{"id":4078,"date":"2018-01-30T10:22:29","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T10:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=4078"},"modified":"2018-01-30T10:22:29","modified_gmt":"2018-01-30T10:22:29","slug":"brighton-philharmonic-orchestra-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=4078","title":{"rendered":"Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brighton Dome, 28th January 2018<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

This conventionally structured concert – a concerto sandwiched by two symphonies – \u00a0presented the BPO pared down to classical chamber size, which \u00a0ensured a very enjoyable afternoon of crisp incisive clarity.<\/p>\n

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It is not easy to open a concert with one of Haydn\u2019s wafty, exposed introductions \u2013 marked largo<\/em> in this symphony \u2013 but it held its own until the movement danced away into the vivace.<\/em> Michael Collins is a batonless, businesslike, unfussy, measured conductor who went on to bring out all the contrasting charm of the rippling string work in the 6\/8 adagio<\/em> before heading cheerfully into the elegant, nicely played minuet<\/em> and the chatty presto<\/em> finale ( prestissimo<\/em> in this performance) with all its jokes and general pauses.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fun to hear Mozart\u2019s clarinet concerto played on a basset horn. \u201cQuite a beast\u201d joked Michael Collins in his spoken introduction and of course he\u2019s right. The tones are \u201cautumnal\u201d because the range allows for some passages to be played an octave lower than they usually are. He set a lively allegro<\/em> tempo for the first movement which also featured some fine horn work in passages which sometimes get played down. It\u2019s an art to conduct an orchestra without looking at them. He faces the audience but still manages to hold it all together especially in the notoriously difficult middle movement whose 6\/8 is so very slow that it\u2019s almost in 12. He\u2019s a foot tapper \u2013 perhaps that\u2019s the secret – bringing out all the wistful beauty of the pianissimo<\/em> recapitulation complete with grace notes. A delightful performance was rounded off (no pun intended) by a lively and light rondo.<\/em><\/p>\n

And so to Beethoven\u2019s smiling first symphony which he made sound daisy-fresh rather than something many of the (pretty full) Dome audience will have been listening to all their lives. It\u2019s such a vibrant, happy piece – written long before Beethoven\u2019s demons were biting too hard. Michael Collins, sparky as ever, can even do andante cantabile<\/em> so that it sings and soars without sounding maudlin. Then came a jewel-like minuet<\/em> and a lilting finale<\/em> graced by the sort of playing which makes even a hard-bitten critic grin.<\/p>\n

Susan Elkin<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brighton Dome, 28th January 2018 This conventionally structured concert – a concerto sandwiched by two symphonies – \u00a0presented the BPO pared down to classical chamber size, which \u00a0ensured a very enjoyable afternoon of crisp incisive clarity. It is not easy … 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":[4,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4078"}],"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=4078"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4080,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4078\/revisions\/4080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}