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

Karabits and the BSO journey beyond the moon in a fast machine - BBC Prom 4

Kiril Karabits
© Chris Christodoulou

Nemanja Radoluvić (violin)
Trinity Boys Choir
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Kiril Karabits (conductor)

Sunday 21 July, 7.30 pm

BBC Prom 4

Royal Albert Hall, London

★★★★




Adams, John (b.1947): Short Ride in a Fast Machine - fanfare for orchestra

Barber, Samuel (1910-81): Violin Concerto, Op.14

Encore:
Traditional: Pašona kolo

Holst, Gustav (1874-1934): The Planets, Op. 32

Adams:
'The BSO were on top of the complexities, the woodwind fizzing and the brass soaring'.

Radoluvić:
'Great presence and involvement with the orchestra, giving Barber's generous melody warm tone, yet maintaining lightness of touch'.

Nemanja Radoluvić & Kiril Karabits
© Chris Christodoulou

Encore:
'Radulović brought the front desk strings to their feet for a blistering performance of a traditional Serbian circle dance'.

Holst:
'Karabits ... achieved a sense of awe and calm ... giving tight attention to dynamic control'.

'A Planets with considerable insight, dynamic variety and atmospheric contrasts'.

Read my full review on Bachtrack here.

Fuel to the Proms fire on the First Night - Prom 1

© BBC/Chris Christodoulou

BBC Prom 1

Igor Levit (piano)

Edward Gardner (conductor)

BBC Proms Youth Choir

BBC Symphony Chorus

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Friday 14 July 2017

Royal Albert Hall, London

★★★★

Tom Coult: St John's Dance

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37

John Adams: Harmonium

© BBC/Chris Christodoulou

'Mass hysteria, Schiller’s Ode to Joy and Wild Nights – a heady mix for this year’s opening night of the BBC Proms'.

Coult: 'The overlaying structure ... is deftly constructed, and Coult’s writing has great energy and drive, making this a successful concert opener'.

Beethoven: 'Levit made the long lyrical lines of the Largo sing'.

Adams: 'A highly impressive performance of this modern choral classic, testament to the input of the array of chorus directors involved, as well as to Gardner and the BBCSO’s command of the work's massive orchestral demands'.

Read my full review on Backtrack here.

CD Reviews - April 2014

First, music from American composer, John Adams (b.1947).  I saw his opera in 2009 at the ENO, Doctor Atomic, which centres around the physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, and the build up to the first test of the atomic bomb.  An unlikely ‘story’ for an opera perhaps, but then Adams has carved somewhat of a niche for tackling political and controversial topics in his operas (Nixon in China, and The Death of Klinghoffer, for example).  I was absolutely blown away by the intensity and drama of the music, and also the central performance of Gerald Finley as Oppenheimer.  However, transferring the music from this to an orchestral symphony, as Adams did in 2007 to produce his Doctor Atomic Symphony, was a tricky move.  Yet for me, the music still holds the energy, and the second movement in particular (titled ‘Panic’) is truly terrifying.  Adams transcribes the stunning aria ‘Batter my heart, three-person’d God’, which Finley made his own, for solo trumpet here, and it almost works.  Overall, the work stands as a coherent symphony, and it is energetically performed here by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, conducted by Peter Oundjian.  They follow this with Adam’s popular concert work, A Short Ride in a Fast Machine.  This is a great orchestral showpiece, and its energy and humour is irresistible.  Here, the driving rhythms do not always feel totally secure, but the drive to the finish is convincing nevertheless.  The rest of the disc is then given over to Harmonielehre – which is a really a three movement symphony.  Composed in 1985, it was perhaps one of the earliest large scale orchestral works to emerge from minimalism.  Again, it contains the same elements of drive, energy and power, achieved from Adams’ relentless use of the clever combination of slow moving harmonies against fast, repetitive rhythms, with hypnotic results. 

Adams, J. 2013. Harmonielehre, Doctor Atomic Symphony, Short Ride in a Fast Machine. Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Peter Oundjian. Hybrid Super Audio Compact Disc. Chandos CHSA 5129.

Relatively little is known about the life of the English Tudor composer, John Sheppard (c.1515-1558), and a lot of the music that survives is incomplete.  However, the music we do have shows what a skilled writer he was, particularly in combining and drawing on chant with choral textures.  He also made especially imaginative use of the soprano/treble voice, creating beautifully soaring lines which rise wonderfully out of the choral textures from time to time.  The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, under Andrew Nethsingha, have recorded two of the more substantial works – the ‘Western Wynde’ Mass, and Gaude, gaude, gaude Maria virgo – and interspersed them with a number of shorter motets and anthems.   The opening Gaude, gaude is perhaps the most successful here, and the six part motet, Spiritus Sanctus procedens is given a convincing reading.  However, there are some problems of blend overall here.  The boy trebles produce a pleasant sound, but are not uniformly secure particularly at the top end of the range.  Equally, there are some quite strong and individual lower voices which stick out of the texture at times.  I suspect there are some budding solo voices here amongst the men, but that’s not necessarily an asset in this repertoire.

Sheppard, J. 2013. Gaude, gaude, gaude Maria - Sacred Choral Works. Choir of St John's College Cambridge, Andrew Nethsingha. Hybrid Super Audio Compact Disc. Chandos Chaconne CHSA 0401.

(Edited versions of these reviews first appeared in GScene, April 2014)