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

CD Reviews - October 2018

Canadian conductor Peter Oundjian is moving on from a successful period at the helm of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and one of his final projects with them has been to record two works by American composer John Adams (b.1947).  The first is a curious piece, Absolute Jest, for string quartet and orchestra, and the RSNO are joined by the Doric String Quartet.  The work was commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony to mark their centenary, and the only previous recording to date is by them.  Adams draws extensively, and very playfully, on music by Beethoven – you can play a bit of ‘spot the tune’, with material here from Symphonies 8 and 9, as well as the late string quartets.  The quartet rises and falls out of the overall texture, and as ever, the Dorics play with sharp precision and energy – in concert performance, the quartet is amplified to balance against the orchestral sound. There is a typically Adams-esque driving energy throughout, and it’s a great ride. The final wild prestissimo comes to a sudden halt, leaving a strange combination of cowbells, piano and harp hanging in the air, like a lost fortepiano echoing from the past.  The main work on this disc, however, is Naive and Sentimental Music.  The title is a reference to Schiller, and Adams is exploring the contrast between a simple and straightforward artistic response, and a more emotional reflection and expression.  There are lots of Adams’ signature devices here, and there was much that reminded me of his great choral work, Harmonium.  The first movement begins simply, almost relaxed, but a slow accelerando gradual builds the tension, with the straightforward melody ranging over increasingly insistent rhythms.  The movement builds to an exhausting frenzy, with thunderous percussion. The second movement, ‘Mother of the Man’, has a lilting, if occasionally rhythmically off-kilter feel, and the ‘sentimental’ here is the moving solo for steel-stringed guitar (played sensitively by Sean Shibe), coupled with a mournful bassoon solo.  The final movement, ‘Chain to the Rhythm’ starts like a quiet ‘Wild Nights’ (from Harmonium), and as the title suggests, is a tour de force of complex rhythms, which Oundjean and the RSNO navigate with impressive precision.  Adams also makes great use of percussion, with a central quieter passage evoking the gamelan.  The crashing brass and percussion conclusion comes somewhat suddenly, and it’s all over, but this is an infectious piece, and the performance here is striking and full of energy.

Adams, J. 2018. Naive and Sentimental Music, Absolute Jest. Doric String Quartet, Sean Shibe, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Peter Oundjian. Hybrid Super Audio Compact Disc. Chandos CHSA 5199. 

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet has reached the seventh volume of his collection of the Piano Sonatas of Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809).  Here there are five more sonatas, although the questions of authenticity rise once again with a few of these.  The earliest here, Sonata No. 8, appeared in publication alongside four other sonatas, all supposedly by Pleyel, so whether this was from Haydn’s hand is uncertain.  It’s a simple, not particularly profound piece, with an energetically stately opening Allegro, a graceful Minuet and a rhythmically jumpy Presto to finish. Bavouzet plays with his usual bright articulation, with some rattling arpeggios in the Allegro.  The Sonata No. 46, although also relatively concise, has more interest, with running semiquavers contrasting with a stately triple time.  The second movement is more unusual, sounding like a Bach three part invention, but with a Haydn twist.  The finale has a lively theme that shifts in and out of major and minor, and Haydn varies the theme with increasingly dramatic virtuosity.  The highlight of Sonata No. 13 is the rhapsodic, fantasia-like Adagio, and Bavouzet makes it sing like an extended aria.  Sonata No. 57 is the fake here – the second two movements are transcriptions from Sonata No. 19, and the first movement is almost definitely not by Haydn, although it is not insubstantial, with winding lines like a two part invention, and some delicate octave work.  The disc closes with Sonata No. 58, with a delicately expressive and improvisatory Andante followed by a lively virtuosic Presto to finish.  Bavouzet enjoys the expansive expression of the former, and dashes off the latter with spirited energy.

Haydn, F. J. 2018. Piano Sonatas, Volume 7. Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. Compact Disc. Chandos CHAN 10998.

(Edited versions of these reviews first appeared in GScene, October 2018)

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.