Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra "holds its own with the best there is"

From a season of innovative and imaginative concerts, the finale of the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra season last Sunday reverted back to its classical music beginnings.

We had British Elgar, Austrian Mozart and German Brahms.

In tribute to the troubles in Ukraine they opened with "Melody", by the Ukrainian composer Myroslav Skoryk. A short, simple, sad tune of longing and reflection that works up to a triumphant and defiant crescendo, under the unequivocal direction of Sian Edwards.

Sian, blessed with a rich head of tawny hair, is Head of Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music. She led us into a dreamy scenario with Elgar's Introduction and Allegro Op47. Mournful and sorrowful. Opening with full strings, it continues to a more hurried tempo until at last it comes back to the main theme. We somehow know this is an English 20th century composer.

Big treat with 18th Century Mozart, whose legendary iconic music all happened by the time he was 35. Symphony No 40 was written in a time of financial crisis three years before his death - full of the melody and tunes by which we know this extraordinary composer.

The first movement started with a punch - the hitherto silent clarinet and brass coming in to rouse us till we're subdued by the heartrending second movement. Sian Edwards knows how to convey the nuances with her eloquent direction.

Back to the melody in the third movement where solo flute has a moment and the horn player overturns his instrument to shake out moisture. Mozart loves his melody and we get all of that in the 4th and final movement, while an overwhelmed 4-year-old snuggles up with her mother a few seats along. Mozart's inventiveness knows no bounds. It's the last symphony he ever wrote.

Interval - then The Phil's Artistic Director, Joanna MacGregor, takes centre stage with the grand piano. It's now the 19th century with Johannes Brahms's Piano Concerto No 1 in D minor, Op. 15. Brahms's form of tunefulness is not the sort you go out humming. It's complicated, whimsical and - more than melody - there's passion and anguish. Brahms was deeply in love with Robert Schumann's wife, Clara. It's a heavy piece, with long pauses; known to be difficult because of so many characters in it technically, though Joanna expressed it with apparent ease. A lot to think about as it built to its climax.

The Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra holds its own with the best there is, and we look forward to what the next season brings, later in the year.

Review by Janet Lawrence

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