Sunday 22 September 2024   Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra concert.  Review by Janet Lawrence

We’re lured into the afternoon with Tchaikovsky's familiar Piano Concerto, played by Dutch pianist Aidan Mikdad. He came over from Holland specially. He’s been winning countless prizes from the age of 11, studied with Joanna MacGregor at the Royal Academy of Music, and currently works privately with Alfred Brendel.

Aidan followed the opening chords with staccato hands, playing with confidence and tenderness, supported by a full orchestra and Joanna’s precise conducting. At one point the piano stops and the orchestra introduces a new theme, with a few phrases from trumpets, taking us to the final allegro that concludes the piece.

Calls and claps encouraged Aidan to give us an encore - Franz Liszt’s Liebestraum.

Now, after the interval, for the afternoon’s Pièce de Résistance.

Russian composer Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring scandalised the audience at its premiere in Paris in May 1913, in the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, with Nijinsky’s shocking choreography - and the subject matter, depicted in twelve short seconds-long sections.

It carries the theme from the Introduction’s Adoration of the Earth, to rituals, pagan dances and Ancestral Evocations, until the last “Sacrificial Dance,” when “The Chosen One” dances her exhausting dance of death. It’s a quiet opening, based on a Lithuanian folk song.

Flutes sneak in discreetly, with violins cushioning the sound of the brass, while double basses tap and pluck. And Graham Reader deals with six timpani - large kettle drums, adaptable in rhythm and pitch. Choosing the right one always puzzles me. "It's a bit like a brass instrument,” says Graham. “You pull the note out of the instrument, rather than hitting in to it; you attack the note in a different way according to the score.”

Wind instruments come in with a rich clarinet motif. Trumpets question; trombones answer; the score is full of statements and answers until the entire orchestra joins in. A life goes into the work. Joanna, conducting, with first violin Ruth Rogers, brought out the best from her players.

I had anticipated a challenging piece of music, only to find myself involved, uplifted and enthralled by the instrumental statements that punctuated the work and the passion with which it was played.

‘That performance was razor sharp,’ said Julian Pelling, sitting next to me. 'Never better.' And he was right. He knows his music, and he summed it up perfectly.

I chatted afterwards with clarinettist Laurie Cutriss (E-flat and D) and bass clarinet Hannah Shivlock. Both expressed how much they enjoyed playing with the orchestra.

Next concert: Jess Gillam on saxophone with Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. Brighton Dome 2.45pm. Tickets online: brightonphil.org.uk; 01273 709709.