{"id":4413,"date":"2018-06-08T10:21:14","date_gmt":"2018-06-08T09:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=4413"},"modified":"2018-06-08T10:21:14","modified_gmt":"2018-06-08T09:21:14","slug":"royal-philharmonic-orchestra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=4413","title":{"rendered":"Royal Philharmonic Orchestra"},"content":{"rendered":"

De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, Thursday 7 June 2018<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We were promised Colourful Classics<\/em> and colourful they certainly were \u2013 though the visual impact was anything but! The hall was in darkness for the concert, with the stage curtained in black and the orchestra is evening dress. Added to this the stage was heavily back lit so that Brian Wright, raised on the conductor\u2019s podium, looked like a figure from Fantasia.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Happily none of this affected the genial mood and the joy of the music-making. The evening opened with Mendelssohn\u2019s Hebrides Overture more popularly known as Fingal\u2019s Cave. <\/em>For once the difficult acoustic played into Brian Wright\u2019s hands as the strings sang out with gentle fluidity and the wind and brass seemed mellowed behind. It was ideal for this work and seemed perfectly in keeping with a concert by the sea. Perhaps on another occasion it might be possible to leave the side curtains open so that we could see out as well as in?<\/p>\n

At this point we might expect to go straight to the concerto but we were given a short reflective pause with Elgar\u2019s Elegy Op58. This brief work hints at much more than it shows, and the reflections of late Wagner and even Sibelius make it all the more effective.<\/p>\n

Violinist Benjamin Baker\u2019s relaxed stance should not lull anyone into thinking he is anything other than one of the finest young musicians today. His playing of the Tchaikovsky violin concerto was as exciting and musically enthralling as any other soloist I can recall. Unafraid of the full blooded romanticism of the score he yet found a nocturnal introspection in the slow movement which was captivating. The orchestra were more than up to his intensity and speed \u2013 what a tempi for the final movement! \u2013 it was only a pity he was not able to give us an encore.<\/p>\n

If Beethoven\u2019s Seventh Symphony seemed somewhat calmer after the interval this was only by way of comparison, for Brian Wright found the fire as well as the dance which runs throughout the score.<\/p>\n

The funereal overtones of the Allegretto<\/em> took us back to the Elgar while the final movement sprang to life with the joy of the earlier works.<\/p>\n

The house was full \u2013 fuller than I recall for many years \u2013 and totally justified by the quality of what we experienced.<\/p>\n

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

De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, Thursday 7 June 2018 We were promised Colourful Classics and colourful they certainly were \u2013 though the visual impact was anything but! The hall was in darkness for the concert, with the stage curtained in … 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],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4413"}],"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=4413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4415,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4413\/revisions\/4415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}