{"id":1983,"date":"2014-10-05T20:16:27","date_gmt":"2014-10-05T19:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=1983"},"modified":"2014-10-05T20:17:16","modified_gmt":"2014-10-05T19:17:16","slug":"brighton-philharmonic-orchestra-new-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=1983","title":{"rendered":"Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra: New Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Autumn may be in the wings but another wonderful late summer afternoon welcomed the new BPO season. New also this year \u2013 a composite programme for the first three concerts to encourage regular supporters and to bring us colour for the first time and more space for notes.<\/p>\n

This was an all-Russian programme opening with a bright and warm reading of Glinka\u2019s overture to Ruslan and Lyudmila.<\/i> The necessary re-arrangements to bring on the piano gave Barry Wordsworth an opportunity to thank us for our continuing support and to welcome a large number of younger members to the audience. At a time when so many concerts seem to be supported only by those at or around retirement this was a very encouraging sign.<\/p>\n

\"Natasha<\/a><\/p>\n

Rachmaninov\u2019s Second Piano Concerto followed with Natasha Paremski\u00a0the highly impressive soloist. She brought \u00a0weight and gravity to the opening movement and a romanticism which never dwindled into sentimentality. The steely quality in her playing continued into the slow movement which was voluptuous without ever being indulgent. The attack we had sensed in the opening returned for the finale which was racy in approach and eventually allowed us to wallow in one of Rachmaninov\u2019s most memorable melodies.<\/p>\n

A rapturous reception provoked a fully justified encore which proved to be even more demanding than the concerto. She gave us the final movement of Prokofiev\u2019s 7th<\/sup> Sonata, spitting fire amidst the torrent of notes. Masterly.<\/p>\n

After the interval we heard Shostakovich\u2019s Fifth Symphony. After the warmth of the Rachmaninov this all seemed very bleak at first, but Barry Wordsworth\u2019s approach is not as cynical as some critics might wish. As the first movement progressed there were hints of hope \u2013 even in the midst of demonic militarism. Mood changes were clearly marked without over-emphasis. The cellos and basses made a great deal of the opening of the second movement and the whole provided genuine rather than reluctant enthusiasm. The Largo <\/i>unfolded gently then took us on an inward journey to consider all that we have lost. The frenetic finale seemed honest rather than cynical and showed that there are many more ways of hearing this symphony than a simplistic political one.<\/p>\n

The next concert brings us Schubert, Parry, Strauss and Elgar on 2 November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Autumn may be in the wings but another wonderful late summer afternoon welcomed the new BPO season. New also this year \u2013 a composite programme for the first three concerts to encourage regular supporters and to bring us colour for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1983"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1986,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983\/revisions\/1986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}