. 36, was composed 1976, but really hit the big time in 1992 when the London Sinfonietta’s recording with Dawn Upshaw was championed on newly established Classic FM. After that, it has received steady airplay, and has been used in film and TV, with English National Opera giving a powerful staged production last year, but concert performances are surprisingly relatively rare. Its lengthy first movement is longer than the other two movements combined, with its extensive eight part canon for strings leading to a central 15th century song, a lament of the Virgin Mary, before the canon then unwinds itself in reverse order. Three of the BPO double basses set the canon in motion, a little muddily to begin with, but confidence built, and Chauhan maintained a steady intensity as each string part was added, bringing out the moments of movement within the slow, steady lines. Then soprano Ruby Hughes stood, her voice slowly rising out of the textures, initially quiet, but increasingly pleading in tone. A real mother’s lament, she and the orchestra built to a climax before the full strings then took over their canon in reverse motion, working their way back to the double basses. Chauhan held a lengthy silence in the air, before commencing the glassy, almost sunlit opening of the second movement. Hughes entered quietly, low in her register, with the rising and falling scales achingly painful – this movement’s text is taken from an inscription on a Nazi prison cell in Zakopane, Poland, including a short prayer signed by an 18 year old girl, Helena Wanda Błażusiakówna, again a lament to her mother and the Virgin Mary. Exquisitely controlled pianissimo from Hughes at the end of the prayer, followed by a darkly intoned Ave Maria brought the movement to its intense conclusion. Undulating strings at the start of the finale were then joined by Hughes with doubled flutes, singing the third text, again a lament, this time a mother over her dead son. One or two of the transitions in this movement, where Górecki suddenly stops and shifts the harmony, could have been cleaner, but Chauhan otherwise shaped the dynamic swells well, and the BPO strings showed great stamina of concentration in the long, pulsing passages. After the almost naïve joy of the Glazunov in the first half, the intense sadness of the Górecki was a striking, almost shocking contrast, and Hughes, Chauhan and the BPO gave us a highly emotional and meditative end to the afternoon’s concert. Once again, the BPO are continuing to surprise us with the increasing depth and variety of their playing and programming – next up, The Madness/Lightness of Being, with cinematic music including Herrmann, Schnittke and Piazolla (Saturday 16 November, Brighton Dome).
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| Jess Gillam, Alpesh Chauhan & the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra © Nick Boston |
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| Ruby Hughes, Alpesh Chauhan & the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra © Nick Boston |
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