The Brighton Phil’s season draws to a close on Sunday 25 March when Conductor Laureate Barry Wordsworth returns for a memorable concert full of brilliant music to celebrate his 70th birthday with the orchestra and loyal Brighton Dome audience.
The concert opens with the Karelia Suite by Sibelius – written very early in his career as a commission it is based on folk tunes from South East Finland, and Sibelius noted that he wanted it to sound like folk music. It has become one of his most popular works and includes the exhilarating ‘Alla Marcia’.
The virtuosic piano duo Stephen Worbey & Kevin Farrell join the orchestra to perform Malcolm Arnold’s Piano Concerto Op.104 – on this occasion for four hands on one piano. It was a BBC Proms commission for the three-handed piano duo Cyril Smith and Phyllis Sellick (Steven Worbey’s teacher) and was first performed by them with huge success at the Proms in 1969. The concerto is typically Arnold at his very best, from dark and tragic in the first movement, through a melting romantic melody in the slow movement, to a glorious Rumba in the last movement, full of wit and unashamedly popular.
For this concert Barry Wordsworth wanted to include ballet music, which has been such a great part of his conducting life, and he has compiled a short suite from Delibes’ comic ballet Coppélia. The orchestra will play Prelude, Valse and Czardas – these are brilliantly orchestrated and based on dance tunes Delibes found in his native northern France.
Finally Worbey & Farrell rejoin the orchestra to perform Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals, a hugely entertaining composition that conjures up a musical parade of creatures using instrumental groups and orchestral soloists, as well as four hands on one piano, with imagination and insight. In this performance the narration will be brought up to date with modern-day cultural references by Worbey & Farrell. As Barry Wordsworth writes in the programme for this concert: “I cannot wait to perform for you all with Steven Worbey and Kevin Farrell. This will be fun, and will provide an excuse for celebration at the end of another wonderful season.”
Tickets from £12-£38 (50% discount for students/Under 18s) are available from Brighton Dome Ticket Office in Church Street, (01273) 709709 and online: www.brightondome.org
Discounted parking for Brighton Phil concert attendees can be found in NCP Church Street, a couple of minutes’ walk from the Dome, costing just £6 between 1pm & 6pm.
On the morning of this, the final concert of the season, the orchestra will be holding its annual free Open Rehearsal for Children in Brighton Dome Concert Hall, 10.15-11am – an exciting introduction to classical music and the instruments of the orchestra using extracts from Carnival of the Animals and Coppélia. As part of the orchestra’s Education Programme interactive workshops are being held in local schools this term and the Open Rehearsal is the culmination of the work done there.Places for the rehearsal are free but must be booked in advance via Brighton Dome Ticket Office.
STOP PRESS: The Brighton Phil is deeply saddened to have learned of the recent death of D V Newbold, CBE, a long-standing and passionate supporter and generous sponsor of the orchestra, who has sponsored this concert, which we will be dedicating to his memory.