REVIEW: BPO play mighty Beethoven

BEETHOVEN'S 8th and mighty 9th provide the bread for a Christmas sandwich served up by the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra as their 85th concert season reaches the halfway mark.

The 8th was in Sunday's programme and the 9th kicks off the new year offering along with the master's Egmont Overture and Romance for violin No 2 on January 17.

Visiting soloists in the pre-Christmas treat, violinist Rafal Zambrzycki-Payne and cellist Thomas Carroll, were able to show their rapport and expertise in Brahms' Concerto for those two instruments that comprised the second half of the concert.

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It opened in exuberant fashion with the Overture from The Thieving Magpie, one of Rossini's of most popular, and gave the BPO under musical director Barry Wordsworth and guest leader Josef Frohlich, a chance to show their worth before taking on the Beethoven piece that Wordsworth labelled in his programme notes as "classical and sparing."

Guest conductor Stephen Bell will be back to lead the BPO through their traditional New Year's Eve Viennese concert before the season proper resumes again with that heady Beethoven special that also features Dome favourites the Brighton Festival Chorus.

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