{"id":4221,"date":"2018-03-26T17:39:35","date_gmt":"2018-03-26T16:39:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=4221"},"modified":"2018-03-26T17:39:35","modified_gmt":"2018-03-26T16:39:35","slug":"brighton-philharmonic-orchestra-36","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=4221","title":{"rendered":"Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dome Brighton, 25 March 2018<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra finished the season in fine festive fettle. I don\u2019t often laugh aloud in the concert hall but there was plenty of that in the Dome for this unconventional programme.<\/p>\n

Malcolm Arnold\u2019s piano concerto op 104 \u2013 new to me, and I suspect, to most of the audience – doesn\u2019t get out much because it was written for husband and wife Cyril Smith and Phyllis Sellick. Cyril Smith had lost the use of his left arm through strokes so the piece was written for three hands and two pianos \u2013 which makes it expensive and impractical for most concert promoters. \u00a0Stephen Worbey and Kevin Farrell, who work as a witty and very accomplished duo, have arranged the concerto for four hands on a single piano.<\/p>\n

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Written in 1969, it\u2019s a very listenable piece. Both orchestra and soloists shone, especially in the middle movement which engagingly alternates schmaltz with dissonance. The last movement, for which Worbey and Farrell changed places, is very jolly with cheerful tuba vamp rather similar to Andrew Lloyd Webber\u2019s (imitative?) Jesus Christ Superstar<\/em> song for King Herod \u2013 written a year later.\u00a0 Worbey and Farrell are showman musicians who warm the audience up with jokes before they start \u2013 it sits somewhere between Victor Borge and pantomime – but it\u2019s good quality fun and their flamboyant playing is riveting. Their Sabre Dance<\/em> encore \u2013 played at prestissimo<\/em> and more \u2013 was a tour de force.<\/em><\/p>\n

The concert had begun rather more conventionally with the Karelia Suite<\/em> in which Barry Wordsworth allowed every section to have its moment. The busy repetitive string work in the first movement can, for instance, be hard to make lively but in this performance it did real justice to the soaring brass above it.\u00a0 The warmth and suitable lushness in the two following movements, when the violins get most of the melody, was strong too.<\/p>\n

I presume the programming of the second half was partly to create an end-of-season party atmosphere and partly to encourage people to bring children. It succeeded on both counts. It would have been good to see even more under-11s for Barry Wordsworth\u2019s arrangement of three numbers from Act 1 of Coppelia<\/em> and the Carnival of Animal, <\/em>but splendid to see even twenty or so. Coppelia<\/em> \u2013 like all good ballet music – is full of glorious melodies and played well, the music itself dances. Conductor and orchestra gave it their all and it was quite hard to sit still and refrain from humming along.<\/p>\n

The concert ended with Saint-Saens\u2019 best known piece, which \u2013 if you think about it \u2013 is another work which doesn\u2019t get many performances in its entirety. We are very used to hearing its 14 separate sections but it\u2019s a treat to hear all of it in one place. At the heart of it were the inimitable Worbey and Farrell who\u2019d written hilarious Hilaire Belloc-style verses to introduce each bit \u2013 except for Pianists when Barry Wordsworth stepped forward and read a verse. Of course it was all beautifully played with accomplished solos from principal cello, principal double bass and, best of all, the xylophone. I enjoyed the off stage clarinet as the moving cuckoo too \u2013 with many of the audience looking round wondering where the sound was coming from.<\/p>\n

The concert took place on the first day of British Summertime so I left the Dome in daylight with a real spring in my step, a head full of earworms and excitement about the next season which looks excellent \u2013 yet again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Dome Brighton, 25 March 2018 The Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra finished the season in fine festive fettle. I don\u2019t often laugh aloud in the concert hall but there was plenty of that in the Dome for this unconventional programme. Malcolm … 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\/4221"}],"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=4221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4223,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4221\/revisions\/4223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}