The Dome Brighton, 16 January 2016

Indonesian conductor  Adrian Prabava was making his debut with the LPO at Brighton last night and very impressive it turned out to be. He led the whole evening from memory and showed a warm relationship with his players which allowed them some freedom while maintaining an overall control and tight sense of rhythm.

This was particularly true of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony whose dance rhythms were tight and joyous throughout. Though tempi, particularly in the final movement, were brisk, there was never any sense of rushing the players whose articulation was well up to the demands he made. The Allegretto was sombre without being too serious and set the scene for the extrovert enthusiasm of the Presto. Changes of tempi and dynamic were all carefully controlled without bring too rigid.

The opening Overture to Lucio Silla is hardly a masterpiece even if it is early Mozart. While well played, the size of the orchestra was over heavy for it and made for a lack of internal detail where the woodwind should have shone through more clearly.

The only problem of the evening came with Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto. It was obvious from some of the orchestral passages and the sublime cello solo (superbly played by Kristina Blaumane) that Adrian Prabava had a different and more subtle approach to the work than the soloist Stefan Ciric. His approach was forthright and aggressive from the start with little sensitivity to the nuances of the score or the possibilities it has for inner tensions and sudden moments of radiance. He seemed to put passion and intensity (to say nothing of volume) above all else. This may be acceptable in Liszt or Prokofiev but seemed ill judged for Brahms. The opening of the final movement brought some lightness of texture but even here it soon reverted to a strong dynamic intensity. His body language throughout was very tense and this showed in the playing. Most of the audience seemed to relish the approach, though there were voices overheard in the bar at the interval who seemed as disconcerted as I had been by the apparent disparity between conductor and soloist.

The next LPO concert at the Dome is on Saturday 27 February 2016 with works by Mendelssohn, Strauss, Khachaturian & Stravinsky.