{"id":4106,"date":"2018-02-11T18:42:45","date_gmt":"2018-02-11T18:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=4106"},"modified":"2018-02-11T18:42:45","modified_gmt":"2018-02-11T18:42:45","slug":"brighton-philharmonic-orchestra-32","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=4106","title":{"rendered":"Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brighton Dome, Sunday 11 February 2018<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

There was a lot of lilting 3\/4 time and enough tunes to set you humming all week in this enjoyable concert.<\/p>\n

First came a slightly exaggerated \u2013 but none the worse for that \u2013 rendering of Schubert\u2019s 8th<\/sup> Symphony \u2013 the Unfinished<\/em>. Howard Shelley gave us a lingering horn, exciting sforzandi<\/em> and lots of timp in the first movement, which he ended with a very measured, almost mannered, tempo. The second movement stressed the tip-toeing pizzicato and legato<\/em> melody nicely. It was a very pleasing start to the concert which left me reflecting \u2013 for the thousandth time \u2013 that it\u2019s an insult to Schubert\u2019s genius to dub this his Unfinished<\/em> symphony. I reckon he decided it was perfect just the way it is and he was right.<\/p>\n

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Howard Shelley is, as ever, fascinating to watch when he multi-tasks by conducting from the key board \u2013 iPad on the stand and blue toothed pedal to \u2018turn\u2019 the digital pages. On this occasion for Mendelssohn\u2019s first piano concerto he had the lid off the piano – right off too – so that the sound was louder and more dominant than it would be for work by, say, Mozart or Beethoven. It\u2019s a charming concerto and it\u2019s a pity we don\u2019t hear it more often. The sparkling dance quality of the third movement, for instance, was melodiously uplifting in this performance.<\/p>\n

And so to Dvorak\u2019s 6th<\/sup> Symphony with its delightful opening movement \u2013 3\/4 time again like the Schubert \u2013 in which Shelley even-handedly ensured that all the musical conversation is articulated as Dvorak sails on from melody to melody. In particular, I liked the trombone, flute and horn work here. Then came the lyrical beauty of the slow movement (how Dvorak loved lower strings!) which Shelley leaned on to good effect. The incisive string work taken at an impressive tempo in the third movement and the colourful, rousing finale rounded it off with panache.<\/p>\n

All in all it was another fine Brighton Philharmonic concert. It was a pity, however, that the cold weather seemed to have led to more empty seats than usual. People who opted not to come missed a worthwhile afternoon of music.<\/p>\n

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

Brighton Dome, Sunday 11 February 2018 There was a lot of lilting 3\/4 time and enough tunes to set you humming all week in this enjoyable concert. First came a slightly exaggerated \u2013 but none the worse for that \u2013 … 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\/4106"}],"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=4106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4108,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4106\/revisions\/4108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}